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Greg and I just want to thak every one who came to the session for making it such a sucess. When ever we come over to the left side of the hill, you always make us feel like a member of the family. The first CSC race of the season at GJMS is going to be fun.
Both Greg and I will be there this weekend. So that you guys have an idea of what we want to do, we will start with some basic class room type stuff. Theory on both driving and tuning in the morning.
After lunch, we will try to put it into to practice. We will start with a track walk to go over the things we look for as a tuner and a driver. Then Greg will demonstrate in both a shifter and Tag karts while we are out on the track. It will give us a chance to look at the kart to see how its handling and what we are looking for as a tuner.
At this point, if you have brought your kart, its your turn to get it out and lets have at it. Lets see if we can make it go faster. This would be a great time for those tuner/driver teams to work together. The tuner would be out on the track with us and while the driver circulates and we look for areas of improvement. At the same time, Greg would be available to help on driving technique.
We are really looking forward to working with everyone this weekend. I think it will be fun.
Greg was injured at a SKUSA event in New Mexico several years ago. He received a ride to the hospital in the amubulance, he had a broken collar bone. Because it was a SKUSA sanctioned event, 100% of ALL my expenses not covered by other insurance was covered by SKUSA’s insurance. Now maybe some of you will understand one of the reasons I’m so insistant on getting sanctioned and running the races by the book.
It’s for your own safety and well being in the event of an accident.
40 or 50, its always about size isn’t it?
Lets start just with ths axle. On size alone, the 50mm axle is stiffer in cross section and logitudanly(sp) That is why we have to go with a much thinner wall thickness to make them flexable. This limits the numbers of axles we can offer. Phyically anything thicker than 2.2 is just too stiff in a 50mm and thinner than 1.7 is too thin to produce. While some manufacturers will claim that they offer more grades, for all practicle purposes, there are really only three options in 50 mm axles.
In a 40mm axle, we can offer from about 3.3 to 2.3 and you can have about 6 different choices in that range, so as a tuner, you have more axle choices with a 40 than you do with a 50.
The real question is, do you need those choices. The answer depends on your chassis. The real question should be, was your chassis optimized for a 50mm axle. The 50mm axle gives tremendous forward grip. So much so that it can over power the front leading to an exit push. Dialing in more front grip leads to chassis bind. Not a good thing in TaG. At KGB, we found that when we went to the 50, we had to make several changes to the chassis to balance the kart. They moved the rear cross bar forward, moved the seat location, revised the bearing hangers and changed the kingpin inclination angle.
As you guys know, we are running 50mm axles in our karts and we have had good luck with them locally. But our chassis have been optimized for 50mm axles. We are thinking about changing to a newer chassis that has had further testing done to improve its handling and flexability. It is a combination of 30 and 32mm tubing(we are using a 32mm chassis now) to further reduce bind.
When looking at a new chassis, you need to look for certain things that will tell you if your new kart is a real 50mm kart or just a 40mm kart with a 50mm axle stuffed in it. The best way is to look at the bearings. If they are the small outside diameter bearings(same size as the 40), it is deffinetly a 40mm kart and I would stay away from it. Most likely it will be way too stiff in the rear and you will have to do all kinds of goofy things to make it work and it will never work as good as a kart made for a 50mm axle.
Bottom line, either one will do the job and will win in Tag if set up well and driven well. The only potential problem I see is that there are 40mm chassis out there with 50mm axles in them and they will not work as well as they would if a 40mm was in them.
I’m on the laptop at home and i hate hte key board. Will give a better response once I get back to work tomorrow.
Last year, several of the championships were already decided before Steamboat including 80jr. Several class champions did not race in Steamboat.
Craig
That can of Pledge was one of the best gifts I’ve received this holiday season. Thanks so much.
If your mount is an aluminum mount, it most likely is one of ours. We have made and sold well over 150 in the area. We have plenty of the rods in stock. We can also make one or adapt one if need be. Give us a call at the shop 303-781-7829.
Just got confirmed dates, 14 and 15 of May, 2005. It would be nice if the CSC didn’t go on top to that.
The way it works is the top 5 drivers results from our registered team in junior, international and masters and the top 3 in mini and RM1 count towards the team total. The top team takes homw the traveling trophy. So you see, the bigger the team we take, the better our chances.
So we need more than just the fastest guys. Most likely only one of my kids will be able to make the trip. I think we need to have at least a total team of 10 drivers spread out over the classes would be best if we can get that many guys and gals to do it.
The Rotax web site says May 14-16 but the 16th is a Monday so I’m trying to get a confirmation on it. We would need to get a few drivers from all the Rotax classes, from mini to Masters and the best results overall takes it. Black Rock is a great track, they have underground irrigation to keep the grass green and lush along the track! Add to that full paved pits and flush toliets, its about as good as it gets.
My wish list for races.
6 races series.
One at each of the permenant tracks.Action Karting at Bandimere
Grand Junction Motor Speedway
IMI
CRE
The Track at CentenialFinale at Steamboat Springs. No drops. Any more races and you will kill any club racing you may wish to have.
Possible expansion, an additional temp thrown in the mix.
Temps, if done correctly, can be safe and as Kyle pointed out, they can be a great test of driver and tuner. They are however, expensive to put on and require outside sources ($$) to make them work. Tie ins with other events like the Denver GP or the Bike Week in the Springs make sense.
From a racers point of view, a series such as above would be one of the very best in the country, it would be affordable and it would leave racers open to do a club series if they wanted.
