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I didn’t make it out to the Big SKUSA race. Just looking at the results link the Angie posted ,thanks, I was surprized. It looks like there was only a total of 44 karts for the entire event. How disappointing is that for being the top of the ladder in shifter racing?
There isn’t even a single personal post about the event on here or e-karting news.I noticed the same thing Rod. I looked all weekend for something about the race. It would be interesting to see what STARS could bring to CO if they did not stack their events on top of SKUSA. Last year CRE drew more than 44 on the same weekend SKUSA was at Texas.
Until then, the folks involved with the CSC are on the right track. The pro camps have nothing on our little series.
Congrats to the local racers who found a podium this weekend. :cheers:
Pardon my ignorance but why is it we Coloradoans can assemble 130-140 karters but SKUSA or STARS can only assemble a lot less. What am I missing?
@Mike Jansen wrote:
Pardon my ignorance but why is it we Coloradoans can assemble 130-140 karters but SKUSA or STARS can only assemble a lot less. What am I missing?
I think it’s financial – what you have to shell out compared to what is gained.
Only a handful of people in COhave any designs on a regular national race schedule. Unless you commit to an entire series (like the PMT) attending one race when the costs for entry, travel, accomodations and so on are high the real benefit gained from participation must be high enough to justify participation. Some can justify this, but it appear most cannot – at least as far as the GJ PMT show was concerned.
Yet 3 times the entries showed up a week before for the CSC race. My guess is that most people could afford one race or the other, not both and the vast majority chose CSC.
Why didn’t you go, Mike? I’m really curious.
If the CO kart racing community wants to continue with events of PMT caliber, entries will have to be a lot higher. Addressing why the bulk of Colorado’s racers (arguably some of the best anywhere) didn’t make the show, might make for better events, or even save this event for next year.
Well said Chaz. For us, it was going to be a one race deal with SKUSA that would have run us around 5-7 hundred, for nothing in the big picture. The new job and existing ’04 budget made our decision not to go easy.
I am very surprised by the turnouts in GJ from one week to another. There was an article in last months SKI that talked about why big time tuners are staying home and taking care of the “local racers” who are the ones paying their rent. It is just getting toooooo expensive to go out and race the national scene anymore. With gas going up, and entries going down, I think the CSC is something all regions should look at. Perhaps we could all run an All Star race at the end of every season. The top five from every region in each class punching it out for whatever it is we race for.
Personally, we just want one of Doug’s steering wheels hanging on our wall this winter. 😆
I guess should say why I didn’t attend since I said all along that I would be attending 😳
I bent my axle on the 1st heat at the CSC and limped through the final just to collect points.
So I just said the heck with it and came home and spent 3 days tearing it all down and rebuilding it again. Will see this weekend if the vibration is gone-I sure hope so.
sorry guys. Dam what a lousy turnout anyways for SKUSA.
A few comments from a not-yet-racer who drove out to just to watch:
First of all, I heard there were 72 entries total, not 44 (right, Stacey?).
This was the first kart race I’ve seen, period (at least in the last 20 years). I was quite surprised by the contrasts. On one hand, there was great commentary, champagne awards ceremonies, trophy girls, a nice hospitality tent for sponsors, and a SOBE promotional tent handing out free drinks. On the other hand, there were only a few spectators (I’d guess maybe 20-30 that weren’t associated with one of the teams). Aren’t these events supposed to be a big show? I thought alot of us grass-roots local racer types would love to go at least go see the pro teams at work, but that wasn’t the case.
I had a great time. The racing was top quality, with some excellent battles (watching Alex Doman get the jump on the national Junior field, and Austin Farley working his novice shifter through the TaGs, for example). And Darren and Stacey are great hosts, taking time out to introduce themselves, living up to their reputation.
Seems like the PMT is a great product, but few customers.
So, on top of the discussion about why y’all didn’t race, I’d like to know: why didn’t you go watch?
Kurt,
I am glad you had the opportunity to see the SKUSA event! You are right about the Cook family and Grand Junction Motor Speedway – great facility and great people.For us it was the back to back weekends with the CSC event that really killed it for us. We really wanted to get back over there to experience a ProMoto event, but the reality of driving back over and staying overnight with the kids was not in the cards. Sounds lame, I know, but it is a long car ride with the kids – and even the little ones won’t get left behind when they know we are going to a race!! And then there is the new chassis/motor combo in a million pieces, sitting in the shop, waiting to get put together and get some track time before the next event!
I was a little disappointed at the lack of news on this event. In all of the usual places… ekartingnews and the SKUSA site. No hype, nothing. Maybe I could/should have done more coverage.
I counted 59 entries… the last ProMoto at Moran had like 53.
Kurt, I hope you can make it to the CSC race at IMI on June 13th!
