Chris Sahagian memorial

[Chris Marchand]

Very sad news , RIP Chris S .

[Ron Cubel]

Very good memories of Chris during the early years of vintage karting.   Great guy God Bless and rest in peace.

Ron

[marc ciannavei]

A wonderful person. He will be missed. Prayers to Michelle and family.
marc

[Mel Ruffner]

So sorry for your loss of a good friend,Dave. He must of been a great guy to know and thoughts and prayers to his family. Life is so fragil and must remind my self not to take it for granted.enjoy it while we can.I went to tbo as a stranger and left with friends,what more can I ask.take care

[Michael Drechnowicz]

I would like to share my story of how I met Chris and how he helped me with this hobby.


Back around 1970 when my Dad was stationed in Virginia in the Navy he used to race gokarts as a hobby. I was young then but he would take me to watch the races. Family matters soon took a higher priority and he sold all but a single kart (a modified Mccullloch R1) without an engine.

After my Dad retired, my parents downsized and the kart ended up In a corner of my brothers basement. The kart sat for years and got rusty and corroded.

Fast forward to the summer of 2016. My brother called me and wanted to get rid of the kart. I had always had dreams of putting an engine on it and running it but I had no idea what I needed. I asked him to hold off while I thought about what to do.

I was at a car show in NewHampshire and I Gary Emilio had a kart on display. I got to talking with him and he gave me his email address and the vintage kart website info. He said he knew someone in Rhode Island who could help me out with the kart if I wanted to get it running. However I misplaced his email address and then it slipped my mind for a while. Around Thanksgiving I found Gary's contact info and he invited me to see his karts. Seeing them inspired me to decide to get my Dads old kart running. 

I took the kart apart, had it sandblasted and started cleaning rest off the parts and made a list of what I thought I needed. 

The person that Gary gave me as a contact in RI turned out to be Chris. I sent him an email and he called me the same day. We talked about what I had and what I wanted to do and he invited me to bring all my stuff to his place so he could see what I needed. So I threw a frame and boxes of parts in my truck along with a list of what I thought I needed. Chris looked it over and said that if was looking to have fun, and not have a show kart,I didn't need to buy much except an engine and a clutch. When my Dad ran the kart it had an MC91 on it and Chris said that would be a good choice. He said he had one that he could sell me and I bought it from him. He ran it and got it all tuned up before I picked it up.

I asked him about which track I could go to with it and he told me that he and a group of guys ran for fun in a parking lot on Sundays when the weather got nice (this was around April). I thought this would be perfect, just a little fun,not any competition.

So I started painting my kart and putting it back together. I would email Chris every few days probably asking him questions and he would always quickly respond with helpful answers and sometimes putting me back on the right track when I was overthinking things.

One day when the weather tuned nice, I got an email from Chris saying he was going to the lot that weekend to run and he invited me to come. My kart was still not ready bu he said he always brought along extras and I could run one of his. Wow, he didn't need to ask me twice. I had a great time that day !

A few weeks later my kart was as ready as I could make it so I showed up at the lot with it. Chris installed the chain, checked the kart over and then fired it up. It ran great and I had a blast. I think Chris was as happy as I was to see the kart run. He said I did a good job on it and that made me feel good.

I continued to go to the lot with Chris along with a couple of other guys, Larry and Tom on Sunday mornings. Chris would bring along different karts and would always offer to let us try them out.

Mind you, all his help and advise was free, it was all for the love of the hobby. At the lot and when I went to his house Chris would always share some interesting information about the hobby. He was a wealth of knowledge and always took the time to explain why things were done or needed to be done a certain way.

I ended up purchasing an additional on Chris's recommendation (a Bug Wasp) and he got that engine running for me and I was able to run that kart at the lot as well.

I didn't know Chris for very long but we did become good friends in the few months I knew him. I will really miss him.

[David Luciani]

that was chris in spades.

it'll never be as easy for me to get info on karts as when i could call him especially the margays.

it was kinda funny that i about always called him for advise.
he was about 8 years younger than me but was way far ahead of me in knowledge about many things.
anytime i'd get a brain fart he'd get a call and he always knew what i'd forgotten.


and the phrase you're over thinking things again was his favorite.
he used it on me alot.

if i take anything away from him having been my friend i'd like it to be i quit overthinking things and just do it.

[Bruce Dabney]

I got a call from Dave with this shocking and sad news. It was hard to process. I knew Chris since the first vintage kart race at Cuddyback in 2000, and over the years we've traded and bought stuff from each other. More than once he came thru with something I really needed. An example was one of the last times he came to Cuddy- he called and asked Dave before he came if anyone needed anything; it so happened I needed H/A brake pucks, and sure enough he brought some and gave them to me- wouldn't take money for them. I wouldn't have been able to run without them. That's the kind of guy he was.