[Dan Schlosser]

If you are running the stock axle Trent you’ll be able to save a bunch of weight right from the start there.  The Intrepid has pretty nice vinyl graphics including the floor pan – can save about 2-3 pounds there as well. Are you running the stock cast aluminum wheels? A few of the magnesium wheels will offer a pound plus in savings.

What track are you running at or which series?

[Dan Schlosser]

What kart are you running now Trent?

 

[Dan Schlosser]

As much as I wish the Russell closure wasn’t happening – losing institutions in a sport is never a good indicator of the sport’s health – I can’t say it was a big surprise. Since they were cut out of the IAME business, they never really found the product driver to replace what was a huge part of their business. While karting is facing some challenges currently, the Russell closure had less to do with the health of the industry than it did specific aspects of their business. Jim has a good line on the booming Parolin business in North America – hopefully he is able to ride the wave of that brand push and keep the Russell name, if not the original business, in the market.

 

That said, you and I are on the same page Greg in terms of the need to turn the focus to the grassroots of the sport as opposed to the top tier. If all the money spent on sponsoring and advertising the top tier events and series were redirected to the local clubs and tracks then maybe those clubs and tracks could afford to offer more reasonable entry fees and spend more money on recruiting more families in to the sport.

 

I am thankful there will be a few less National level races this season in our market. I am intending to steal some ideas I’ve seen from around the country and support a 206 Club at one or more of our local tracks. While I make most of my living on the road I’m going to try hard to give back to the local clubs and tracks where we got our start in hopes of seeing a vibrant local community rise once again.

 

Is the karting business in a challenging position right now? Sure. Are there signs of a resurgence in the market? Absolutely.  Is that resurgence contingent on the people in the industry doubling down on local clubs & tracks and getting involved again? Damn right. The industry on the whole can be saved by the industry members if we are willing to put in the work.

[Dan Schlosser]

The conventional wisdom is to say to shy away from the shifter but I have put a bunch of road race guys in to shifters and DD2 karts and they did fine. If you are a racer, you’ll make the transition fine. Take a look at the DD2 though – my guys have loved those. The guys at Dallas Kart Complex (or probably Houston Kart Complex too) have had arrive and drive DD2 karts in the past and they really know the product. Worth a call.

[Dan Schlosser]

Most TAG Cadet classes run at 245. Most drivers run at 248-250 to be safe on weight. If you can get to 255 you can compete. With a 90 pound driver and 15 pounds of weight we ran at 248 or so.

You can hit ten pounds with some basic changes – 3.0 axle (assuming you are running a 5.0 like most current karts), mag front and rear hubs, mag sprocket carrier & engine mount, MXC or the new Swift wheels. Tillett T5 VTi seat is about as light as you can find. No graphics, no data in race trim, no heel stop (shouldn’t need it for a tall driver). May be able to order a kart unpainted. Fastech has a ton of titanium available if you really need an extra pound or two.

We have made some bigger kids pretty darn competitive – just takes some effort. Pick a good kart and make it light. Don’t pick a kart just for weight.

 

 

[Dan Schlosser]

I have two in good condition.

[Dan Schlosser]

A funny thing happened this weekend at Florida Winter Tour Rok weekend – Reece Gold’s engine was claimed yet again! I wonder when Racingmom will cry foul?

Oh the karting world is a peculiar place some days. LOL

[Dan Schlosser]

I have two complete Steel Nytro clutches and I believe a spare driver. They appear to be pretty fresh and in good working order. Would like to get rid of the whole lot.

Dan

[Dan Schlosser]

What kind of kid kart Greg? I have several older style mechanical Birel brake systems as well as a complete Freeline hydraulic system.

I also have a PKT 25mm axle as well as stock Birel 25mm axles.

 

[Dan Schlosser]

In South Carolina? Get hold of Joey Mooneyham at CompKart SouthEast and he’ll get you on the right track. He should have a few other Junior TAG drivers this year.

