The rest of the story regarding CSC

[Jim Keesling]

An open letter to all for as Paul Harvey would say…”The rest of the story…”

First off, I would like to start by saying I’m sorry to the general karting public for even having to read this. Second, I feel it is important to respond to facts, and not opinions, in writing on an open forum. I will not twist, cut and paste, or edit a story to sway it my direction. Life is too short for that.

In regards to the CSC and Schedule: Mr. Jacobellis has pointed out that I or CSC (as he wants to join us together, to a degree) have negatively impacted you all so much that it is worth posting on an open forum private letters. He makes the point that the CSC is driven without concern to the customers.
The schedule changes have come about by the customers.

1) Race in Grand Junction agreed by the Cooks without knowing that Country Jam was happening at the time. A call out by the karters to change the date, so you could even attend without paying extremely high hotel prices, if you get a room at all.
2) Not changing the date, but swapping locations causing GJ to be run the middle of the summer heat. Once again, the customers wanting to see if we could work around that. We did.
3) Temp track. We were told to try to have the CSC in the season prior to kids going back to school. I was hoping for a date in August. For those of you without TV, or news media, the DNC is happening in Denver, downtown, and every hotel in the metro area is booked solid. We are seeing every hotel full out in the Tech Center in August.
4) Phone calls to both Stacey and Brad talking about April. First date was April 20. Cooks could not make it due to big motocross race at their facility, they suggested the weekend prior. Brad didn’t have a problem with it. After looking at so many dates for a temp track, filling in with Stars and WKA races, trying to give a little time between CSC races, April 13 seemed to work. I/we didn’t even see the kid kart race schedule (our fault). Stacey was excited because his customers could come out the weekend prior and race the club race to prepare.

Track participation. You (the customer) expressed concern to not race at one of the tracks in Colorado due to its condition. Racers were tired of breaking their equipment at one track and would prefer to not race there. Since the track operator did not show at the meeting, nor call, the decision was made to run at the three we all choose.

We have not had a “temporary Finale” in over three years now. The post makes it sound like it has always been there and I changed it. Sorry, that isn’t the case.
So much for the schedule.

Part two: Mr. Jacobellis and the Kid Kart series.
Many of the karters are new in the state and don’t know the history. I will now, as forced to by Jay, tell you why I wrote a letter to him in private, not in open.

Two years ago, the CSC had so much trouble with the comer 50 dads cheating, that we needed to make a change. The overall agreement was to get the kids racing, but try to gain experience for classes as the kids grew. The overall desire to “Win” by the parents caused a Dad to try to sue the CSC. This was simply because they were caught with pure intent to cheat and win. (I’m not talking scales or over inflated tires either) The Track owners, and the CSC came up with the Honda program, and the racing was much more even. Jay did not like seeing his kids second or third or forth, so he started his campaign against the Honda program, hiding behind the “its all for the kids” curtain, and decided to go another direction. He asked for track time at our event to run “His” class and provide trophies for “His” kids concurrently. Brad and I didn’t see this as healthy to building a strong kid karts program. Brad even brought to Jay’s attention that every motor Jay used came back tampered with in the kid kart program.

Now for the straw that broke the camels back, so to speak. We have attracted many new karters to the sport, simply because of being a new facility. I had three potential kid kart buyers at The Track wanting information. It was a low key club race, which I told them to come a watch to see if they felt it was safe enough for them to get involved. All three pulled me aside and were highly concerned with regard to the “Jay” fellow, who they didn’t know, as well as “Scott” both bad mouthing the whole program and they needed to run with them, the Comer 50 engine, and get back to what is right. Needless to say they never bought karts, and never entered a great sport. Next, a new karter in the TaG Master Class was punted twice in two races by Jay himself and was trying to figure out if he needs to stay in the sport.

It was time for me to make a decision regarding the operation of the Track. Jay has many options on where to race his kids. I have wished him well. He personally needed a place to run for the Grand Nationals last August. I let him back if he played by the rules. Race 1 turn one, we all saw Jays level of racing. That is when I knew I made a mistake, and so to not prevent him from racing in the Grands, showed him the door and provided a place for him to qualify and still be able to race. (CRE had a qualifying series and Jay could still sign up and race. That phone call came from me to the national race director so all that wanted could still make it to the show. Jay could make ONE series change, and that was all).

Jay has chosen to run his Kid Kart races at other tracks. My phone didn’t ring once in regards to a Kid kart race. That is fine. You have a choice. I encourage that. I feel sorry that the Kid Karts of Colorado customer who is under the impression that I don’t want you at The Track. Jay has not been welcome at The Track. He is forcing that mistake on his series, and you his customer.

Once again, I’m sorry to the karters that have to read this. Jay and I have had issues, as well as many customers of The Track and Jay. I kept it between us.

That is the rest of the story. I have nothing to hide other than I hate the attacks on an open forum. I will always tell the story from both points of view and not just mine. I will always answer your questions with what I know and not with what “I think”, “what might happen” , “what if’, or “you’re gonna love…” that is so prevalent from one poster on the boards.

In closing, it must be an election year, because I have never seen a person self-implode over a race date before. If you read between the lines of the whole thread, all this came about a race date that was picked on April 13.. I wonder how some people are going to react when a really important decision affects them.

Regards,
Jim

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