What direction is US karting moving?

[John Matthews]

OK, I'm probably an "armchair karter" but up until 5 years ago I was very active with my business and supported racers all over the country.

I can sum up the problem in four words.

WE NEED MORE TRACKS!!!!

There used to be a bunch of local tracks where folks could go out and club race but as time has gone on we've lost a lot of these places. If you're committed you will drive 3 hours on Saturday morning to practice, get a motel (or stay in your motorhome), eat out, and race on Sunday before driving 3 hours home. But, not many novices will do this and for many experienced racers the cost is prohibitive. Heck, I was in the business but even for me it just hasn't been a realistic thing since I moved to Michigan.

It's a lot harder to build a track now than it was back in the 1970's when I started. Sure there are more regulations but the scale of what you need to accommodate modern karts is also a big factor. Growing up I raced a bunch of small tracks in California's central valley but I'll bet not one of them would be a fun place to race shifters, or maybe even TaG. I love the new tracks like P1 Mussleman in Tucson but what would really make karting grow is for guys who have a couple of acres out in the sticks to build a bunch of small tracks where kids could go racing with their parents. Like someone else already pointed out we need to build kids classes if we want the sport to grow. Hopefully this spring I'll be involved in something like this around here. By design it would only be for low power, hard tire karts but if we do things right the racing will still be fun....

Another thing, as equipment from Europe has come to dominate US sprint racing we've lost a bunch of the companies that made karting vibrant here in America. I still see some of these guys post on this forum but when a big percentage of everything we spend goes overseas they have the ability to steer what happens with our rules and our racing. If what works over there works for us it's good but if it doesn't we need to look for something else. IMHO that's why 4-stroke and KT100 seem to be making a comeback. Now if we just had the tracks....

Cheers,
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John Matthews
Heartbeat Power, LLC.

[Dennis Chappell]

John

Michigan has like you said, guys with a couple acres in there back yard tracks. Problem is there all oval tracks and the racers could care less about sprint or roadracing.

We have been a dealer for 11 years in MI. and had very little interest in this kind of racing. Give them a oval track in the middle of nowhere and they come out of the woodwork. Michigan has more of a oval track back ground. Not a bad thing just different. Been to several of the oval tracks and they have lots of karts and people in the stands watching, most with no interest in what we do.

I have been going to oval tracks across the USA my whole life but also like roadracing along with most any kind of racing.

Dennis
TKZ

[Ray Chiappe]

I have been Karting off & on since the early 60's. One problem I have always seen at the club level new people show up all enthused and happy. And for some reason ie. club politics, which class to run, classes avail. at the local level and out of town don't match. I could on and on! Some go on to the big racing series and most quit racing. I do know here in Las Vegas if we had a decent track to run on that the entries would prob. double.

[Carlos Perez]

Well, I am new to the sport (this will be our 3rd season) so I can't speak about the direction of karting. I started out in a Chonda. Very affordable, fun and promotes close racing. Now, this year I will move up to a KT-100 and see what happens. Anyway, this is what I think:

My local track has been great, lot's of support, but I've seen and heard so many negative comments for the Chonda class from some "hard core" racers. Yes, it may not be as fast or built for racing like Animal engines or others, but still is a very economical way to start. A couple other chonda racers are thinking in moving up to KT-100's also. So, you may not like us or make fun of us (yes, we are tired of the lawnmower joke... ), but some of us we want to take small steps and move up from there.

Now I have my kid racing in a Kid Kart and he loves it, this will be his second season and my other son keeps counting the days until his 5th birthday to start racing.

Again, if it wasn't for the chonda class most likely I wouldn't be racing. If you don't like it, that's fine! Just leave it alone and let others decide if they like it or not but don't be negative. If they do like it, just like me, someday you will have more 2 cycle racers like me and my kids...

