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Wow, that video sure brings back memories!
Our Yamaha KT100 ran maybe 65 seconds in Super Stock Light back in the 1880s (not a typo).
Great stuff guys!
My bad, my above post was in regards to the track at Longmont.
Woody Creek Raceway is probably known and findable on Google Maps. I think they even have a website.
It was either on or very near Nelson Road, I don’t recall the cross street.
The odds are pretty high that Brad at IMI will know.
I think karts ran at Woody Creek well into the ’90s. Last time I was there was the MRA races in 1987, sponsoring a then-rising rider named Danny Walker and designing graphics for the club.
It’d be great to get karts back there, bumps and all. 🙂
Thought I’d check in to see if this Forum was still alive, and am pleased it is… but especially happy to see this thread!
First, a warm Hello to JB and Mike Edwards!
I raced in Colorado from 1981 to ’83, and once in ’86 to sell my kart, at Curly’s, Longmont, Woody Creek, and a dirt race in the Denver Coliseum — and those were great times that Brad (Linkus) and I, and fellow Back in the Dayers Rick Schmidt, Bob Lazier (Jaques raced there), David Donner, Nils Holten, Wynn Vaughan (who was disabled and used hand controls), Darryl Lawrence, and I still regularly discuss with big smiles! Not to mention my tuner-wife!
Curly was a trucker who lived onsite and was a great host. The track was wonderful, a few hills and short straights meant tall gearing had even a KT100 Yamaha feeling pretty quick. One of the Unser kids showed up but couldn’t find the speed and went home — yet my call from Roger never came. 😉
Longmont was a half-mile and much faster. In 1982 we had a big regional series — Championship of the Americas — visit there and well over 100 karts. The track was a blast, and in our top class of Super Stock Light were many tough competitors. I qualified on Pole but Nils hit me right before the Heat 1 Green and broke my pipe mount. Brad had to black flag me and was bummed as I was the newbie and had limited mechanical skills.
Woody Creek Raceway was also a blast, the only SCCA track we ran in those years and it was awesome to see what even a Yamaha could turn on the top end.
In the winter of ’82-83, the regular driver fell out with Valley Kart for a while and I was invited to fill in at the Coliseum race. It was an aged Bug kart with an Open 125cc Mac on alcohol, and geared like 14:1 with maybe 30 hp so a real handful! But that soft chassis was perfect and we had a great race in front of a fair crowd.
I have a ton of photos from Curly’s, Longmont, and Woody Creek, but unfortunately they’re all un-scanned slides and we live full-time on the road now. It’ll be years before I ever scan them.
I made a brief return to karting for three Yamaha races in 2001 at IMI and CRE for the State championships, then Brad sponsored us to introduce/try to break the Biland all through 2002, including Rock Island, Second Creek, and over 3,000 miles at IMI. That motor loved SCR, we ran 1:15 there which was like an 82 mph average. The best shifter there was in the 1:10s, the overall track record then was a F-Atlantic car which IIRC ran a 1:04.
Glad to see this Forum is still up, we attended the SuperNats this year to support Sabré and Stacey, my first attendance there since 2002 after shooting the race for RACER magazine in ’01 and getting a double-spread published of one of Colorado’s own, the epically-good Brandon Scarberry.
We need to come say Hi to you, JB, when we come through Denver this May. Hope you all are doing well.
Great thread Greg, and strong replies throughout… especially from David.
I’ll again state most of you don’t know me, but I’ve been around racing for 50 years last June. Raced karts in 1977-78 in Wisconsin, and in Colorado and beyond 1981-83, 1986, and 2001-02. I’ve also done much PR and related work in racing since 1975 so have seen the block and sprinted around it.
A couple thoughts not addressed here so far, least not in these terms (we all know that hard tires would solve a lot… why that goes on is indicative of sport-wide oversight):
1). HOOK THE NEW GUY!…
In any economy and especially now, dropping an easy $10K on a reasonable setup and assorted bits and gear is a hard sell without the driver knowing what they’re in for. Spending less typically means losing, and few want to pay big for that. Has anyone observed the connections of success vs. longevity? How can everyone band to help the slow newbies instead of only the fast?I came into karting for similar reasons as David, falling desperately in love with racing at the right time for me, so it was natural. I did well straight away so it held my interest and justified expenses. But racing is waning everywhere and especially racing that relates to karting — meaning, road racing. I know some shops are offering arrive-and-drives and that’s a good start to a fix. But does a prospective racer know that’s available? Is it offered at no profit with the idea that real money might come later?
We need young racers, and let’s face it, a late-teen to early-twenties guy faces obstacles I didn’t when starting in 11th Grade, paying my own way, in the late ’70s. Especially when in my early 20s, I had liquidity that’s tough to have now, with kids having big school debt, struggles to get paid well, high rent, and maybe most critically, not enough resources to add kart storage and specialty parts and tools and transportation to their fiscal cliff. Leading me to…
2). …THEN HELP THE NEW GUY!
Some of this goes on now of course, but maybe a group of dedicated tuners could help those who’ll otherwise never find speed. The investment would pay back in spades, IMHO. The only reason I was able to race again in 2001-02 is because Brad stored my karts and made shop resources available so I could race. It was great and got me to spend money that’d otherwise gone to other pursuits. I’d have been the Invisible Karter everyone wants at the track. My options otherwise were to buy storage, make a shop of it, buy a trailer, and add cubic dollars of other things not needed when storing at a track.I don’t know how realistic it would be for all tracks to build levels of arrive-and-drive programs that include those wanting to work on their stuff, but with personnel at hand for the education. Maybe offer the kart with storage, X number of tires and fuel, and $Y in credit towards general maintenance needs. And offer FINANCING, as I had to procure at 20 when it was easier to finance something so foreign to the banks. Without monthly financing, I couldn’t have raced some of the years I did.
Let’s face it, this is a sport appealing to the ego on some level. When that ego is deflated, people quit. It’s all about reward vs. investment in my view.
Best of Luck to All.
Craig, you are worthy of immense respect. Karting’s lucky to have you.
Best in this venture and in them all.
@Cory Ross wrote:
Anyone have a contact to get a race at the track by Aspen? No one will have an advantage there due to having hundreds of more laps then others.
Linkus and I would, but then again we don’t race. 😆 (…and Brad’s just too darned old, HA! :rotate: )
I have little doubt that some racers would only do the State series, and that most everyone in general would keep coming back year after year because they wouldn’t tire of the same track all the time. The way to be fast at circuits around the country is to learn to tune for several type of tracks to begin with! In turn Colorado karting grows and especially on a national level. Everybody wins, the shops, sponsors, karters, everyone.
Great post Cory, and everyone. Keep Going! (… and going, and going…)
