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Rich
Back to one of my basic things about karting. Most racers have enough time and money to do 10 events in a year. If the CSC takes up 9 of those and since the CSC will be the biggest events this year, who will have the money and time to do club races?
Going to 9 races is short sighted. Look at it from another point, if a racer wanted to do RMax challenge, he/she needs 4 punchs. That means we now add 4 more races to the nine. Something has to give. There just not enough weekends to do it all. You guys were wondering where everyone was last year for club races by seasons end, you will be really wondering this coming year.
@Rich Vito wrote:
It is like coming in blind or we have our annual free-for-all. :argue
We always refered to it as the argument clinic (Monty Python fame). Too bad we are going to be in Florida. Have fun kids.
Brian
I got a call from a very good friend who is part of the group that has purchased SKUSA. From my discusions with him, the new group is working very hard to get a proposal together to present to all the regions who may be interested in joining. The hold up right now is that they do not currently own SKUSA. They have entered into an agreement, but it has not be finalized.
I think we need to wait and see what the final organization has to offer. I am encouraged by what I heard but until the deal is done, it’s just talk. If everything goes together as they hope, it could be very good.
I do get a kick out of something though. I made a proposal a month or two back that in effect was to take the money we paid to SKUSA and keep it here. With that extra money, we could develop our own rules and hire additional staff for our events. I was slapped hard on this forum by one of The Track owners for that suggestion.
As it stands right now, today, the cost of joining the CSC has doubled, from $50 last year to $100 this year and one of The Track owners is writing the rules. One class has been eliminated and two have been added for a total of 14 classes.
I have always advocated that less is more. Fewer classes, fewer races make for bigger more important events. This year will be interesting to watch.
A printed rule book is only as good as the people who read it and enforce it. It doens’t matter who writes it, its how its enforced. I too want a rule book. But more importantly, I want it enforced. I don’t care who writes it.
The temps used in powder coating are not near high enough to affect material strength. Bead blasting, maybe, but I find it very hard to believe. Most chassis are powder coated at the factory. It’s the best, cheapest process for a frame.
Kart chassis do break over time. Over the years, we’ve broken several parts. The Parolin karts always break the seat strut by the motor if you drive them hard enough. I’ve welded several of ours. I’ve also see the strut that holds the tank/steering column break, right at the bend. Drive a kart hard enough, you will break them. If you haven’t broken your kart yet, you need to go faster!!!!!! Just kidding.
Just like seats. Both boys break their seats the first time out. Jeff always breaks them right in the top center back. Greg breaks them on the side. They usually break in the first session. We get 6 months tops out of a seat.
@George Durdin wrote:
Homologation was actually instituted to save racers money.
It may have started out that way but its not the way its turned out. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The only sanctioning body that requires homologated chassis is Stars and only in their ICC, ICA and JICA classes.
Chuck D.
If you want to run a different chassis, you may want to consider something a bit more flexable than the 32. A kart with a combination of 32, 30 and 28mm tubing should give the best results, particularly a the weight Stars will be running.
Homologation is only required for Stars and only for ICC, IC and JICA classes. While the excuse is to prevent one off karts, in reality its a barrier to entry. It only raises costs for the racer. The concern about unobtainum materials is completely unfounded. To pass the rules, they still have to be made of steel and once that decison is made, there really isn’t much we can do.
Chuck D.
Stars is going to do a TaG class. At this point, the only engines for sure in the mix are the Leopard, PRD Fireball, Vortex Rok and the EasyKart. I was told that the boost port engines will not be allowed at any weight. Stars wants the Rotax for they know that that is the largest number of Tag engines out there. However, Stars is pay to play. And Rotax ain’t payin! We’ll see who blinks first.
That is why nothing offical is published, they are still hashing out the details. With Scott out of Dodge for much of the past month, the details didn’t get done. I’ve been assured they will be out around the first of the year but that too could get pushed back.
I do know for sure that homologated chassis are NOT required for Tag or cadet. Only JICA, ICC and ICA. Easykart owners will be able to dump that POS chassis and mount the engine on a kart that will handle and make all the changes necessary to get it working. I think the EasyKart will be competitive once mounted on a kart that handles.
@Jim Keesling wrote:
All official announcements regarding series, equipment for sale and events run at The Track will be sent out by me. Once again, you are misinformed.
I’m just going off what you told me a week ago in your phone call to me. Was I deliberately mis-informed? The inforamtion I got, I got from you. Are you trying to discredit me or do you talk out of both sides of your mouth?
While I’m certainly no fan of Stars, I only mention it for there are I’m sure some racers in the state who want to attend. For better than 95% of our racers, it’s “Stars who?” They could care less.
However, there are a significant number of racers, particularly in the Pro and cadet classes who will want to attend. Also, with Stars adding a Tag class this year, there maybe a few TaG racers who want test the waters. It would be nice to have them at all our races for we are talking about some of our best racers. Additionally, some of our better teams will be stressed to support both their regional and national racers. It would have been nice to be able to be more inclusive than exclusive.
As far as the Rotax GN dates, I find that one humorous. Jim has talked about possibly having a RMax challenge series at his track so that racers who want to can qualify for the Rotax Grands have a place. He also wants to be a RMax dealer. Then he schedules over top of it. Cool. Again, only 1 or 2 racers will be excluded but it would be nice to have them at our races.
I got my Shoot Out date from one of the organizers over in Salt Lake, He may have given me the wrong date or I wrote it down wrong.
Possible conflicts
Stars West at Tucson, April 23
Black Rock Summer Shoot Out, June 11
Stars West, Infineon, August 20Mike
There are really only a couple of areas of concern for a Tag. As Chuck pointed out, the carb. Just make sure you put all the jets back to stock Rotax specs. The seal is intact with a passport. If there is a fuel filter is in front of the pump, it must say Rotax. The stock radiator is in place. Thats about it.
The deal killer last year was the tires. The chassis setup is very different between the Mojos and the MGs, it wasn’t worth it to make the changes. Worse, they are extensive (mainly seat postion). The other area is front brakes, RMax allows them. But again, a Gatorz has shown, the local series doesn’t have to permit them if they don’t want to.
I see it as a win-win for both racers and track owners. We get more options, they get more money.
