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I spent my first weekend with NASA and had the pleasure of watching Zac out on the track, its absolutely amazing to see what Karting has done for this young man. For those who aspire to go on from karting to a different form of racing, don’t forget how karting influenced you and made you a better driver. Our Comp school had two other young drivers that came out of the CJKC and it was a pleasure to see them dong so well. To show you how important karting is even for a older guy, I spent the last race with only two gears, the karting came in handy had to do some momentum driving, the old ROTAX and shifter days played off in spades.
It’s impressive to see what Colorado Karting is producing with its young drivers.
Greg, I know I would be glad to sit down and talk about what we tried at PPKRC, what worked and didn’t. I believe most of the Board would be open to a sit down with other organizations to find ways to enhance the karting experience and grow the sport. Regardless of what some think, I may not be racing but I’m staying involved to help transition and help support the new PPKRC boards efforts to move karting forward. Sometimes it helps to get new faces into the sport on a regular basis to keep the sport fresh with new ideas and direction. I applaud you and others efforts in trying to find new ways and maybe some old ones in growing the sport. Many of us grew up either karting or driving quarter midgets and have stayed with motorsports our entire lives, some like me, used karting to introduce my kids to motorsports and some have stayed, while others have moved on, all of which should be respected. What we need to do is to find either the entry level folks or the guys like me that came back to karting and provide an experience that meets their needs, regardless of location, cost, series, etc… we all need to be promoters of the sport and respect the fact that some may have more means then others and celebrate the fact that anyone who races regardless of time, money or experience is welcome. I’d suggest using other forms of racing as examples where in most cases all levels are welcome to a race. We should look to those programs successes and model ourselves after some of them. Why try reinvent when others have already gotten it right. Pull together the best practices and move forward with them. Greg it’s good to see new blood taking up the cause to make karting better, stronger and more fun all. Let me know what I or PPKRC can do to help the cause. PPKRC has new leadership that I believe will also help to move karting forward in a positive direction.
Tony as usual you seem to miss the point, you age is showing again. Cost and a generation of Kids/Young adults who haven’t grown up as gears heads like most of us are just a few examples of why karting is suffering. Lets start off with cost, as you mature and have a family you will be faced with decisions as to how one spends the family money on entertainment or sporting activities. If you have kids the cost of having them play a field sport seems to be the best route until they either excel at it or start to have major injuries. If your interested in karting the initial investment for some families seems very high, one needs to by a kart, tools, tires every race, driver safety equipment and so on ( maybe even a trailer). So the CFO of the Family (Mom) who controls the check book looks at karting verses playing soccer/baseball/volleyball, or the CFO (your wife) decides that she rather travel and vacation rather they watching you go through a mid life crises. The cost of entry for most adults wanting to get into karting really isn’t that bad for most, but for the younger generations, like yourself, ( I don’t recall you having a Kart right now, Maybe budget or cost is an issue) they find that trying be competitive with the Falcons of the world is impossible. Cost is an issue for those that we are trying to attract to the sport, PPKRC has spent the last three plus years trying to get folks into karting, having folks tell us that cost is an issue.
Now the other issue, Lack of gear heads, how many young dads today really work on their cars anymore, most don’t even change the oil anymore. When PPKRC went out and talk to folks we found that Dads were as much the issue as the cost was. They seem dumb founded as to how they could even support their kid in karting if they couldn’t even change a spark plug. PPKRC decided to create what is called the “Youth Sponsored Racing League” YSRL. This was is an attempt to help get those fathers and kids into the sport and help them understand that they can work on the kart and afford to participate in karting. The clubs need to be the starting ground for entry level karting and the SKUSA’s of the World for the next level up. But, we need to do this together, not separately. Tony, my point is simple, NASA who PPKRC worked with and used as blueprint has been attracting new folks into their sport by providing entry level to very serious drivers a one stop place to go and enjoy racing, regardless of budget. Tony I’ll excuse your rudeness and lack of respect to your youthfulness and lack of knowing the real facts. Tony, I’ve been involved in motorsports far longer then you’ve been alive my son. Karting will always be a major part of racing and its been a big part of the Miller family, we enjoyed it and have great memories. Tony be an spokesperson who represents all of karting and not just one facet of it. You can play either a positive role or a negative role by not seeing the big picture, that will come with more experience and time. Tony I wish you the best in your announcing roles, it obvious you are very talented ,and maybe someday we’ll recommend that you come announce at the SCCA and NASA races.
