[Shawn Welte]

This is Part 2 of the Blackhawk Mk XI sidewinder restoration videos. Starting the assembling process of the kart. Its like a mad 3D jigsaw puzzle with heim joints. Steve enjoying work and also filming, with aluminum welding assistance by Rick Magnuson. https://youtu.be/pVyurHmxIy0

[Shawn Welte]

Excellent Rob.  Good to see, I think you will have some good fun in that. Definitely come on over and see the Welte crew.  Maybe we’ll even arrange for you to go out and practice in a vintage rear.  I have to get a little faster to keep up with Jeff there in the rear karts.  It was a heck of a lot of fun running with him and Troy at Delmar.

You can definitely pick some great tracks to run at Rob.  And there will be independent races at Quincy and Concept Haulers Motor Speedway as well.  My dad and I made it to vintage races at New Castle, Springfield Mid State Kart Club, Sugar River in Brodhead all 3 vintage races, Quincy, Concept Haulers, Delmar, and of course we ran just the Saturday at the Rock Island Grand Prix in the dual rear engine karts.

[Shawn Welte]

It’s a good strong, well attended class through out many of the events in the Midwest, with some very skilled drivers.

[Shawn Welte]

Bumper Cam on boards:
Practice #1: https://youtu.be/mOSZb7ClFb4
Practice #2:

A couple of short clips of us in Turn 6:
https://youtu.be/G8XfTqi1Qpc
https://youtu.be/mGrC5LiAWS4

[Shawn Welte]

Sportsman Rear & Over 60 Races
Sportman Rear and Over 60 Race #1, compilation of two on board cameras on Steve Welte’s Alley Kat powered by a Westbend 820, and sideline video shot by Shawn Welte. Very cool, well would have been cooler if we hadn’t bumped the camera hard on the grid, of Jeff Hoff working the wheel hard chasing Steve. https://youtu.be/gujfceTwfjY

Sportsman Rear and Over 60 Race #2, compilation of on board cameras, forward looking and backward looking. Good Race. https://youtu.be/BB9UIb9_07Q
Sportsman Rear and Over 60 Race #3, compilation of a forward looking and backward looking camera. Cool chase video of Jerry Nagel wheeling it in attempt to get around dad. https://youtu.be/mOMtx8Xaej4

Miscellaneous video clips that we shot over the weekend: https://youtu.be/o-nbD3RAejs

Dual Rear Engine:
Dual Rear Race #1 on board with me. Fun, fun, race. Great action. I went from 3rd back to 6th and then back to 3rd. I think it was the best race of the weekend and one of the best vintage races that I’ve been apart of in sometime. https://youtu.be/Ds3xcFs9vsk
And Race #1 from the sidelines: https://youtu.be/QXpMwvOCArE
Race #1 from Steve’s on board: https://youtu.be/FxBgjz97RUM
Dual Rear Race #3 on board with Steve. I got around him early, with the little giant killer saw engines, but I ran out of steam and made a couple of mistakes letting him and Marshall by. Marshall beat dad to the line by 0.002 of second for second place. https://youtu.be/VEAi4_1iHI4

Mc49 Races:
Mc49 Race #2 from the sidelines: https://youtu.be/4vWDJ5UxutQ

[Shawn Welte]

Dual Rear Engine Races:
And then there were 4, Dual Rear Engine Race #2 from the sidelines, good race: https://youtu.be/ztVs41HKKGE
Dual Rear Race #2 on board with Steve Welte another exciting race in the Duals. https://youtu.be/4PrN-ACBglY
This time Dual Rear Race #2 from my perspective, lots of action with Pete Williams in this one: https://youtu.be/WcfOxDC013Y

Mc49 Races
Mc49 Race #1 from the Sidelines, big class: https://youtu.be/fOQJLf4bXQg
Mc49 Race#2 compilation video of two different perspectives in the race, I had it hooked up and rolling good https://youtu.be/qlyDAMRd-_E
Mc49 Race #3, I was feeling pretty good in this race and had the kart driving well: https://youtu.be/rmpvgfoGmxE

Sportsman Rear & Over 60 Races
Video from the sidelines of the Sportsman Rear & Over 60 combined classes, Race #1: https://youtu.be/rWGwOrkHHLw
Sportsman Rear and Over 60 Race #2 from the sidelines. Steve spun early, but ran a bunch of them back down. Wild race. https://youtu.be/PPG83BhsN2Y
A compilation video of Race #1, two on board cameras, looking forward and backward and sideline video:
Sportsman Rear/Over 60 Race #3 from the sidelines, good race up front between Steve and Jerry Nagel. https://youtu.be/_lR2QbxR4EQ

Sideline video of some of the mixed kart classes:
Mixed Sidewinders: https://youtu.be/_4lMvv0EuQY
Mixed Class Race #3: https://youtu.be/qwpeUexqnCo

[Shawn Welte]

Great films.  Love seeing that old stuff.

