[Chris Laird]

Yes there is a lighter chain and sprockets for 80’s. I sent you a PM with the links.

[Chris Laird]

E-trac is the way to go. Movable rings means you’re not married to a single configuration.

[Chris Laird]

Floor pans will effect the handling of the kart. As for which stiffness will do what, it depends on who you talk to. Testing testing and more testing.

[Chris Laird]

I’ve heard that you want to run the lowest octane rating possible without detonating. If this is true, and the 99’runs perfect on 98 octane, wouldn’t it “lose power” with 110? If that is true, wouldn’t it make the reliable 99 a paper weight?

[Chris Laird]

Clearly the “misunderstanding” was only a “misunderstanding” for the drivers and teams that ignored the protocol set forth to get what they need to race. For the record, if you didn’t do the math, between SKUSA’s stock and the stock in Florida, it was 20.6%. They met YOUR requirements to spec a tire.

[Chris Laird]

[quote quote=17102] one can state what ever they like to the drivers about their responsibility but if a tire is spec’d, the supplier should be able to meet 20% of the demand of ONE of the races don’t you think. [/quote]

Ok here we go. Rotax/DD2/DD2 masters = 85 drivers. 605 total entries less 85 = 520. Less 36 drivers that pre-ordered = 484. I know for a fact at least 50 drivers showed up with at least 1 set of rains without looking up the actual numbers that practiced and raced in the rain but we’ll leave it at 484 for funzees. That doubled is 968. If SKUSA had 100 sets and there were 100 sets in Florida, what would that percentage be? That doesn’t even count the other race shops at the track with tires to sell OR internet shops across the nation that overnighted their stocks. Did I mention that more than a few drivers actually brought tires with them?

Where do we stand now? People that didn’t “pre-order” or “get in line” soon enough didn’t get their playstation 4

[Chris Laird]

Why did this turn into the spoiled little brat kicking and stomping that he couldn’t get a play station 4 because he either, a: didn’t pre-order or or b: didn’t get in line early enough?

If $230,000 is chicken feed, why wasn’t the guy that that’s chicken feed to on the phone getting a cargo plane lined up full of tires? 6100 miles from brazil to Vegas. Roughly a 24 hour trip at 330 miles per hour. Seems like if it was that easy and guaranteed to be a profit, SOMEONE WOULD HAVE DONE IT! Just of of a couple quick google searches and some simple math with no idea how many tires you could fit in a c-130, (assuming roughly 1,000 sets at $170) you could probably have only paid $500 a set vs $1500.

I think what it really comes down to is the theory of I have money and I can fix any of my problems so I don’t need to be on top of it, backfired. I.e. I’ll just get it at the track.

I may not understand every detail of big business. Having said that, if Walmart orders 1,000 TV’s from Sony, why would Sony ship them 5,000? That seems like bad business to me.

Filling the order presented is how all of the businesses I know of run. Has anybody EVER tried to buy something that’s back ordered?

Is it ironic that so many people rolled the dice with there $5,000-$15,000 trips and lost over $230 IN VEGAS?

[Chris Laird]

Any ideas on how much it would cost to get 1350 sets of rain tires from Brazil to Las Vegas in a week? Seems like 90% of the drivers thought it wasn’t going to rain. 1350 x 170 is $230,000. That’s a big gamble when that many drivers doubt they will need them. Would you put your money up? Clearly you wouldn’t put $230 up if your complaining about not having rain tires?

[Chris Laird]

Thank you for the tip that was really frustrating!

[Chris Laird]

Ok that looks stupid. Here’s the link to SKUSA’s site.

<span style=”color: #000000; font-family: ‘.HelveticaNeueUI’; font-size: 15px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);”>http://www.superkartsusa.com/national/skusa-supernationals/pricing-overview.html</span&gt;

[Chris Laird]

ok so there was an option offered for some classes to run mojos. Seems like a great idea until you introduce the fact that Tom has a contract with mg.

I wonder if NASCAR or Indycars have ever had any tire issues? I don’t watch the Indy 500 much, but wasn’t there a race where half the feild had to sit out? Haven’t there been NASCAR races with mandatory cautions every 20 laps? These are HUGE rich series and even they cant fix tire issues over night.

[Chris Laird]

I’m very curious about all of these rants. $1,000-$2,500 for a set of tires? Yep, I heard all kinds of talk about that. It’s called supply and demand. Bet those tires got sold too. In business, there will always be sharks that take advantage of a situation.