Guys its purely cost and bang for the buck, and a lot of other stuff.
PPKRC is doing everything you are all talking about, it takes all the other clubs and tracks to do the same thing. There’s a reason why folks get out or don’t even enter karting, Cost and Bang for the buck. NASA has gotten it right, they include everyone, they created classes for everyone, they understand that not everyone as a huge check book. They train entry level drivers, they have programs for just about every level of experience and Check book. They market their program, they have rules that make sense. The drivers respect each other and appreciate the track owners. You can run what you have to driving very high performance race cars all at the same event. The Race fees match the level of racing/driver/experience. They party/eat “together” at the end of each day of racing. The actually help each other regardless of skill level with driving tips.
Guy this has been beat to death for many years, It about providing what the drivers what and need and doing it together at the same race on the same day. Quit dividing the masses and bring them together. PPKRC had it right, follow their model and you’ll bring back the drivers and attach new ones.
There’s really no reason to have so many clubs, organizations with so few Kart Drivers, you really don’t really see this with any other motorsports.
I like others had a great time in karting but finally returned to the big stuff, and found it to be more cost effective then karting.
Roger Miller
Former President, PPKRCNow a driver with NASA and having a lot of fun at a price I can afford!
Richard its the cost!! That’s why there aren’t more drivers!!! Stan is right, this is for the very, very, very, serious drivers or the very rich. $55 dollars at IMI or $70 at SBR can’t beat it. Open tire, open Fuel, Fun and affordable for those who aren’t as serious. Scott’s right there are a lot of talkers ( Scott ), By the way, we haven’t seen Scott at any other races his year, so much for supporting all the tracks. We’ve showed up at every track the past few year’s that had a class for us to run in and welcomed everyone to run with us.
Hmmm, Talk isn’t cheap in Karting, it’s expensive. I can run a full size late model race car for a fraction of what it cost to run a karting operation, if you look and listen to what’s happen many are moving on to a more affordable form of racing, whether its Legends, or whatever, our youth aren’t staying in karting, it doesn’t pencil out anymore. Not to say all the BS that’s happened in karting and the fighting as to who thinks they have it all figured out and telling the rest they don’t have a clue and should listen to them. I will miss the actual racing with you all, but not consistent BS that I’ve experienced in this particular form of racing. Richard the masters are only the beginning of smaller numbers, wait until a few years from now when we don’t have really anyone coming up to fill our shoes, just look at the kid kart numbers or even the micro or mini max numbers. The entry point is crazy for a family to get into karting. The kids are the future of karting and the kids aren’t coming or staying in karting. Entry fees, tire fees, pit fees, etc. like you saw at the last SKUSA race speaks for itself. That’s why club racing is so important to the racing community for the entry level and older folks who are looking for affordable racing. So when someone says go support racing and they have more money then most, it doesn’t have much impact on those who don’t. If the karting community want’s numbers then the drivers with the money need to be the ones supporting all the tracks not just talking about it, while the rest of us really do support and go to other tracks and clubs and support them.Roger Miller
Former President, PPKRCJay, Tammy and Kids
It was a pleasure working with you and the family, likewise I’m hanging up the driver shoes and moving on to drive a late model. You and Tammy have endured through many years of both good and not so good stuff. Anyone who has lasted 13 years in this crazy sport of karting should get a medal. I hope that that the next venture is as rewarding as the goods times in karting that you’ve enjoyed. Keep in touch with what you and the boyz are up to. Jay and Tammy thanks for doing what you have done for the CJKC and its many families. I hope the boyz are as successful in their next driving experiences as they have been with karting.
Roger Miller
On behalf of PPKRC thanks to Brad and the CJKC for a great weekend of racing. The weekend was a great success and it shows that we can all run together and have a great time on and off the track. Rodney, and gang, way to go to get the that junior 1 and others back on the track, that’s what this is all about helping one another and making sure we can all participate.
Saturday’s night’s bench racing went well into Sunday morning (2:30am), thanks Guys for a great time. For those who still don’t get it, you are missing some of the best racing, no pressure racing and affordable entry fees ($55 entry fee). By not showing up and supporting family and club racing you become part of the problem. This recent movement is taking hold and by going to other tracks as groups of drivers, not just as separate clubs is what’s it all about. Who really care’s what club or organization you belong to, just race and have fun doing it.
