Heya All,
Had a blast at Steamboat, really fun. Finally had a pit crew (family) compared to the rest of the season running solo. No injuries (except for a terminally bent Rotax and bruised egos). Great Wx and a great town to have a race in, since there wasn’t a Vintage Race.
+ This is a follow-on from the eKarting thread, but if I hadn’t tried a rental a few times and become fed-up with it that it ‘wasn’t enough’, I would never have even thought karting existed. (Boy, wish I knew about this when I was alot younger, but now being 36 and married with a 2-year-old isn’t a good mix for building a life around racing!)
Of the three people I personally know that share this burning desire and started looking at it at about the same time as I, all tried the renters first, saw how fast the shifters smoked us, our fangs started hanging out and the rest is history. Dennis ‘Duff’ Dyer (Rotax Masters, mainly at CRE), Dane Buckley (who won the last RMax race at CRE) and Thatch Vandenbergh (another Novice 125 outta ActionKarts).
+ Thanks for letting me run the 80cc in the 125 class until I got my sierra stacked together to put a 125 in the kart!! It was an interesting view from the back of the pack, but not a place I want to stay ;).
+ One CSC Race per month was great, it allowed me to race all season without undue tension on my wallet (except July), especially with a wife that got layed-off in May. Let’s keep it that way. If we get more tracks involved, then let’s extend the season a little to get them in, rather than cutting down ont eh number of races per track.
+ If we want to add a couple races and make the season a little longer, hopefully adding CRE and/or Meade or Second Creek into the mix. Try to keep it to one CSC race per month, though.
+ I like the Colorado Only series, due to budgeting constraints having more than one track to race at was great since I can’t afford to get serious in SKUSA.
– Why let the Non-Colorado racers in on races only because there is money involved. Haven’t the Colorado drivers worked hard enough to have a shot at some $$? Both races with a purse were won (by the same guy) by someone external to Colorado. If you want to allow them to race, then for any race with a purse, the driver must ‘qualify’ for it by having competed at, at least, ‘x’ number of CSC races previously.
– I like the Novice Class, but it needs to be a well-defined Novice Class or maybe turn it into a ‘Spec 125’ class, instead. Stock Engines and ignitions, max carb size, spec tires, weight limit, etc. need to be the rule rather than the exception and observed/enforced. Teching the top few karts randomly as a ‘spot check’ would be good. Later this season there were guys running in ‘Novice’ that had dumped enough money into their engines for them to keep up with Pros, but are they going to run with the Pros next year? I doubt it. I know that those of us in the middle-to-rear of the Novice pack are all running stock engines (maybe with the power ports plugged, but otherwise stock).
We want to race, win and have fun, but we want to shift, too. We can’t spend giga-bucks to try to ‘Keep up with the Jones” (or the Wall’s, Mc Graths or Scarberry’s). We don’t want to drive TAG’s, even if they’ve got two gears. Anyone else want to see a ‘Spec 125’ class in place of, or in-addition-to the Novice?
+ Definitely try to piggy-back CSC kart events with a Denver GP, Pike’s Peak speedway and/or the Rocky Mountain Vintage Auto races, maybe even some SCCA/Miata stuff. Because hyped fans may not know about karting as ‘cheap’ racing or disgruntled Miata drivers, tired of paying too much money, may see karting as a great alternative (Duff Dyer did and he bought two karts!!).
+ Before, after and during lunches at the races, having ‘exposure’ or spectators karts running around isn’t a bad idea, because it gets them hyped. But just like Indianapolis around race-time, average ‘Joes’ could think they’re Super-Drivers. That could be good, that could be bad. Not for me to say, but it definitely exposes people to it.
Thanks Angie for the spot to say all this!! I’ll probably think of more, but it just isn’t in the foreground right now.
-Scott (#7)