[Nathan Adair]

[steve lewis]

We have raced across the US for almost 5 years now. As my son grew from kid karts to cadets it was hard to decide on what class to run. Our home track ran mostly gazelle engines in the cadet class. Once we got away from home we never saw one. So to be able to run at our local track with other kids his age we would need two engines. Once we found that FWT and SKUSA ran the MiniRok, we made the change and ran only the one engine. We just ran it with the gazelles. Finally everyone started getting MiniRok's, so it made it easier even though we left our home track to another one so we could run with the same engine package as everyone else.
We got into the Rotax program and ran it for a year in MiniMax. While at the 2012 FWT a prominent track official made this comment. "Rotax is the Country Club of kart racing". I agree. It is a very expensive program to run between paying the price of a highly rated engine compared to stock. Then, having the very overpriced parts and engine rebuilds we dropped out of the program due to the cost. This year with the addition of the rev limiters helps the playing field some but it is still a high dollar program to run.
SKUSA's racing program for cadets (MiniRok) and then to the shifter classes of running the Honda engine seems to make a lot more sense. The cost of a top end being less than $100 and you can do it yourself with experience. Of course SKUSA offers the Tag Jr/Sr classes which are different engine packages used throughout the US.

Kid Karts are so important to any club for reasons already mentioned in this forum. They build the base for your cadet and Jr programs. I love the fact that LAKC has adopted the new GX50 Kid Kart engine. This is a sealed engine straight from the Honda factory. Get rid of the Comer's and then everyone has a level playing feild.

Is the direction of Karting going in the right direction?
It seems to be reverting back to grass roots in places, but in my opinion until the sanctioning bodies within the US come together and try to put together a nationwide program that local tracks, regional races, and nationals can all run without a lot of expense the sport will continue to sputter. There are too many classes, engine packages etc. It all needs to be narrowed down so the classes are larger and more competitive. What's a National Title when there are only 4-5 in a class.

When it comes to money/purses maybe the promoters of street races and special race events should put large prize money up to draw in the best of the best and make it worth their while to compete for the win. A prime example would be Speed week at Daytona this week. No points for the the Whelen, Modifieds or K&N series but $20,000 to win sure makes you want to put your A game on.

There was a High dollar money race at New Castle this year. I haven't heard how it went but would be interested in some comments on turn out etc.

[Greg Wright]

[Brian Degulis]

If you want to expand the sport then first you must define the sport. If it's just organized racing then it's very difficult to bring in new people for the reasons the original poster stated. I just watched a guy buy 10 Rotax min max engines to dyno all 10 and pick the best for his son. We can't compete with that but it is the reality in whatever class you choose.

IMHO You'll bring more people in with better access to good tracks. We have several here in FL but only 2 are open daily. Anderson is open Tuesday thru Saturday 9-5. Anyone can bring they're kart and run all day for $50 or pay a monthly fee and run whenever they're open. Similar deal at Ocala but more days and longer hours. Both of these tracks stay busy with guys that want to practice or just run against whoever is there or just run against the clock. Some have no interest in organized racing.

The other tracks might be open a few days a month. It would seem to me that after you build the track it would be profitable to man it and keep it open 7 days a week. It seems to work at the tracks I mentioned and simply put the more karts that are running racing or not the more the sport grows.

Brian

[mike clements]

Dirt track kart racing is alive and well. But, it's got a lot of problems.
In no specific order, You bolt on a $99 engine and then spend $500 to $800 per race for tires. If you don't, you may as well stay home. At a large race you can spend a couple of house payments on tires. These racers complain about expenses, bolt on a cheap Chinese copy of a Honda and then go hog wild on tires and chemical tire preps.
Next, SPEC classes are killing the sport. There is no logical reason for more than 1 or 2 spec engine classes. Those classes deprive the mechanics, drivers, teams from learning "Innovation" and how to gain a mechanical advantage. For me, "Spec Racing" is an oxy moron.
Dirt tracks are a dime a dozen, especially in the South East. Where I lived in NC, if you could throw a rock 10 miles, you could hit a track in any direction you could throw. These are all Outlaw, mom and Pop tracks with their own rules based very loosely on the WKA style rule book. But rules are just different enough to keep kart count at their track so they can make $$. About the best thing going right now, in my opinion, is the Unlimited All Star Series. This is an "Open Class" style of kart racing. They encourage innovation and as many different engine designs and body work designs as we racers can come up with. Innovation brings in more racers because there are many guys who don't care about the driving part. They want to be owners and tinker with the mechanical aspects of the machine. I am one of those guys.
As far as asphalt tracks, my closest track is a 90 min drive from me. That totals up to 3 hrs worth of driving for a Saturday race. So, I called our local Police Dept and inquired about a place to play with the kart. They instructed me that any public school parking lot is fair game when school is not in session. That also limits the total number of karts to maybe a half dozen. So, for a greater kart count, they told me to check with the local municipalities about using the larger parking lots for the state owned ball parks, etc. These are huge , smooth asphalt lots that are used by various clubs for whatever they do on a regular basis. So, for a karting event, I would have to schedule a weekend with the manager of that facility. No problem. They welcomed us with open arms. We have to supply our own safety crew, ambulance, and crowd control. Noise was not a consideration at the ball parks I visited. Just a thought. I hope it helps. MC
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Began kart racing 1959. Made many friends along the way.