Jay had it right, Brad, way to run a race facility, no B.S and no drama, just a lot of fun for everyone involved. I didn’t even finish the main race, I had great view of some of the best racing this season. Bottom line, it was the best weekend of racing for me in long time and the friendships being built are some of the best.
2014 is looking really good for club racing and moving towards bigger numbers at each race wherever they’re held. Hopefully next year we are “all” running at all the tracks regardless of club affiliation or organization. To the Track Owners who support club racing thank you for what you do for both the serious and the not so serious drivers.
Roger Miller
Driver First
PPKRC, President, SecondFolks, Mike has contacted us and we are working with Mike to resolve the issue. Mike, thanks for responding to Eddy and hope this gets worked out soon. Mike thanks for posting on the front page and we hope that the front page is use for important news not just random stuff that should be on each of our own websites or news feeds. Lets keep the Main page what it was set up to do to, make major announcements and direct drivers to our respective sites within the Colorado Karter or the Organizations Website’s. Let’s continue to support Mike and his efforts to admin the Colorado Karter and respect each others Postings and their significances to the karting community. No need to use the front page for general stuff. The Colorado “Needs to be available to everyone”, every track, every organization and every driver. We need to be respectful of the information being posted on the Front page and use it wisely. We as a karting community need to mindful of what we post at times and be a little more thoughtful before we jump in on a thread without knowing all the details of a particular issue. A private PM or a phone call to someone might be more appropriate to discuss a matter or to get more information about a issue. If you tried all these then go for it, like we did.
Mike, thanks for the work that you do and lets work together to enhance the experience of users of the Colorado Karter.
Roger Miller
President
PPKRCGuys if you want to find the rest of the shifters head to SBR and look at our class structure on the http://www.PPKC.com website. We have all the shifter classes. The post to head to IMI this weekend was interesting seeing we have classes especially set up for shifters. Our next race is July 6/7, if you want shifters to race against show up. We have a club points series, year end trophies and good facility at SBR with every week new improvements being made.
Where are all the shifters and other drivers, the numbers this year low everywhere, we need to get out and race together as much as possible.
Roger Miller
What a great weekend of racing at SBR. Thanks to everyone who participated, we ran all classes, not sure why some club members went north instead of racing PPKRC race series, Oh Well missed out on points. We have our next race July 6/7 and the Racing for Hero’s. Scott we missed you at our race this weekend, where’s the support for all tracks and club’s. Hope to see everyone next race at SBR.
Sorry we couldn’t make it, at Future daughter-in-laws graduation in Minnesota, hope to see you all from Denver at this coming weekend’s race at PPKRC last as well.
Roger Miller
Looks like the way things are going most of Southern Colorado will be sitting out the state series with the proposed class structure and ROTAX/SKUSA running it. Here we go again. Only the guys with big money will end up running this, what’s different then the way thing are right now. Good luck gents, you managed to leave out a lot of folks with the latest proposal. Why are we looking to have outside folks run a state sereis?
Roger Miller
What took everyone so long to get on board, we’ve been offering this up for almost two years, good to see this happening. The issue will be class structure that includes most everyone and doesn’t limit age, type of kart or engine package, and it’ll need some open classes here and there. Cost will be the next hurdle along with which class gets inspected and which don’t. I suggest for the first year to get this up and running that each track/club/promoter run one of the races at their home track to keep cost down, see what the numbers really are going to be for a Colorado series. Keep it simple to begin.
Give me a call so that we can help make this happen.Roger Miller
PPKRCEddy and Guys time to chime in, PPKRC is willing to host a meeting at SBR to talk about this and try one more time to see if a state series can be pulled togehter. PPKRC will announce a date for the meeting ,mostly likely some time in January, place to be determined. If you all remember PPKRC/SBR, IMI and GJMS already put together most of the structure for this to occur we just need to get THE Track more involved. A meeting with all the drivers is one way to figure out how much REAL support there is for this to happen. Lee has a good point related to how this needs to come together, the clubs, promoters and drivers need to make this happen. Tried this before the other way , even I got frustrated trying to make this happen. A first year of just getting everyone together at each track is a good start for Colorado. Bottom line guys it’s going to take everyone making the effort to go to each track as a group and racing the tracks that have a class structure for the majority of the racers out there.
This will be the last time PPKRC try’s to bring the state together, it’s far more work then anyone realizes to make this happen. Talk is cheap, actions will speak volumes as to whether the support is really there for this more forward.
Roger Miller