[Shawn Welte]

I do understand why kart prices are what they are.  We build our own oval chassis and if people price out the parts and then figure in the labor to bend up and weld up the frame and then powdercoat or paint it, people would understand the price that the manufacturers charge.  Its like buying fold up kart stands for $300 – 400, and I hear people complain, why is not $150.  If you built one or priced out the steel, the wheels/casters, then figured the time and the welding, the paint/powdercoat, you would know why.

I saw someone say 4 cycle bodywork is holding things back, I find that crazy, in a LO206 class on a sprint course CIK and Gold Cup bodywork differences are so small in my opinion.  They can run together and around here often do.  There are an awful lot of older Gold Cup bodied karts out there and if you want to grow the sport with an entry level LO206 class you should not limit the bodywork.  See the above conversation regarding the high cost of a new chassis!  If you did that in the Midwest you are likely cutting out 45-50% of the karts available in some of the areas.

I run about a half dozen Vintage Karting Association events a year for fun.  The VKA is experiencing in my opinion many of the similar things that modern karting is experiencing:  How to interest people, especially younger people, in this case the under 35 crowd.  And how to find people that work on their own stuff in particular the older motors, many of the chassis are simple, but take skill to build or rebuild.  I’m in my 40s and rarely are there more than a handful of people younger than me running at the events that I attend.  And I’m not so sure VKA as an organization really cares, there must be something about becoming an acronym in karting that deafens the leadership to the average karter.

 

[Shawn Welte]

the link to the above video http://youtu.be/PoEjw6GYE1Q

Added a couple of other videos from last season recently both are in single engine karts from historic Quincy or TNT Kartways as its now known as:

First is in our Dart A-Bone, not a kart I drive very often, handles different than my Bugs http://youtu.be/aknX0lcCO4U  Its a little 80cc McCulloch, but I’m running down a 100 cc McCulloch ;)

Second is in my Bug Sprint, which I drove to the class win at this past VKA race held there http://youtu.be/mwpZ7mjuG1o

 

 

[Shawn Welte]

Our track in this configuration is going on 4 years old and gets better each year as the soil consolidates, although we do have to pick up rocks in the spring.  We have a 500 gallon tote on a little trailer with a pvc header with holes in it that we pull behind a vehicle to water the track.  Depending upon the moisture content of the soil, usually takes 1000 gallons, also depends on how long you want to run.  We also have an old chisel plow, a drag, a really old small farm tractor disc that we use on the track.  A Kubota tractor with a blade. Disc not used so often.  Get everything shaped then pack it.  We’ll sometimes pack with a truck or jeep.  Most of the time just with the karts.

Yea, we run slicks.  On good packed clay that really is all we need with cheap clone, old Harbor Freight, engines.  Plus it does not chew up and rut the track.  Wheels are mostly 6-inch wheels, mostly with cheap used tires that we pick out at swap meets.  Not uncommon that our personal fleet will have Dunlop, a Bridgestone, a Maxxis, and a Burris on it.  Often pretty old tires.  Although we did recently put new Burris 22s on the left rears.  Rights are normally 8.10s or 7.10s, left front 4.5 to 6, left rear normally a 5.  Even on a fun practice oval track like this you want get your stagger right and to run the wide tires on the right side.

We do run our own oval chassis design which are mostly 0.090 to .120 wall tube, pretty heavy tube, the frames we race are normally thinner tube and chrome moly.  If you have a smooth track you should not have to worry a whole lot about breaking welds.

 

[Shawn Welte]

We have built and rebuilt lots of karts.  You can do it if you have a pipe bender and are a decent welder and it takes a bit of knowledge of karting.  Mild steel, chrome moly whatever.  If you know someone that has a decent kart ask to get a pattern.  Our jigs usually start out on a sheet a plywood, the pattern gets put down, and the pattern gets modified from there depending on what you want to do with the kart.  There are also plenty of places to source parts from and such.  If you are real good they will perform just as well as some of the stuff you can buy.  I’ve won a track championship on our 2nd generation garage made oval kart, and our rebuilt and scratch built vintage kart frames are as good as anything out there.

