U.S. Superkart Questionnaire

[FIROUZ HAGHIGHI]

Brian, great questions, I'll try to answer some of them in no particular order..

You are correct in that the karting community is our best bet in “initial”
growth. However, once we are established we need to look beyond as well.

You are also correct that we have had no turn overs from bike and car guys.
Without an organization with a solid track record, no one will ever bother to
join us, including other kart guys. The simple fact is, any biker or car racer
with a good deal of investment in their own equipment is not going to drop every
thing and spend 10k, 20k, or 30k in a superkart and not know where he can race,
or what options he has, compared to SCCA, NASA and various well established bike
groups.

Ultimately, there needs to be a well established organization, if we are to take
the sport to a higher level.

Your observation on organization is generally correct. Consider this; after
daytona or any other race, you have a choice to dump your kart in your trailer
and keep it there till the next race, and then run the left over fuel and tire
at your next event. Or you have the choice to take it in your garage and go
thru a complete tear down, review every thing and make sure your are ready for
the next event so you can continue to set your fast lap as is your trade mark.

Now, I ask you, why do you bother prepping your kart so much, when you can just
show up (as some do) and take part in a glorified lapping session? You can
have a mediocre lap time too, right?

Like yourself, who seems to be a meticulous person in his kart prep, we need
to come to the realization, if we wish to be successful, we 'ALL' need to do a
better job, when it comes to prepping or organizing ourselves. No one else can
do that for us. Ultimately, it is a choice.

Regards,
Ardy

[George Sunderland]

I personally applaud any effort to promote any type of karting anytime any place. I am also glad that others have pointed out the need for a true unlimited class. The mad scientist aspect along with the chance to run on the big nascar tracks is what drew me to karting almost 40 years ago and I know many people who, like myself, hate to see if fading over the years in favor of cookie cutter spec racing (which I know is popular with some and certainly has its own place as well).

Here are some facts as I see them. Many will disagree:

- There is next to no chance of converting hardcore car and bike racers. And that's all they have left at their events as their numbers are diwndling too.
- There is equally no chance of a true spectator draw for Superkarts--at least in the foreseaable future. NASCAR teams are laying off people left and right. NASCAR tracks are closing off entire sections of grandstands. And Indy cars can't draw flies at any venue besides Indy. The US F1 did well but that was a rare recent exception in this economy and environment with countless folks competong for the entertainment dollars of a short attention span public.
- You have to be very creative with marketing these days. Any Superkarters near Vegas? Try to take your Superkart to Gold and Silver Pawn and ask a ridiculousy high price. It may just get on Pawn Starts which would be 4 seasons worth of exposure. Same for Cajun Pawn Stars which has already featured a Briggs kart. Demello took his F125 to a local car show which is a great idea. Street races appear to be the best opportunity for exposure and converts but Superkarters thus far have shied away from that alternative.
- Agree with the folks who suggest hooking up with close friends and picking a few races like the B-Stockers do. No track or club is in a position to turn away people these days. They WILL acoomodate you. Don't try to go it alone.

As far as prep time/ect. Many folks simply don't have the time, xXcept for a few lucky successful business owners, I don't know a single person who isn't chained to their jobs these days. Its hard enough to get time to travel to an event much less have a few hours at home to do much mor than sleep or eat. Also, this tax bill alone is going to kill some racing budgets. I know in my house alone, we will now be out over $5K net cash with the elimination of the payroll tax holiday alone not to mention increase in cap gains, etc. That right three would have paid for a few races. In lean times, the goal its to worry about keeping it alive. You grow and expand when times are good. Look at most most major failed or failing businesses and you can directly trace their demise to poor over expansion decisions (Best Buy, Boscovs, etc). For the next few years, we should race as much as we can which for most means the closest road racing club. You can't and hsouldn't really try to beat them. So join them and have some fun. 250/125/twins/RWYB/laydown/situp/etc...the fact is they are all karts. Divided we all fail.

Race Fast and Safe.

[George Sunderland]

Oh yeah:

FE/ICE/RWYB/F125/F250

Favorite Tracks:

Mosport, Pocono, Rockingham, VIR (full course only), Mid-O

[Brian Wilhelm]

Firouz, Ardy, whoever,
I would say if the superkarters supported WKA, KART, or other karting events for the forseeable future, growth would come. I don't see a downside to it. The car/bike/etc. guys are ONLY looking for money to help them rent the facility. They have zero intrest in promoting superkarts. They would MUCH rather see the noobs wanting to buy a racecar, they are not going to suggest they buy a superkart.
On the other hand, karting orgs help promote karting. The entry fees are reasonable, plenty of track time, and there are always events happening, and both KART and WKA have shown support and welcomed superkarts.
I have done a couple of Robby's support events at Barber, but I'm not likely to do any more. Limited track time is just one problem. It's simply not a path for growth.
As far as the prep issue you brought up, I quote a couple of Rod Millen's comments on prep:
1-The desire to win is worthless without the desire to prepare.
2-If your pre-race prep is good enough, the actual race is simply a formality.
_________________
Brian

[Roger Miller]

[Roger Miller]

In a different area, having been involved with Superkarts since 2005 - one weakness in the US programs is that KART and WKA only provides Unlimited as a class. IKF has a National class for ICE, which has been growing very nicely since 2005, out here in the West. With ICE as an official class, then folks can come into Superkarts on a bit of a budget, and then grow into the FE class. I think this lack of structure is detrimental.

