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| EKN One-on-One: Alan Rudolph - Stars of Karting |
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A year surely makes a difference. At this time in 2008, Alan Rudolph was still racing at karting’s top level, preparing to head towards semi-retirement from a long and illustrious driving career. Turn the page to 2009 and the same veteran competitors now holds the important position as President of the Stars of Karting organization.
On February 5, Rudolph was introduced as the national program’s new President, replacing Paul Zalud, who will step back as a Chief Executive Officer. A veteran behind the wheel, Rudolph will now focus his attention at steering the series in the right direction in 2009 and beyond.
eKartingNews.com was able to track Alan down for some questions, taking the opportunity to discuss his new position within the sport.
eKartingNews.com: First off, congratulations on your new position with Stars of Karting. I’m sure this is a bit of a shock considering that last year at this time you were still behind the wheel of a kart.
Alan Rudolph: Yeah, definitely a shock. I was surprised when Paul approached me about taking the position. It’s something I never thought I would do until now, but it falls in line with my plan about giving back to karting. I never thought it would be this way, but I’m excited about the opportunity.
EKN: I do believe that you were among the first persons announced to be part of the Advisory Panel that Stars created back in October. Was the panel your first insight as to what was going on within the program?
AR: Yes, Paul talked with me about being on the panel along with Mike Tetreault. Then, after talking about it for a while, we had a few conversations about the 2009 season, JICA, and the KF program. All the while, Paul asked me if I would like to take the position. It all happened so quickly. It was not something that had been in the works for a long time.
EKN: With you coming on as President, is it safe to say that you are in agreement with the current path that the series is taking for classes in 2009, with the addition of the KF divisions one year ahead of their planned introduction?
AR: Yes. To be honest, we have to be in the same direction with CIK and follow that route. Karting as a whole is such a wreck. It’s always been too fragmented and somehow we have to get a restructuring going within the sport. As far as KF is concerned, Stars had already planned to do that for 2010, however, in light of the current situation that presented us with zero JICA registered to race in Ocala, we had to do something. Why even have that class if it was going to die off like ICA did. With us moving ahead one year early, we are better equipped to work with CIK to help strengthen our relationship with them. There were talks of another series being created and running in conjunction with CIK, which could have hurt our position with them.
I think there are a number of people upset about JICA going away, such as certain engine builders and other suppliers. I’ve talked with a number of them already and explained our situation and they understand our position. So now they are looking ahead to stocking KF engine supplies. Yes, they are stuck with product now that they could have been stuck with at the end of 2009. Everyone that I have talked to seem to be fine with the decision and now are looking to move forward.
EKN: We have been told that the recent announcement of you taking over the duties as Event Coordinator from Mike Tetreault was not political, just an organizational move to bring you closer to your customers - the teams and drivers. Is that correct? What responsibilities will your position with Stars entail?
AR: Yes, that is correct. My role with the organization is more of a communication position, which is what Mike’s job title was really. The Stars of Karting have a great staff already in place to take care of each event, so I’m not going to disrupt that area. My main role will be at the events, talking with the teams, importers, drivers, making sure that the series as a whole is moving in the same direction for everyone. I want to make sure everyone’s voice is heard and that was one of the things that Paul and I talked about.
Looking back at the old SKUSA ProMoto days, we need to get back to the place where whether you were a driver or a member of a team, you felt like you were part of something. I don’t want to leave anyone out. We need the team owners and importers to help move forward to make series a successful one.
In regards to Mike Tetreault, he is a great person, but he is also a busy person with his business and family life. The position he took became quite a huge project for him.
 | Alan Rudolph will move from steering a kart to victory to directing the sports top program toward the future
(Photo: On Track Promotions - otp.ca) |
EKN: We know that over the past few months, Mike Tetreault was working hard to communicate with the teams to find out what they wanted, but he was also looking to improve the actual atmosphere of the opening rounds in Ocala and Infineon. What types of things are in the works for the upcoming divisional openers?