Can never go wrong with KartSport either whether its the Praga or FA. Great shop, great staff, great support/coaching available.

Tiffin Willareth at Verde Speed Resources for Tony Karts – well stocked and one of the very best tuners/coaches you’ll find anywhere for Junior TAG. His history speaks for itself.

Tim Shutt at Timmy Tech for Top Kart – another great guy with vast knowledge.

You are really in a great area there with several brands you can’t go wrong with.

[Dan Schlosser]

Tim absolutely nails the concern of people brake checking you to knock your nose in. Retaliation is only a corner away and the result will be much greater than the 10 second penalty.

Totally agree that the number of people that will be happy with the on track product will far outweigh the number of people that will stay away because they may get a bum call as well.

The officials do have the option of reviewing a nose call if they see the incident and potentially fault the driver in front. You will still get the penalty in line but you’ll know you have the ability to appeal at that time.

We heard nothing but horror stories of how rough the Rotax World Finals was going to be. It couldn’t have been further from the truth and the difference from one year to the next was the addition of the drop down nose. The racing was phenomenally clean as Billy said – I was totally impressed.

If I never hear “just take the bumpers off” again it will be too soon. Just deal with the reality of the sport in this decade – safety issues will never revert because they would force tracks, organizers and officials to face massive liability exposure. Right, wrong or indifferent that is the reality of the situation.

[Dan Schlosser]

You can’t go wrong with the OTK products in Junior but Birel and their various derivatives (CompKart in particular) have looked really good this past year too. They have certainly closed the gap and at times outperformed the OTK brands.

Where is home and what series are you planning to run?

[Dan Schlosser]

For which cadet kart John?

[Dan Schlosser]

I love the claim rule – glad someone is putting it to proper use. If you don’t like the rule, don’t overspend on your engine package or pick another series to run. There are no “Unwritten Rules”, only written rules – Aaron followed the rule book to the letter as others have done when claiming his engines.  I may not be thrilled to lose a proven engine but I also know we trust our engine program and engine builders enough to know that in the other box we have an engine we can bolt on that will do the same job.

The magic happens with the squishy thing between the seat and steering wheel and the amount of time Aaron and Diego put in to working on the driver is where their success comes from above all. A good engine never hurts either though. ;-)

[Dan Schlosser]

Are you sure about this Dave? I mean really, really, really sure you want to do this? LOL

Speaking strictly east of the Mississippi and primarily midwest/great lakes/northeast regions here:

1) Less “national” races. Period. The schedule is ludicrous right now and is killing budgets, kart counts and club racing simultaneously. In a nutshell the powers that be at WKA and USPKS need to check their egos at the door and bring the best interests of karting back to the table. Neither is winning the battle and neither will put the other out of business so instead we as racers and team owners are forced to choose, or do both half-assed. All the while listening to one bitch about the other behind closed doors which only furthers the divide.

This region currently has 5 WKA Races, 2 Winter Cup Races and 4 USPKS races. (not to mention 2 SKUSA, 4 Rok Cup MW, 6 F-Series, 1 US Open, 6 FWT, 6 Rok Cup Florida, 5 Route 66, 5 NJSS and soon a Southeast Regional Series).

At the very least WKA/USPKS should be reduced to 7-8 races starting with Daytona and then monthly from March or April through September with no track duplication. That leaves time for families and teams to get back to regional and/or club racing.

Sure would be great to see big fields again at Nationals and in turn bring legitimacy back to Regional racing. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have Midwest (Route 66), Great Lakes (rebirth of GLSS??), North Atlantic (NJSS) and Southeast Regionals (3 races each) with all on the same rulebook, tires, engines and class structure?

