Track Tac

Clone Racing Size and Future Growth?

If it is for just a clone I am thinking it might be a diaper of some sort that goes under it so when Ching Chings engine goes boom there is less track clean-up.
 
RadialFin said:
Other factors to consider...
Peoples time is more compressed than ever before. I see a lot of guys on here talking about how things were in the 60's and 70's, how they loved to tinker for hours. For most people ie karting's market for growth, thats not sustainable. Whether we like it or not, thats the reality. I'm a tinkerer too, but that's not the point. If karting is to grow, it needs to adapt to the current reality.

Family time is divided up much differently today, esp with regard to dual income earners. Information technology and increased higher level education participation makes available time shorter still.
Sim racing is bigger than ever (plenty of effort being put in there not sure if that excuse is quite valid).

For entry level, the experience should be somewhat close to arrive and drive, there's nothing wrong with that. it should be an incremental increase knowledge and skills required.
If we want the sport to grow that is.
Click to expand...

I think you made a great post. what is SIM racing?
 
From my earliest days in karting I have advocated some kind of, "beginners" class. If nothing else, a place where beginners could hide until they learned all the ins and outs of karting. There was a time, partially through my efforts, that IKF had a Mac 49er 30 and over class. It wasn't very long till they included 16-year-olds, and up. This pretty much killed the class.

As good as "arrive and drive" sounds, it puts a tremendous financial burden on the person, or organization, that is expected to supplying the karts and engines.

I have never had a problem with people that want a class that requires no mechanical ability, in fact I have welcomed it, but this idea that, it's good for everybody, just will not fly. You want a place to hide from the experienced competition, that's just fine, bring it on, but don't expect me to race that class. And here's another thing; do you expect that newcomer to race with an experienced racer? I can't see how that would ever work.

In Southern California they had a class for beginners racing the KT100. You could race that class forever, but if you ever won the yearly championship, you had to advance to the regular KT class. A very good place to hide will learning the sport.
 
I'm not sure about others, but when I say Arrive and Drive, I mean concession karting. Full time businesses that provide a track and equipment to the public.
 
paulkish said:
"do you expect that newcomer to race with an experienced racer?"

yes, pay yer nickel and your in
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okay, I see your point, but I thought the idea was to keep the newcomer coming back? How many drop out simply because they can't keep up? Even up the competition level and that beginner might stay longer.
 
RadialFin said:
Sim, simulation. Computer games, although you can't use that term in their community haha.
Things like iRacing, Gran Turismo, Forza. They even have real-world programs and competitions to get drivers into real-world racing.
GT have an acaedmy that takes "sim" racers into a paid-for drive: http://www.gran-turismo.com/us/academy/2014/
Click to expand...

You forgot rFactor and NR2003, the death of the Sierra server is when it went into decline, but with SMS and RaceLM going online it stabilized a little, most of us that was around sim racing when fIrst(now Iracing) tried to kill NR2003 will have nothing to do with Iracing
 
XXX#40 said:
You forgot rFactor and NR2003, the death of the Sierra server is when it went into decline, but with SMS and RaceLM going online it stabilized a little, most of us that was around sim racing when fIrst(now Iracing) tried to kill NR2003 will have nothing to do with Iracing
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Right, maybe even LFS too and the Rfactor engine spin offs. But I was talking about one's that have a path to "real" racing. Love me some NR2003, and GPL even today is an absolute blast. Thats true there is a turf war once iRacing and First made their move. So be it.
 
from my standpoint...a arrive and drive could work to an extent. but you have to have distinct class seperation. beginners or newbies will become seriously disenchanted loosing everytime they hit the track if more experienced racers treat them like i've seen some race. beating and banging off the rook is easy to gain a spot, but scares the crap out of them...so what? it's all about the win...then soon you wind up with only those few that race that way....

you have to seperate them or it will never get off the ground. give a time or race limit as a beginner and then force a move up or move out...

and don't say that such and such organization defines classes by age...get a rookie 9 year old and shove them into the nine year old class where the majority started racing at 4 or 5....and your right back to scaring the crap out of them....and they get scared and say bye to the sport...

have to think these kinds of things thru....like the LO026....can't just up and tell everyone that they have to sell all thier clone equipment becuase you will no longer race them at your track....you'll be by yourself come race night if you try and do something like that....start small and allow things to progrssively grow at a pace that is comfortable to everyone.....

just can't throw the baby out with the water.....
 
it's a remote controlled kill switch used during cautions and red flags. I know a number of times I was almost ran down trying to line the Jr. classesup.
 
Rediculous

Flying_5_Racing said:
Excellent point! But I think Honda was somewhat complicit in the cloning by selling their worn out tooling to Chinese manufacturers.
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The Chinese don't need help in making tooling, although Honda have big factories in
Chongquin, a great deal of their clone production, GX 160 and 200 is in Thailand.

Richard King
Speed Karts
 
I have no problem with the Chinese building motors. And I have no problem with a Honda GX series motor looking similar to an Animal which looks similar to a Predator which looks similar to how many other single cylinder 4 cycle motors. Same as a Ford pickup truck looks similar to a Chevy pickup truck, that's fine. But Ford truck parts do not interchange with Chevy truck parts. Each company developed their own truck with their own money. Sure they keep a close eye on the other, that's just smart business. But when you have a motor that was developed by a company and then another company comes along and builds their own version with parts that interchange, that's just stealing intellectual property that someone else owns and spent time and money developing. I'm sorry but that's just not ethical and I have a problem with that. If I'm wrong maybe someone can explain it to me. But as someone that develops IP and wants to see it protected maybe I'm a bit closer to the situation and for that I apologize.
 
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