Angie
Chaz, to answer your questions and to state a few obvious ones here goes:
I would have LOVED to have raced there this weekend! My challenge was that I took friday off to practice and get used to the track in Grand Junction for the CSC (only to take 6th but that’s another story) The PMT is a two day affair, I would have had to take both Thursday and Friday off. This coupled with the fact that I leave later this week to go to the Indy 500 means I am playing more than I am working. And last time I looked I am the owner of my own Mortgage Company (and not retired; trust funder or abundantly wealthy) so I needed to be working. And I hated to make that decision! It was free ink for us locals in national karting magazines and I would have loved racing with Keesling 😀
Stacey et. al. have a FANTASTIC track over there and it is run very well (computer breakdowns are no one’s fault) I look forward to the next race there. I/we had a great time and the food in town was great too. I really liked the Adam’s Mark and the job they did for us all to feel welcome (Stacy, you can tell them that I’ll be back there again)
Another challenge that I thougth would happen (but with such little turnout this wasn’t a problem) is the fact that we just have way too many classes and unless we either a) combine some of the classes b) remove some of the classes c) run the races like a dictatorship and if you can’t get your act together then too bad there goes your class without you 🙁
Do you realize we are getting done at dusk? I left out of Grand Junction from the CSC race, grabbed a burger through drive through (no tuna after my hard won 6th place :bang ) and was on the freeway at 8:30. How many went to work Monday? How many went to work feeling 100%? This to me was the main reason why I didn’ t go and to me this needs addressing the most.So there are my reasons for not making the race. It pains me to know I didn’t go to a race here in “our backyard” at a first class facility. I still want to go to the SuperNats in Vegas but the reasons for that are different since Vegas is my hometown.
Mike, You said it perfectly.
First of all, its not the number of karts that make a great race, it is a great run race that makes a great race. As I posted eariler, the whole event management made it worth every penny.
We all were impressed with AJ’s new track record during the State race, just to watch it get blown away in Fridays PMT practice. (the pro’s were knocking on the door of the 49’s) (WOW) You can’t get that feeling sitting in front of your computer.
I wish more TaGs had shown up, however, I still had the time of my life. I had so much driving time in that I decided to not race the final in the Super G on Sunday. (tired, and doing well in the TaG made the whole weekend for me).
It’s to bad the success of an event is based soley on # of entries. Just to watch the Pro teams work their magic, and watch the SKUSA ‘A’ Team run an event is awesome.
I had such a great time, we had added Oregon to the schedule.
Hopefully more people will support this type of event if we ever get one again.
I do agree that back to back weekends don’t work. It’s one expensive month. We should schedule a Pro event as a stand alone one.
Still recovering from all that kart driving,
Jim :zzz:
Angie, I’ve got the next IMI race on the calendar. Who could miss a chance to meet some of the colorful characters that post on this website! Hopefully it won’t get snowed out this time.
Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t accusing anyone for not supporting the PMT with my open question (so no excuses are necessary), but I’m looking for some feedback that can help improve the event next time around. There’s some good feedback already here. I hope that Stacey and Joe Janowski are benefitting from all these comments.
Guys, It has been a very very long Month!! First going to Moran, then holding the Supercross followed by the CSC race and Finally the Pro Moto!!! :idn: We have been overwelmed and everyone that has helped is completely exhausted so it was really disappointing when we had such a low driver and spectator turnout. Running all this in the same month was crazy, we decided on the CSC the week before because we thought it would help draw some of the National drivers to get track time. We will do something different next year, Hopefully SKUSA will survive and want to come back next year.. Our #1 goal in July is to stick to our schedule and get everyone out of their by 5:30pm We have already started working on the problems we had and making sure they don’t happen again!! We did get our PA system in and it seems to work pretty good according to Elliots and Domans :idn: (they were parked right under the speaker system and it drove them crazy) We will get it fine tuned by July and it should be great!! There was some awesome racing with many Colorado drivers tearing the national guys up, Congrats to all. Colorado has alot of young fast kids that looks to me like they could be the dominating force in the next few years. Thanks to all that have supported us and are willing to overlook our growing pains…
To all:
We know how many were at the PMT event here. How many participants are there at the Stars of Tomorrow events in the west coast? Tried to find it but couldn’t locate anything or have they had thier west coast start?
Sounds like CART vs IRL to me.
Ah, politics! Like Rodney King said many years ago, “cant we just all get along!”:bs:
Spoke too soon. 1st race in the west coast series is the weekend after memorial day in Carson City Nevada.
I counted 53 at Moran for SKUSA, here is the Stars results (150)…
http://www.ekartingnews.com/news_info.php?n=2649
and in PA for Stars eastern I counted 144.
SKUSA ProMoto East in FL had 73, I think.
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