Hot, cold, dry or rainy, no weather condition could stop Fred from venturing out from his Canal Winchester home to the dealership garage just a couple of blocks away.
Most kids in the neighborhood were playing stick-ball or “hide-n-seek” but not Fred. Fred would pack up his favorite wrenches (gifts from the mechanics at his fathers shop) and head out to play. Every chance he could, Fred would just show up and watch the mechanics working on engines, changing tires, even minor bodywork. Some times the mechanics gave Fred a task, like “hand me the 5/16 open-end Freddy” or “Can you reach that tool I just dropped?”
Fred was ecstatic to be able to help. As time went by, Fred became more and more involved with the mechanical side of the very young Ricart dealership.

The Inventor Appears
Fred also had a passion to re-invent procedures and make them faster or better. Many of the shop patrons and mechanics noticed this feature and informed Paul Ricart (Fred’s dad) that one day, that boy will run this place!

The Go Kart Bug!
Fred enjoyed tuning and refining engines so much, that he decided to begin building go karts. In the early 1970’s, his favorite kart was a Yamaha KT 100. He and a friend, Dave Fisher worked together on building better karts in Grove City, Ohio. They raced in Harrisburg, Ohio among other tracks and made it through the circuit with enough points to be invited to the Nationals in Barnesville, Georgia. It was there that Fred took a respectable third place! He was competing against talent like Scott Pruit and Kyle Adkins! Dave would often times bring his young daughter along to learn the challenges of racing and to gain respect for the track. No one would have guessed that little Sarah Fisher (Dave’s daughter) would, one day, race with the “big-boys” at The Greatest Spectacle in Auto Racing, The Indianapolis 500 in May 2003!

The Need For Speed
Soon, Fred found himself in the competitive arena of racing.