By alley - Mar 17, 2015, 6:54 PM ET

Patrick Long Pro-Am Kart Race set for Sunday in Palmetto, Fla.

If you'll be in Sebring for this Saturday's Mobil 1 Twelve Hours off Sebring, stick around for the Patrick Long Pro-Am Kart Race on Sunday. It will be held at Andersen Racepark (

www.andersenracepark.com

), 10101 US 41 North Palmetto, Fla., 1.5 miles north of the I-275 and US41 interchange on the south side of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. It's just 1 1/2 hours from Sebring, 30 minutes from Tampa International Airport, and even less from downtown St. Petersburg.

This event was started four years ago as a way to honor the memory of IndyCar ace Dan Wheldon, who was a St. Petersburg resident and a supporter of All Children's Hospital. Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital (

www.allkids.org

) is the only critical care children's hospital on the west coast of Florida, and one of only threee in the state. It treats the critical cases that other hospitals are unequipped to handle such as extreme premature births, infant heart surgery, pediatric oncology, and critical trauma. In other words, they save children's lives.

Thanks to the generosity of Patrick Long, Jan Heylen, Sebastian Bourdais, Colin Braun, Justin Wilson, Bryan Sellers, Andy Lally, Spencer Pumpelly, Shane Lewis, Katherine Legge,Martin Plowman, Jordan Taylor and others, the event raised $50,000 for All Children's last year and is set to exceed that total this year. It is becoming the place to be the day after Sebring, the largest third-party fund raiser for All Children's, and one of the top motorsport fundraisers of its kind in the country.

"I first met Dan in the late '90s, both as aspiring racing drivers racing karts. There is not
a racing weekend that goes by where Dan's name doesn't come up," sais Long. "This event has
so much meaning to so many different people, but on a personal level it has become a
large focus of what I think about and work on outside of my driving career.

"The support that we received in 2014 put us into a legitimate space as one of the real
motorsport charity events in North America and I really think the sky is the limit as for
what we can produce in the future. The reason I say that is because we have always
remained authentic and let this brand grow into what it wants to become. Rather than
promising the world and having to meet those expectations, we have let individuals from
the local PCA Suncoast Region and racing supporters from the Tampa Bay area put the
word out and reach into their own pockets. I just can't be more grateful to everybody for
where this event has come from, where it is now, and where I see it going in the future.

"I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported us, and to the people who
haven't been out, I say bring your helmet and your smiles and your family and let's race
for a good cause and put on a good show."

The event is set forr Sunday, March 22 with the schedule as follows:

EXOTIC CAR SHOW - 9:00 AM

OPEN KARTING FOR ALL 9:00 to 11:00
($25 PER SESSION)

LIVE MUSIC - 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM

PARTICIPANT OFFICIAL PRACTICE 12:00

LIVE AUCTION - 1:00 PM

KART QUALIFYING - 1:30 PM

SILENT AUCTION CLOSES - 1:30 PM

EXCITING PRO-AM KART RACING - 2:00 - 3:30/4:00 PM

AWARDS & PHOTOS – Immediately Following

FOOD AND DRINKS ARE AVAILABLE ALL DAY

The event is run by Kart 4 Kids, Inc. an all-volunteer 501(c3) organization created for this express purpose. For more information, visit (www.kart4kids.org), or Kart4Kids Pro-Am Kart Race on Facebook.