Bad business? Quick math. 600 drivers times 2 sets, 1200 sets. At the beginning of the season Tom was selling rain tires for the promotional price of $170 so we’ll start there. 1200 sets times $170 is $204.000. When was the last time you saw ANYBODY, with $200,000 worth of axels in there trailer let alone rain tires that rarely get used?

2 weeks before snats there was rain in the forecast PERIOD. If all 600 entries would have been responsible, there would have been a shortage of rain tires then, followed by a push to get more tires from Brazil. A week is plenty of time to get 500 sets of tires at a resonable price. Its Toms job to put on a race. It’s the drivers job to make sure he has what he needs to race.

Lets try to keep it real here. Did I miss anything? Feel free to correct me.

[Chris Laird]

I will definitely second that! Crazy conditions and 16 hour days out in it. Thank you very much! What a great crew at the fuel desk. I also noticed this crew in particular paying extra attention to drivers literally running down to the grid. There were many times they had the fuel can waiting for the driver before they got to the desk for a quick splash and go. Awesome! Mad props to SKUSA for putting on another great event with an All-star crew!

[Chris Laird]

Looks like it might be central time? Oops lol

[Chris Laird]

Tom the schedule is posted on the race monitor ap. DD2 masters goes again at 2:55 est and 3:15.

[Chris Laird]

Jim, why don’t you call any kart shop in America and order 1,000 of the same axel, and tell them you need them tomorrow by 8am and see what happens. Why wouldn’t you be able to get them? I’ll tell you why. On a normal basis I’m sure they sell maybe 20 a month, so why have 1,000 on hand? Because they want to be able to give there customers the on finger salute I’m sure!  Isn’t that why everyone’s in business?

Do we remember that MG’s factory is in Brazil? I bet they have a whole warehouse full of rain tires there. It just takes time and money to move them 6,000 miles. Why would any business spend the money to move something if there has not been a demand?

 

Ps I don’t work for Mg, SKUSA or any parts supplier for anything to do with karting. I love racing and am fortunate to get to tag along with a team as a lowly mechanic. I’m in this conversation out of principle. I was ACTUALLY AT SUPERNATS and saw and heard all of this going on. I feel it’s completely erroneous to blame ANYBODY but the drivers themselves.

I digress, clearly total ignorance, a severe lack of  logic and common sense are driving quite a few of you as you try and blame someone for you not being prepared and them being business savy.

[Chris Laird]

Also if its so easy to handle this situation, why wasn’t there a crunch for tires until the rain actually fell? You don’t have to be an MG salesman to call every dealer in the US to buy up tires on Tuesday when it was still sunny. Wednesday at about 9am was when all of the un-prepared drivers and teams were scrambling.

Edit: We practiced all day Wednesday in the the dry. The crunch came at 9:00 am on  THURSDAY!

[Chris Laird]

Okay Ross, that’s a valid point. Now rework your numbers with the 35 or 36 drivers that ACTUALLY pre-ordered tires. Based on your own formula, MG should be in the clear.  There were more than 100 sets available to be overnighted in the US. Cool story though.

As was said earlier, had the drivers been  responsible even 2 weeks earlier, I’m sure MG could have had 1,000 sets to vegas in a week. The responsibility still falls on the driver.

[Chris Laird]

Reducing the number of tires allowed would do nothing but punish the people that were prepared.

Not sure where you got the impression they would have 1000 sets of rain tires at the track. This is straight from SKUSA’s website.

 
<h3 style=”text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 7px 0px 3px; padding-left: 0px;”><span style=”font-size: small;”><span style=”background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);”>”Rain Tires</span></span></h3>

<li style=”margin-bottom: 5px;”><span style=”background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);”>MG-WT — $218/set of 4 tires (All classes except TaG Cadet and Rotax)</span>
<li style=”margin-bottom: 5px;”><span style=”background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);”>MG-WT Cadet — $212/set of 4 tires (TaG Cadet)</span>
<li style=”margin-bottom: 5px;”><span style=”background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);”>Mojo W2 — $275/set of 4 tires (Junior Max and DD2 Max)</span>

<span style=”background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);”>NOTE: Competitors may purchase rain tires from SKUSA or their own supplier. If purchasing from SKUSA, all rain tires must be pre-purchased – or pre-ordered via email – by November 1st to guarantee supplies on site. If purchasing from your own supplier, they must be the spec rain tires listed above.”</span>

[Author]

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