This is not only feasible, it is so simple that it should be a work in progress right now.  The WKA US Pro Kart Series under the WKA umbrella, Mark Coats (the undisputed master of regional racing in the area) in charge of Route 66 & GLSS, Ferris family in charge of NJSS and Eric Jones the Southeast. Between the WKA & USPKS/66 staff you could assemble 2 great crews to rotate through the events.

2) If the KA100 is going to be brought in lets please not pretend it is an additional or new class designed to fill a void and just get to the point. It is the IAME direct replacement for the Yamaha KT100 at the Junior and Senior level so lets please just treat it that way and come up with a plan that sets a timeline for replacement at the national & regional level, comes with a very user friendly purchase and/or trade in plan on par with what was offered with the Swift and lastly provide the clubs with weight based equivalency numbers that show how you can run the KA and KT together successfully.

3) Come up with a program akin to the SCCA Track Night in America designed to encourage growth at the club/local level in karting. This program would come with universal nationwide branding and universal entry level or introductory programs. Funding initially would be underwritten by the National sanctioning bodies, manufacturers, suppliers and retailers utilizing a percentage of sponsorship money to fund the inception and initial launch. Essentially seeing the biggest players invest in the future of the sport. Also, a nationally branded, universal program such as this would be the type of program that would finally allow the karting industry to sell/secure sponsorship outside the sport.

I would even go so far as to include the indoor tracks in this program – helping their efforts only boosts our potential growth as well.

 

Thanks for holding us to 3 topics Dave!!! Could have been a long night….

[Dan Schlosser]

I disagree Tim – racers don’t have to get used to it, they need to be part of the solution and vote with their wallets. Something has to break and it damn well better be some events or some series rather than the racers. Otherwsie we are all screwed.

[Dan Schlosser]

Yes I think there is hope it can be rescheduled and be successful but it would require some things to happen. That could be the optimist in me though.

It has to happen no earlier than 2 weeks after the end of the midwest travel season.

Also at some point these sanctioning bodies need to get their heads together and come up with a reasonable schedule in this market that involves LESS dates, not more, with a reasonable wrap up of the traveling season. In my personal opinion there needs to be a merger or agreement of some sort that results in less dates among these folks too.

I think some sort of multi-class format (like all endurance racing) that would put an old iron/sportsman class out there with the primary (X30 spec class essentially) class racing for the big bucks. The Sportsman class could feature Leopard/Rotax/Rok TT, etc at a lower weight, a max gear, tire limit, etc and maybe a reduced entry fee.

[Dan Schlosser]

In Yamaha you are probably good either way. In TAG the Tacho was our favorite for a driver in the 175-180 range while the Dragon with a 135-140 pound driver was just awesome with a Rotax (or TAG). Despite what the frame designs look like, the Tacho drives an awful lot like an OTK kart.

Both great karts with fantastic workmanship in terms of frames and components.

(BTW – Have a sweet slightly used Tacho available right now with ALL of the goodies….)

 

[Dan Schlosser]

I don’t think there are many better looking tracks than Ocala. Not the most technical, not the best facilities or anything like that. But the track itself is like a cool little park – I’ve thought that if i ever get back to running a track, I’d like it to look like that.

The best overall facility though that I’ve been to in the US hands down is GoPro. Professional from top to bottom.

That said, there are some great looking tracks in Canada and the western US that are on my list to still visit….

[Dan Schlosser]

Hearing of numbers upwards of 200 entries – great trend! Any updates on an entry list?

[Dan Schlosser]

Want to make the claiming rule effective? In addition to the open claiming have the series claim an engine from the top ten at random in every class, each weekend. Then put that engine up for auction after it is teched and reassembled. Takes the stigma away of being “that guy” yet forces everyone to keep it honest.

In this case the series can hand the racer a new engine package (since they are the importer anyway) and $1000 then sell the claimed engine afterwards and still break even.

That would take a bite out of the gentlemen’s agreement scenario.

 

[Dan Schlosser]

I saw a Tony Kart shifter on the Charlotte Craigslist listings for $1700. Pretty fair deal.