AR: To be honest, I’m not completely sure on what events will be going on, but we’ve talked about a Mechanics BBQ and are looking for a sponsor to take care of that. Would you be interested?
EKN: I don’t see why not. I think that’s a cool idea. We could certainly help out.
AR: Awesome. I know one goal that we have is to just get the people together. Let everyone have some fun again. We’re not going to throw big concerts or anything like that, but it’s nice to be able to sit around and relax to have a good time.
EKN: That goes back to what you said earlier about getting back to the old days of karting, when it was more fun at events. You don’t really see that too much at a Stars event, do you?
AR: No, not at all. At the end of the day, it’s a business first of all, so you have to be professional. Stars of Karting is the highest level of karting so it can not be all about partying. We need to remain professional and at the top of the industry, from the work on track to the technical aspect to be held to a high standard. But, at the same time, we still need to make it fun and not feel like everyone is locked in.
EKN: One issue that is brought up with nearly every organization or kart club in the country is the concept of bringing in new people to the sport. What type of ideas do you have in mind for the marketing aspect of the Stars of Karting or the sport in general?
AR: Man, that’s a good question. That’s a problem with karting in America, as it’s difficult for someone outside the sport to come in and understand what’s going on. It depends on what part of the country you are in, and that likely determines what class you need to race or what engine to buy. Somehow there has to be a common ground and I think Stars aligning itself with CIK is the direction it needs to go, possibly all of North America as well. It can start with Stars, however, it needs to feed down into the club levels.
An example is the track here in Phoenix, where they have 11-14 classes and there are like 3-4 karts in some of them. It’s just not smart. If you can get the lower levels to follow the guidelines of the upper level programs, then you have your progression within the sport rather than having to buy all new equipment each time you move up the ladder. There just has to be some type of continuity between all the organizations of karting, and that is a huge problem in the past.
In terms of getting karting into the mainstream and getting the public to know about karting, you need to put it in front of them. I don’t know how we can do it yet, but we need to tag along with big public events like the X-Games or a Supercross race where there are people and corporate sponsors. Eventually, you move it on to television. The PRI event is huge thanks to the star power that Stars has been able to bring in. If you can turn around and get events on television quick, it keeps people interested in the sport, similar to Supercross.
If you look at these guys like Ricky Carmichael or James Stewart, they have their sponsors and they are making money with help from being on television. If there is a way we could ever get karting mainstream like that, it would be easier to keep the Darren Elliott, Gary Carlton, Kyle Martin and Alan Rudolph’s of karting as they could be paid enough to continue in our sport. Now this is something way down the road, and I’m not sure how I’m going to do that.
EKN: That rolls nicely into my next question, where in our interview with you at the end of 2008, before you were named Stars President, you said “So if I had all the money in the world….picture this year’s SuperNationals with spectators OUTSIDE of the karting family at 10 major markets throughout the year, all in conjunction with Supercross or some other extreme sport…all races would be televised and all the venues would have huge purses.” So now with your position, do you think you can see Stars of Karting growing into something like that in the future?
AR: Absolutely. It’s the only way karting or our series can take it to the next level. People say karting is growing, but I don’t think it is growing at all. I think karting numbers have been static for some time now. The only thing that has really changed in the sport is technology. We’ve all gotten faster, karts look cooler, but I don’t think there are more people doing it today then 20 years ago. So until something changes, like bringing the sport to more crowds and more television coverage, it’s not going to change. If there is any series that can do it, it’s going to be Stars of Karting.
EKN: Getting back to the upcoming season, with four Senior classes and two Junior classes, do you see some type of licensing structure in the future for Stars of Karting to help distinguish the different levels within the organization?
AR: I think we need to put a licensing system in place. I don’t know how it will be set up, but we need it. Looking again to CIK, they already have something in place and it should be easy to duplicate. I just don’t know when Stars will have it up and running.
EKN: Thank you, Alan. I appreciate you taking the time to speak with us. We are all looking forward to the opening round at Ocala in March.
AR: Thank you for giving me the opportunity. |
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