[James McMahon]

Is this your kart larry? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzR10fFvqIk

[James McMahon]

I think Eau Claire runs an “any three karts” class if you can find some buddies. If you really watch to stretch their legs you could run road courses with CES and run the unlimited class. Usually there is some pretty fast machinery out there. Twin cylinder 250 superkarts for example.

Closest track is Blackhawk Farms which has a race in June and one in August. You could run up on the banks at Gateway in May too. KZ is good for about 119mph there, dual TAG should be good for 130 I would think.

CES schedule is here: https://www.kartpulse.com/championship-enduro-series-ces

I might have video of your kart from around 2006 come to think of it..

 

[James McMahon]

Looks like you have two sprint tracks within 250 miles of St Josephs. But, if you are willing to drive 50 miles more, you have some great options. Here’s the list:  http://tinyurl.com/zlg4ku8

 

Liberty Kart Track

Location: Liberty Kart Track, 1050 H Hwy , Liberty, MO, 64068, USA

approximately 42.68 miles

 

TNT Kartways

Location: TNT Kartways, 1850 Highway 24, Taylor, MO, 63471, USA

approximately 143.01 miles

 

SLKA Thunder Valley

Location: SLKA Thunder Valley, 1504 Horine Rd, Pevely, MO, 63070, USA

approximately 260.38 miles

 

JRP Speedway Sprint Track

Location: JRP Speedway Sprint Track, 5920 W 51st St, Tulsa, OK, 74107, USA

approximately 262.95 miles

 

Gateway Kartplex

Location: Gateway Kartplex, 700 Raceway Blvd , East St Louis, IL, 62201, USA

approximately 264 miles

 

61 Kartway

Location: 61 Kartway, 1578 Highway 61, Delmar, IA, 52037, USA

approximately 270.23 miles

 

Midstate Raceway

Location: Midstate Raceway, 160 Kender Lane, Dawson, IL, 62520, USA

approximately 285.7 miles

[James McMahon]

A leak at the exhaust manifold, while its not optimal, is not considered an air leak in the traditional sense. It will throw your test off though.
How much is the pressure dropping after five mins?

[James McMahon]

[quote quote=59299]We need a central clearing house to distribute results, race reports, publicity and more. Thoughts? [/quote]

We should chat on the phone. I’ll message you my details.
What you describe is what kartpulse.com is intended to be. Now it’s not there yet, so I want to manage that expectation.  Here’s the articles home page for example: https://www.kartpulse.com/articles

You can read articles that are from around you by radius if you like. Publishing an article is open to all. Drivers, tuners, track, series, orgs, businesses etc. We have editing and veto rights should they be needed, but people tend to be a bit more thoughtful when they post an article vs starting a forum thread.

It’s a custom built platform for discovery and exploration of karting content. Designed from the ground up to support and grow the sport.
The kartpulse facebook page, at this point is an audience building exercise (and a little fun) while I wrap up the roadmap for kartpulse. The roadmap will outline what the site and project will look like and how that ties in with the direction I feel we should go to grow karting, based on the research I’ve done.

I will build the platform, but as a community we need to get the content on there. The roadmap includes a content and engagement strategy, but I want to stress the point that each of us needs to chip in.
Once that roadmap is complete (Thinking end of Feb) we’ll be accelerating the development of the site visually and otherwise with a goal to have it really rocking by end of 2016.

Then, (I feel) we have something that’s worth promoting and can get people that engaged by what the see to the next step, usually checking out their local track.

“Big media” is becoming an increasingly poor investment. I realize that this is a bit of a blanket statement, so like anything there are outliers.
With how social media and the “modern”
web has evolved over the last 5 years especially, you can get exposure right now and it will likely be more targeted. For that to be effective we need somewhere to send interested folks that can guide and woo them through the steps.

If we look at karting as a whole (This is what I have been doing and I believe we should) and put a marketing hat on…. We’re badly broken on the consideration and conversion part on a systemic level.

 

We can fix this, but we need to be working in mostly the same direction…

 

 

[James McMahon]

My observation is that coverage\exposure a shiny object at this point. I believe lack of mainstream media coverage is an easy crutch for us to lean on when we say that karting is not as big as we’d like it to be. I insist we have lots of coverage already. Enough for now.

Sure, us racers love the idea of it because it makes us feel good, but for the effort and resources required I don’t think it’s going to move the needle for butts in seat at this point. We can buy exposure right now though various media channels on the web. Amortized across the sport it would be pennies (well dollars) per track/series. There’s a bunch of ways we can pay for something like that (I have lots of ideas ha) but we need to have somewhere to point people first. Once that’s done kartpulse will start working on marketing karting, as a whole using these kinds channels. We’ll review what’s working and what’s not, iterate, make changes and go from there.