[Dan Schlosser]

The 80cc shifters are a little trickier to find but they are usually pretty reasonable. Maybe a little less supported but like you said, they are dirt bike engines and Honda/Yamaha/Suzuki/etc aren’t really going anywhere soon. I’d be more careful with the chassis so you don’t find yourself with something that parts are hard to find.

I believe there is a shop at Atlanta Motorsports Park. Joey at the Carolina Motorsports Track is a great resource as are the guys at KartSport in Mooresville, NC.

Might find it easier to find a 125 shifter – they are more plentiful. Most of us will tell you that shifters aren’t a good starting place but if you are just going out to have fun more so than race you should be fine. If you have general mechanical aptitude you’ll figure out the basics in a hurry.

Can also check out kartsale and kartingsource for additional equipment for sale but here at EKN is always the most active marketplace in karting.

 

[Dan Schlosser]

[quote quote=73379]You are right Dan, but the problem isn’t that new series keep popping up, its that too many people are cherry picking the easy series to be the next “national champion”. Champion of what? Some of these series have an average of less than 10 entries per class. Parents all want their kids to win big trophies. Make enough series so that everyone can be a winner! Can you blame the series for trying to fill the need? If the parents came to their senses, and participated in a few top level series so they could legitimately lay a claim to being the best, then these little specialty series would drizzle out. As long as people are willing to pay for their own game, the games will exist. And as long as shops are willing to take the money of the parents who want their own game, the series will exist and the shops will follow. The shops are no less at fault here than the series. They are just filling the need that the parents create. And let’s be honest here, its the parents. Everyone knows that the kids comprise the lion’s share of things these days. No sane person would spend the kind of money on themselves to race karts that some of these parents do. When my kid was small, all we wanted to do was race against the best. Things have changed. [/quote]

Yes I do blame the series entirely Tim. Racers do not magically just find the funding to do another series because there is another series. Money is the finite resource in the equation, not race dates.

I also disagree completely that this is about parents chasing trophies. I have yet to meet a single parent outside of Kid Karts that doesn’t want consolidation of series and more people running together rather than having series with 60% fields.

I also find it very difficult to blame the teams as well. The few of us that are left (actually I’m not even included in that “us” any longer) work like jackasses to make a living because now we have twice as much travel, twice as many hotel rooms, twice as many labor hours, twice as much fuel, twice as much time away from family/shop/club racing – all in order to make 20% more money.

It’s just stupid, sorry.

[Dan Schlosser]

Lynn is right in regard to the proliferation of “National” racing and the toll it takes on not just the racers/families but the teams as well. This is the single biggest issue among midwest/northeast/mid-atlantic based racers & teams:

FWT 6 events, WKA 7 events, USPKS 4 events, Route 66 5 events, Rok Cup 7 events, US Open 3 events, SKUSA Pro tour 3 events, F-Series 6 events.

Crazy but in 2017 you are looking at adding 1 WKA, 2 Rok Cup and 1 SKUSA races east of the Mississippi.

This is just killing budgets as well as free time to do the one-off races like Robo-pong. Even for those of us that love races like Robo-pong and Rock Island just don’t have time to prep for these races let alone participate.

I also think that the wide spread of the traveling programs are having an impact on those local TAG fields you mention Greg. Not only are all of these races overlapping local events, pulling entries away, but so many of the TAG participants on the local level can be found turning wrenches on the road tour.

That said, the costs associated with TAG racing no longer make it affordable fun. The LO 206 at New Castle and the Senior Yamaha at Pitt Race show that the racers are still out there, they just no longer are willing or interested to pay the price it takes to run the TAG package. Maybe if the clubs would make an incentive to pull the cheap old Leopard, PRD, Rok TT and Rotax off the shelves racers may turn out again. Cheaper entry fees, lower weights, etc for older engine packages may get some people back out.

Just a few thoughts.

[Author]

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