Europe (CIK) has a long history of a "limited" or spec class - Intercontinental, and then an "open" class - Formula - which was their structure up and down the classes - ICA - FA, ICC - FC, ICE - FE.

Also, to legally compete a single cylinder Honda in WKA (and as KART uses WKA rules as their model, I will assume the same for KART) there are some draconian rules that are not beneficial. When Ryen and I came to Daytona in 2011, we ran the Superkart in Unlimited, knowing we were likely not going to be in the front due to having to run against twins, and anything else that ran in the class. And, we did it with what could be argued was an illegal ignition. The WKA rules clearly state, single cylinder 250, Note 4 - OEM Ignition only - which we all know is death to the CR if revved over 10K.

So this is the argument for a single rule set, that spans the bodies that would then enhance all superkarts to be able to compete across the country.

Brian offers that this could be handled by keeping our own scoring, which would be fine - however, to do this on a club by club, region by region basis, to enhance our appeal and numbers, is a big job, as we either need advocates everywhere, or we need to push each group individually. Either way, a single ruleset, with the basic class structure, that is honored by the three major sanctioning bodies would go a long way.

As to the point on splitting up classes, well, there is that. However, there is a need to define limits to any class, which then creates the issue of ongoing innovation.

My view - core classes:

FE (Twins)
Super ICE (Singles, wide open - read GG250K, and Super Hondas)
ICE (Singles, current rule sets)

Then opportunity classes:

Unlimited (RWYB)
F125 Superkart

[John Benson]

I have never been a fan of the big spectator events. You are always treated like a second class citizen in regards to pitting , parking ,scheduling ,ect. I think superkarts should always support the local clubs. Now with that said,I think some of you are missing the point (or I am ) on running with the car guys. Your not trying to sell superkarts to the people that are racing or the promoters but to the ones that are watching and can't afford the full blown race car.

[George Sunderland]

Johnny: First real life in person Superkart I think I ever saw was Ricky Rudd's Busch Beer Zip with an RD400 on it around 1976? It was in the parade lap at Charlotte for the World 600. He goosed it and everybody was in awe. Immediately went home and tried to research the things. Saw the price tag and settled for a old Mac enduro:)

Then went the next year or so to Daytona with the enduro and saw Hines and Calvin Fish with their rocket ship Zips. Knew I had to have one. Of course it was 25+ years before I made enough money to do so. That's the thing. Just because a person doesn't go out and join you right away doesn't mean he won't remember what he saw and join you later, even much later.

Sure wish we could do what Ron Skeen did with the F200 series. Now that was some bigtime exposure.

[Chris Reinhardt]

[Dan Davis]

Roger,
Your points in both posts above are credible in my opinion and there is certainly no offense taken. I just didn’t want people thinking that KART was responsible or attempting in any way to take entries from the Laguna/Rolex event when the HPT event would have gone off as planned with no superkart attendance. Of course any and all participation is welcomed and greatly appreciated by myself along with KART and its membership. Even though I would LOVE to race at Laguna beyond my experience on simulators, the expense of attending is far above my means unless I am to forgo all support of my regional club events….and that just can’t happen.

FYI, with exception to the latest proposal to add RZ350 engines to the unlimited class stemming from current membership participation, there are no ignition restrictions to 250cc engines. Weights for single cylinder gearbox 250cc powered karts are closely aligned with other orgs and the ICE class. KART does not use WKA rules as a model. Consideration is given to IKF,WKA, and TaG USA rules for obvious reasons when making tweaks and additions to KART rules. Above all, I believe rule changes and additions are largely designed to cater to KART membership interests as the membership is the organizations primary concern. Please keep in mind that my statements and opinions are mine and I do not represent KART outside of member capacity and am not a KART official or board member at this time.

I agree that a single rules set for the superkart classes should be aligned for reasons you have stated but I don’t believe that is the reason for little to no superkart participation at KART/MARRS regular series events which are the bread and butter for KART at the moment.
At KART’s national event at HPT, which is probably the only event where any superkarts besides those entered out of my shop even consider participating at this point, the superkart classes would be local option classes. In other words, KART did have specific superkart classes as you have described at the 2012 HPT event but only after there was interest expressed by the superkart drivers that decided to attend the event….so one could safely say that the rules at that event were pretty well aligned. I won’t get into the issue that came up concerning conflict of bodywork/wing that took place at the HPT event except to say that it was NOT a KART issue.

EDIT: Just a grammar correction...

[FIROUZ HAGHIGHI]