Sure, a million views would be awesome, but all for nothing if we don’t have something in place to guide the interested parties to the next step, a resource that delivers more actionable, relevant content to them. I think to get to one million it would take more than just action shots. It would need some sort of story too. Also I value the quality/relevance of the audience over sheer volume. With how we can target folks, based on their interests with razor sharp accuracy on the web this tends to work better than casting a wide net.

We have tons of ideas as a collective, that’s why I say they are worthless because 96% of them are not being executed. You are executing and for that I salute you.

Yes a better video would be good. In the absence of anyone else committing to it, I plan to make something for road racing this year. I kicked off a little campaign on facebook you might have seen asking why people like to go road racing. Some of that will shape the marketing message of the video. With the laydown video we posted, the effort/reward ratio was high all things considered. It took less than 10 minutes to put together. With most people’s involvement in kart racing being part time I think it’s good to focus on things that have a good effort vs potential reward whenever we can.

I think it’s interesting that an enduro video was one of the most popular kart racing videos I’ve seen on facebook. The majorly viral ones are typically less racing oriented, and more drag race or some loon on the street.

Having said all that, it takes time to get momentum for what you are working on, so hopefully our two paths will be on track around the same time. Then I think we’re in good shape to grow this thing.

[James McMahon]

I’ll hop on my soapbox here since this is a topic near to my heart. I started looking deeply into ways we can help grow karting across the board about three years ago and this is what I’ve discovered….

First, I’ve said this a few times of late……. It’s not directed at anyone in particular in this thread in a personal way….

Ideas

Are

Absolutely

Worthless
We have no lack of ideas in karting, that’s not the problem. Lots of people have ideas, but they then look to someone else to take actual action. So, not a lot happens, other than talk. Lack of action and commitment is the problem. Not promotion (yet).

I cringe when I hear people talk about karting (in general) needing more exposure or publicity. We have professional (or at least very public) racers advocating for it all the time day, a major car manufacturer involved in HPD with SKUSA, gopro motoplex, sick TV coverage of the SKUSA pro tour, 1M+ videos on youtube, the colossal embarrassment that was kart life,  a major recreational company onboard with BRP/Rotax, Become One, Racing Dreams, Senna and Fullerton….how much publicity is enough?

There’s no point in promoting something that has a broken marketing funnel.

We have the kart (yes pun intended) before the horse.

I posted a laydown enduro video that was seen by something like 80K people on facebook and was shared 1,543 times. Actually, most of the road race stuff we’ve posted gets a lot of interest so RR has that going for it. It’s visually appealing and interesting to folks.

Here’s the problem: I can’t send these folks anywhere to find out more about RR yet. No, forums are not an acceptable answer. Neither is “googling” for a track, or a series or a club. These days, people expect (relevant) information to be presented to them, or they move on. That’s how the web has changed and karting needs to change with it.

There’s no point in sending them to a specific org or series site because each one has limited appeal based on geography (see relevant part above) and others, well let’s just say they need work.

What we need a portal that’s independent of the orgs and shows folks the races, tracks and series that are of relevance by their location and willingness to travel. “Possibly interested karting guy or girl” doesnt give a ###T about what series or rulesets there are. They just want to know what is going on that they can go check out. We all know this, at the most basic level its about getting them to the track.

So I built the portal to make that happen for all of karting. Still much to be done on the software side and I’m continuing to iterate on that. I’ve commited to that part along with a bunch of other plans for the project. Insert link isnt working so here’s an old school link instead: https://www.kartpulse.com/events/category/races/50/circuit-long-road-race-and-enduro/60

You can also checkout the track directory (which is populated with over 400 tracks) here: https://www.kartpulse.com/tracksandseries/map

Adjust the radius, select a date range if you like and it will show you the races that are coming up. Assuming they are in there of course..which comes to my next point…

I’m still looking for someone to step up to the plate and get the road race schedules up there. It’s super easy, all web based.

If you want to grow road racing and are willing to put in some time, start by digging in and putting our races on the big tracks “on the map”. Then we can move from there to get butts in seats. I’m not saying getting all races on a calendar and map is the answer, but to me it is 100% the foundation to move forward.

With road races and tracks mapped out, we stand some a chance of getting folks onboard as a result of seeing a video like the We Are Karters which I’ve been working with Troy a little bit on.

