Great thread Greg, and strong replies throughout… especially from David.
I’ll again state most of you don’t know me, but I’ve been around racing for 50 years last June. Raced karts in 1977-78 in Wisconsin, and in Colorado and beyond 1981-83, 1986, and 2001-02. I’ve also done much PR and related work in racing since 1975 so have seen the block and sprinted around it.
A couple thoughts not addressed here so far, least not in these terms (we all know that hard tires would solve a lot… why that goes on is indicative of sport-wide oversight):
1). HOOK THE NEW GUY!…
In any economy and especially now, dropping an easy $10K on a reasonable setup and assorted bits and gear is a hard sell without the driver knowing what they’re in for. Spending less typically means losing, and few want to pay big for that. Has anyone observed the connections of success vs. longevity? How can everyone band to help the slow newbies instead of only the fast?
I came into karting for similar reasons as David, falling desperately in love with racing at the right time for me, so it was natural. I did well straight away so it held my interest and justified expenses. But racing is waning everywhere and especially racing that relates to karting — meaning, road racing. I know some shops are offering arrive-and-drives and that’s a good start to a fix. But does a prospective racer know that’s available? Is it offered at no profit with the idea that real money might come later?
We need young racers, and let’s face it, a late-teen to early-twenties guy faces obstacles I didn’t when starting in 11th Grade, paying my own way, in the late ’70s. Especially when in my early 20s, I had liquidity that’s tough to have now, with kids having big school debt, struggles to get paid well, high rent, and maybe most critically, not enough resources to add kart storage and specialty parts and tools and transportation to their fiscal cliff. Leading me to…
2). …THEN HELP THE NEW GUY!
Some of this goes on now of course, but maybe a group of dedicated tuners could help those who’ll otherwise never find speed. The investment would pay back in spades, IMHO. The only reason I was able to race again in 2001-02 is because Brad stored my karts and made shop resources available so I could race. It was great and got me to spend money that’d otherwise gone to other pursuits. I’d have been the Invisible Karter everyone wants at the track. My options otherwise were to buy storage, make a shop of it, buy a trailer, and add cubic dollars of other things not needed when storing at a track.
I don’t know how realistic it would be for all tracks to build levels of arrive-and-drive programs that include those wanting to work on their stuff, but with personnel at hand for the education. Maybe offer the kart with storage, X number of tires and fuel, and $Y in credit towards general maintenance needs. And offer FINANCING, as I had to procure at 20 when it was easier to finance something so foreign to the banks. Without monthly financing, I couldn’t have raced some of the years I did.
Let’s face it, this is a sport appealing to the ego on some level. When that ego is deflated, people quit. It’s all about reward vs. investment in my view.
Best of Luck to All.