We now have a fleet of oval karts and other karts.  And yea we have a backyard track that we run on also for fun, in addition to actual tracks.  Clay even a silty clay makes for a decent pack whether oval or otherwise:

My rebuilt 1968 Bug Sprint, it was pretty much a wreck:

And our scratch built from a pattern 1962 Alley Kat 2 replica of kart that is virtually non-existent:  http://youtu.be/PUBoGSspkYw

[Shawn Welte]

Yep, http://youtu.be/zuHAxOc1J64

 

Youtube Channel name to search for is Racing Psychosis.  Welte Racing is our Facebook page.

[Shawn Welte]

Which Animal?  The LO206 Animal is about 10 Hp.  The ProGas Animal is a bit more. A blue printed methanol Animal around 13 Hp.  A fully modified open Animal 16+Hp, heard some will special builds will make 20 Hp.

[Shawn Welte]

We have a garage built enclosed double stack small enough to be pulled behind a mini-van, upper floor is of plywood with tie downs in the frame and floor.  Back end is like a regular enclosed trailer that you normally see.  Then we have an angular nose in the front, to help the aerodynamics and with its own hatch for hauling tool boxes and such.  Everything is lockable.  The other thing done with it is has 17-inch rims so it pulls fairly easy.

 

[Shawn Welte]

Dual Rear Engine Class Race #3 from my camera:

Mc49 Class Race #3 from my camera, started deep in the field:

Mc49 Class Race #3 from Steve’s Camera

 

[Shawn Welte]

And more:

Dual Rear Race #1:

Mc49 Race #1 from Steve Welte’s Camera:

Mc49 race #1 from the sidelines:

Mc49 Race #2 from Steve’s Cam:

Dual Race #2 from my cam:

 

[Shawn Welte]

I raced in a second class, the slowest rear engine class, the Mc49.  This a most certainly a momentum style of racing and we had a couple of other modern kart racers join in the action in Brian Jacobsen from Viking Karting and local racer Tony Neilson, along with some of the best vintage karters in the midwest.  Race one from my helmet cam, did not last long as I buried the sprocket in the pavement at the start of the famed toilet bowl.  http://youtu.be/tzIy1_v2ClM

And then I put together a compilation video of the event:

http://youtu.be/a0-6x6CRkU8

[Shawn Welte]

Compilation video of the event.

http://youtu.be/ZmJ_kfI11dk

 

On to Delmar.

[Shawn Welte]

Races #3

Yamaha (KT100) Class:  http://youtu.be/PVZkZH0Za-M

Mixed class of Sidewinders and Rears:  http://youtu.be/tHOHRIzLIBQ

Mixed class of Dual Engine Karts: http://youtu.be/yVRylw7_m4E

Mc49 Rear Engine Kart Class on board with me:  http://youtu.be/Aoh8qnF4O40

[Shawn Welte]

Some more vids:

Race #2s:

From my father’s helmet cam, chasing me. http://youtu.be/aJ3MxrBkcXE

Combined Dual engine karts, included drivers like Hal Orndorf (driving a C-Open that probably makes close to 90Hp) and Mike Birdsell: http://youtu.be/S_qTUQvWMOQ

My class from the sidelines:  http://youtu.be/akO4JkRJ9TM

[Shawn Welte]

From the outside looking in, I would like to be optimistic, but I am not so sure about the participation levels and numbers being decent in LO206 and some of the other classes.  Outside of vintage sprint track racing, I’ve not been a sprint track racer/road racer, but an oval racer with LO206 and Clones.  I’m soon going to be changing that as I bought a sprint to put a LO206 on.

This was the second year that I attended RIGP running the vintage exhibition race and spectating.  The staff run a fine program, and many tracks could learn from them on organizing things.  I know in the past some oval LTOs ran there (likely mostly for fun) and most of those karts were designed with 6-inch tires in mind.  My father and I run our own oval chassis design so 5 or 6-inch does not matter to us as we can make parts for either.  SIRA, I believe is open 5 or 6-inch tires.  Briggs stepped up and fronted some money towards entry fees for running additional classes.  How many were running multiple classes?  From the outside, did any of this make a difference in entries?  Maybe I’m off base…

Believe me, I want to see this succeed from a participant and spectator point of view.  I think its the coolest thing that I go to throughout the season.  I can only imagine how much work goes into this and leading up to it.  Roger and the crew ought to be commended for that effort.  I think some things could be tuned and hopefully increase the participation.  And for all I know it could have just been a down year.  I’ve gone to many modern and vintage events throughout the Midwest this season and most all of them have been down for whatever reason.

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