Here’s the enduro video I am talking about that I shared on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kartpulse/videos/vb.1399852770228742/1581594508721233

[James McMahon]

250 superkarts are what I think you are talking about? Some are single cylinder (ICE) some are twins. Many drivers run the likes of CRF450’s also. Even if that’s not what you’re thinking, it’s about as fast as you’re going to get. Jonny west had a gixxer based superkart TAG project going a few years ago that was positively insane.

Anyway, you won’t see them on a typical sprint course, too tight for them to flex their power but they usually run in “unlimited” type classes in road racing on the big tracks like Mid Ohio, Infineon and so on.

See if there’s a road race near you, tweak the search distance if you need to:

https://www.kartpulse.com/events/category/racing/50/circuit-long-road-race-and-enduro/60

I’m still working on adding the remaining road race events in the US. I think I have about 30% captured there right now.

[James McMahon]

I can only guide them! Apparently hotspots are a hot commodity at CES races.  I happened to be at one of the Blackhawk this year so I used my phone, otherwise it’s been up to staff on the day at the track.

To me, results are essential, especially on road races where the entry fee for racers tends to be much higher than a sprint track. I think it’s very reasonable for them to expect timely results and ideally a live feed from race monitor. It needs to be a priority for all orgs, including CES.

<span style=”color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px;”>My feeling is results should be uploaded after each day, as they are always ‘Unofficial’ Post official results to the website, so there is record of it and people can download the PDF later to save for themselves.</span>

That’s what I really like about race hero, it does that automatically at the end of each session (sans PDF’s). I think USPKS used it last year?
I agree, how hard is it to do a mylaps upload after each day too? Yes it’s busy in the tower but all your hard work is for nothing if you cant get folks their results.

 

Sidenote, I started doing timing for swimming races to get a feel for it. Running that stuff is intense and frantic, 60+ races in 5 hours and there aint no track pickup in between sessions!

[James McMahon]

I added the WKA RR series races to the event directory on kartpulse and I’ll get the CES races finished too. Who’s willing to help get the other road races on the map so people can find them?

It’s pretty easy to add them, I just need someone so help get them on there.

https://www.kartpulse.com/events

[James McMahon]

CES

 

[James McMahon]

That sucks. You can never cover yourself 100% from computer woes but here’s what I have recommended for CES…

Orbits backup made after each day of racing to dropbox.
Leverage race monitor and race hero so that (provisional) results get posted and stored online during the event without even having to think about it. (Requires internet\hotspot of course)
Have a backup laptop available, configured for the same network as your decoder and ready to go with the same dropbox account as your primary.

[James McMahon]

[quote quote=54928]So the CRF is slower? So what, it runs in it’s own class… [/quote]

Oh I agree, in terms of absolute speed, it doesn’t matter a whole lot. Look at how LO206 has grown. I was just conveying what I observed in numbers between the two. From what I understand it’s really nip and tuck between the CR and CRF on the tight tracks, and Josh outlined that the difference I saw was down to drivers.

I like the lease idea too, especially give the (potentially) precarious nature of EFI.

Josh, do you have any videos? If you’ve got some interesting CRF stuff, I’d love to share one on my kartpulse facebook page.

[James McMahon]

Broadly speaking it should be pretty equal, but keep in mind it needs to be a very level surface, tire pressures need to be in ballpark and your toe in/out needs to be symmetrical on each side too.

If you have all of those factors under control, then you can be more confident in your observation of the amount the front wheels get jacked.

[James McMahon]

[quote quote=54845]What are the difference with the new KZ that make it that much better than the K9c? I have checked the port timing, combustion chamber, Squish, even the piston I haven’t seen anything I would consider ground breaking the one thing I did see was the intake track and reed cage but really that would be minimal. Am I missing something?[/quote]

The differences in performance are 99% perception from what I’ve seen over the years. Performance improvements between homologations for the most part is very incremental, perhaps not even measurable. Sometimes there will be a breakthrough (like Rotax’s 100 debut), but for the most part the performance difference that one is lead to believe between homolgations is not very big. Each time you’ll hear people claim they found xxx (time) with the latest widget/upgrade/motor. I recond if you go back ten years, add up the claims of time found with each “widget” and compare lap times to today all other things being reasonably equal (track, tires, conditions) one might expect that a modern KZ would be 2 seconds faster than the last ICC. But my guess is that it wouldn’t even be close to that.
Many of the folks that claim big differences are invested in the newer stuff in one way or another :D

Look at how radical the Modena motor is. Thing is a work of art, but yet it has not outshone the competition.

