2007 Junior 1 class

Well I’ve been reading these posts with much fascination. We recently moved here. My son ran his first CSC race at IMI last Sunday. I had such a different feeling attending this event compared to watching the CSC race at IMI last June. One of the reasons for moving to this area was the strong K80 field, close racing, bump draft qualifing, I was very impressed last summer, told my son he’s gonna have to step up his game here in CO. I now have the stock engine, Which I think it is tight and down on power, but hard for me to compare, it’s brand new. We did one race at CRE, there were 7 cadets and the racing was close. Was hoping once our engine breaks in we might get competitive there. We were the only one with a stock engine at IMI, so we had no one to race with really, only the new racers in animal, no way we could keep up with the blueprinted K80. (Note to self, should bring the blueprinted engine and race as a club racer at next IMI event.) Which we ended up on the bad end of an incident with one of them. (BIG THANKS TO BRAD FOR GETTING US BACK OUT!!) My son, after 3 years of karting, is a much better racer than what he could show at IMI. From my view point I don’t think we will be doing anymore CSC races, it’s not really worth the effort. I think racing the CRE series where there are racers and the program is established is the way for us to go. I just wish I didn’t have to drive 2 hours to get there when I have 3 tracks within a hour! I realize that this does not help CSC build the class, and I am sorry for that, but spending the time and money to do CSC events does nothing for developing my son’s karting. I would like to see close racing with the same power, where you have to learn to carry speed and scrub off as little as possible, not race with karts that can crawl thru the turns and use the horsepower on the straights to turn the same lap time. Which doesn’t push him to carry more speed. Now I’m not being critical of the new racers in the animal class, and the kids at the front could definitely drive, it’s just not the close racing he needs to help his development. Did help his passing in turns skills tho.

So what do I think CSC should do? Plan better for next year and hope for the best. I’m afaid this year is gone for K80’s, rules were just to late. If the rules had come out sooner maybe we would have 3 or 4 K80’s instead of one and it would have snowballed from there, but now you won’t have one. They should align themselves with the rules of an established system such as CRE and hope to tempt some of those racers into CSC races. If the rules could be consistant throughout Colorado where someone racing at CRE could go on a whim and race at the Track or IMI, oh what a pleasure that would be. But we would have to get all the track owners to talk to do that, Oh well we can always dream.

Would like to have gone to Greely, but what’s the point?

Wishing all the best.
David Irwin

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Nial Irwin #00
2004 Kid Kart Champ Monrovia, Md.

I will 2nd that -thanks for sharing.

I think that is what the pationate racers want: one consolidated group in Colorado as to rules, divisions, better organization which include ALL track owners. I believe you will see a push for this in 2007-hint!

I wish more rookies would share their feelings on this forum!

thanks

Well here goes. I normally sit back do some reading and see what develops. But being in this case “New People” input was suggested I think I’ll put in my two cents.

Here is the thing that mystifies me regarding Jr1.

1: Why is it that you can’t limit the Animal motor to a box stock
Configuration?

The less modifying the more reliable they will be and in the end costing less correct? We have run our stock motor for nearly 2 years now without a single hiccup in terms of stock motor performance.

2: Why can’t we limit a specific gear ratio range and tire size to use with
this class?

Again this is to even the field out so driving abilities come in to play rather than high dollar speed.

3: Why is it that all the tracks here in Colorado can’t get on the same page as far as tech inspections / rules go?

I talked to people and depending on the track location it’s anything from a casual glance over to a much more formal system. One person actually told me, “Protest if you think you were outclassed”.

We have stopped competing in formal races however she still practices at tracks other than IMI. Sorry motorcycles, scooters and race karts out on the track at the same time is just nuts IMO.

I truly believe the best way to be faster and to compete better is seat time, no doubt about it. But when it comes to race time it truly is disheartening to watch someone pull away on the straights like your driver just lost their chain. I know there are many, many factors to going fast but what’s the problem with having all the entries start from an equal platform? One stock motor, specified tire size and limited gear ratio?
Maybe I’m looking at this in an overly simplistic way but this Jr 1 issue is quite simple to solve. No I don’t care about why this is that and what came to be because in reality from what I’m reading, it’s gotten this class nowhere. It has kept me out because that gray area separating what you can do and what you can’t do is just to big.

Personally I don’t think we will ever formaly race Jr 1 until that gray area shrinks down so that this class becomes more of a spec class. If that ever happens has yet to be seen. Having my daughters lap time improve due to driving ability alone is much more worth to me than throwing money at the motor. It’s also better for the kids racing because they know winning in an even paced field was due their ability, not dad’s ability to buy a better car.

There you have it, I’ll step off my box now.