[Alan Dove]

As karters I think we too often fall into the trap of confusing market decline with market change. Also, we all seem to have moving goal posts as to what we think 'karting' actually is. For me, the idea of karting is something like 100cc circa 1985-2006. Insane speed and insane simplicity. For someone else it's hacking around on a Honda GX160 for endless hours. So it's all about perspective.

But my general view is that we're not seeing an overall decline as much as a change. I think 'professional' (as in higher quality) arrive and drive series is the 'future' of the mass market. You rock up, drive round the track in a detuned 100/125cc kart, race and go home. No hassle with finding the right engine mount, or rebuilding the carb, or whatever. This idea is only in keeping with the trends towards lower hassle racing in recent years. Why are we shocked that people might not actually want to own and maintain their own kart, when someone else can do it for them... cheaper too.

It's so easy to think that just because the general market doesn't fit your vision of karting that suddenly everything is in decline. However nor should market change deter you from what you love to as that passion can help CREATE demand for what you race. Mr Koyen got it right, you the drivers are the force that can move what you love forward. No point moaning, may as well take some personal responsibility and try and do something about it.
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[Cory Ross]

Things are moving in the right direction in the Rocky Mountain region. The RMPKC schedule was released today and has a great schedule traveling all over Colorado and Utah. They have even changed things around to allow Rotax racers. The organizers at SKUSA and track owners have done a great job at working to together and doing what they can to include as many as possible instead of excluding.

[Charles Kaneb]

We have three main problems.

1) There are 20 engines in karting, of which approximately 2 1/2 are any good. The others are made so badly that they have to be rebuilt and remachined right off the bat (KT100, clone), or have unnecessary ancillaries that cost significantly more than the rest of the engine to run (Leopard, Rotax, PRD), or are so unpopular due to high first cost that it doesn't matter how good they really are (Aixro, KF, KZ). Right now, I would only consider a Briggs LO206, a KPV, or a Honda CR125 to be suitable for multiple seasons without a blowup. A Leopard with a rev limiter and a direct-drive sprocket would also be fine. If I wanted to take a big risk, I'd buy ten Aixros and rent them out; I bet they'd cost less to run than any of the 25 horsepower engines, let alone the 48 it makes.

2) Nobody's figured out a good way to have a set of tires last a season. If a tire company were to build a set that came out of the box fully-cured, didn't have the "magic first laps" in them, and lasted a season, they could probably charge $100 more a set in pure profit and would probably come out ahead.

3) It costs a few grand for a track to put on a local/regional race. I'll use $5000 as a reasonable "nut" for a track to have to make. Some tracks will have a higher figure.

To hit it, you'd have to charge:
$150 for the weekend and have 35 karts show up.
$100 for the weekend and have 50 karts show up.
$70 for the weekend and have 70 karts show up.
$50 for the weekend and have 100 karts show up.
Below $70/weekend the variable costs become important - wristbands, additional workers, more timing and scoring hassles.

The trouble is that if you gamble, charge $25 for practice, $25 for the race, $5 for each day's wristband, and nobody's able to drag that old kart out of the garage and get it running - or it rains - that you'll be totally soaked! 20 karts on a bad weekend at $150 a kart and revenues are $3000. 35 karts on a bad weekend at $50 a kart brings in only $1750. The owners who aren't loaded can't risk that. The owners who are, didn't get that way by seeking big risks like that.

So all the old karts stay in the sheds watching their brakes and fuel systems age out and crap out.
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"If you're still in full control, you're not going fast enough" - Fred Frame

[patrick slattery]

[TJ Koyen]

[Jim McMahon]

Monkey see, monkey do. People see top teams changing out chassis frequently and assume they need to do same to match their pace. Perception > reality. It's a great scheme.

I look forward to the usual sleuth of BS posts on how euro frames use mild steel and last 200 laps before becoming floppy noodles as well as the American frames made from chrome moly steel that last forever.
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Live in the midwest and have a TaG, Shifter, KPV, KT100, Animal\LO206, enduro or superkart?
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