I’m very interested to see where the CRF250 goes….

[James McMahon]

[quote quote=54862]The class was introduced this year for us. HPD is backing the program with a lease program and HPD bucks http://www.sanzarukarting.com/news/15_03_13.html [/quote]

I knew somewhere in the US tracks were running a class, thanks for posting this.

What kind of response did you get from drivers?  Has it piqued the interest of more drivers for 2016? Observed almost 2seconds\lap advantage to Stock moto from the times, but that’s just going by the numbers, knowing nothing about the drivers or conditions.

[James McMahon]

Also noticed there is a fuel pump just dangling…. do you have another one in line somewhere?

[James McMahon]

That looks like an old Rotax shifter motor, 12x  series, It’s not a Max.
Not many people are familiar with those motors these days, you might have to do a little “discovery” to get it running.

As Steen pointed out, that starter is likely turning the motor the wrong direction. Those motors came with different ignition types over the years so figuring out how it should be connected could be fun.

See if you can verify it is sparking, and troubleshoot from there. Remove the plug from the head, take an old plug, open the gap to about 4mm. Turn the motor over by hand with the wheels and see if it sparks.

[James McMahon]

Get in touch with the guys running the MLK series. Starting in october this year, their senior class is DVS with the option of removing the rev limiter.

http://www.majorleaguekarting.us/

[James McMahon]

I guess if you’ve hit a wall you could do a web search for douglas kart wheels (or the DWT part number) and go down the list of results.
Looks like fastech, margay and bmi karts stock douglas wheels, hopefully they will have the 130’s you need

[James McMahon]

It’s hard to know how longevity will work out between the DVS and a Sudam. One would assume the DVS will last longer between services with a rev limiter and balance shaft but until they get raced in full anger it’s hard to say.

[James McMahon]

There’s a LOT of merit to what Tim talks about. The goodwill type of sponsorship. Historically they have been the most common ones for sure. For the most part that’s where my sponsorship came from when I was actively racing.

The evolution of the web and social media has opened up new opportunities and avenues that did not exist before.

When I say build an audience, that doesn’t mean you have to become the crazy super serious baseball dad forcing your kid to be some kind of groomed performance puppet. Quite the opposite in fact. It’s something you and your child can learn about, have fun with and discover together.
Grow an audience/following with your adventures and stories. Be personable, human not a machine. The pressure level is entirely up to you.
In simple terms, you’re telling your story on the web. If nothing else, this adds value to any goodwill sponsorship you’ve acquired.

Wild Duck Racing is a great example of a father and son doing just that: http://wildduckracing.com/

Crowdsourcing, like what DarkhorsePros offer is another option to generate $. I’m bearish on that however, you’d really want a following of some sort beforehand for it to be a success.

[James McMahon]

Ah, have you considered the Sudam models?
Less initial cost, simpler design without the powervalve and balance shaft. Also doesnt have the decomp valve, but perhaps heads (or valve) will be interchangeable.

[James McMahon]

Keep in mind that sponsorship is zero about you (or your racer). Also the amount racing costs you is irrelevant to a sponsor/marketing partner. All that matters is how much value you can deliver

Ideally you will position yourself (your racer) as a personal brand with an audience of followers which adds to the value you plan delivering.

Be selective about the brands you work with and how you position yourself in that regard. The shotgun approach doesn’t seem to do so well these days. Look for opportunities where your audience and potential sponsors line up, double down your efforts on those rather than chasing every/any opportunity.

Kristin Schwartzlander from Dirtymouth Communications has a lot of insights on this subject: https://www.kartpulse.com/article/184/sponsorship-pricing-it-s-too-expensive-versus-it-s-not-worth-it

You need an online presence for sure, but setting up your own website, then driving traffic to it is probably more trouble that it’s worth for you at this point. My suggestion would be to leverage major social media for now as a starting point and focus on making connections/networking with folks.

[James McMahon]

[quote quote=58615]Rob, Greg asked earlier, is there any way you could post road race results as well? It would sure be appreciated. Thanks, Clark Sr. [/quote]

All the <i>unoffical </i>results are posted on race monitor’s site, here’s the page for the road race event:
https://www.race-monitor.com/Results/Race/38060

I wish more orgs used racehero.io alongside race-monitor. Once a result is made official by timing staff in the tower, race hero automatically updates the online results page as official also. No waiting.

http://racehero.io/events/ces-blackhawk-august-sunday-8-9-2015/results

…now back to our regular scheduled programming.

[Author]

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