Future of enduro karting

S

Smooth_1

Member
Just something to think about. I'm sure many of you will say "I'm full of beans", or worse. With the high cost of putting on these wonderful events, it would seem(to me) that kart clubs and associations should start working together to grow and make enduro racing stronger. I was talking to an old enduro driver just yesterday. He told me of a time when there was an enduro series called the Mid-States Series which is today's Michigan Kart Club and DART Kart Club. I guess the series was doing very well and running ALL the major road circuits in the mid-west. Unfortunately, some disagreements and in club fighting tore the the club apart. Now you hear cocern for costs from BOTH clubs.

I know in the mid-west you have, DART, Michigan, CES, River Valley, Badger, MARRS. ALL of these clubs have put on wonderful events over the years. I think it is time to have these clubs work TOGETHER in scheduling and paying for these events. I know I have heard MANY stories of how one club screwed another when working together on an event. It is time to leave the egos, bias and "what's in it for me" attitudes at the door and truly come together and grow the sport we ALL obviously love.

These are ALL good clubs with good people. I miss Road America, Road Atlanta, Putnam Park. As my good friend Dennis Smith would say......"JMO"..........Thanks for listening...........

Steve
 
Well said Steve, not sure exactly what is the core issue, less disposable income has become a factor for me.
 
Yup. I remember starting dead last on a grid of 80+ karts...... noses were un-thought of and sprint karts were chuckled at when one (maybe 2) showed up. Not to mention 4 cycles.... what 4 cycles? lol. :)
 
I remember the days with 75-80 pipe yamaha's starting at Road America and Mid-Ohio. The last time I went to Mid-Ohio a couple years ago, there were 3 yamaha's that pushed up to the grid....sad.
 
Hey guys here's the deal entries, entries, entries you cant come to one race a year and expect any series to survive. Its commitment no doubt plus as younger kids are more into videos games than this hands on stuff every type of racing is effected by cost and participation nowadays JMO! LOL
 
New Promoter?????

Steve, You keep talking like this and someones going to nominate you as Midwestern Promoter of Kart Racing! lol
 
I remember when over 1000 entries at road america one group would be 170 karts and a practice was a 12 min race of mayham lol oh and even one year we were allowed to bump draft! You guys do know bump drafting is not allowed lol
 
DF...
I agree, again, to a point...
Clubs can't survive by eliminating classes. Everyone knows where this comment comes from...
Entries bring in money..
The sport can not survive by loosing clubs...
Clubs can not survive with out members.
Is everyone reading this one club member or another????
The answer is No....
And the racers will not have these great tracks to race at if you don't get involved.
But it is easier to "just write a check" then get involved.
And, as the age old complaint that EVERY club ignores, to many classes and each club has different additional classes they label as Local Option Classes..
No one wants to be in classes that have other engines/karts than what they have.
This is the dog chasing their tail.
After all these years, you'd have thought it would have caught it by now.
Enduro racing is about driving and racing ... Grand Am racing puts Prototypes in with GT Class cars.
It is the responsibility of the approaching car to pass a slower car with respect to that car.
They are racing and that's how it goes..
Rarely do you see any problems.
It was a LOT different years ago.. We loved to drive and race...
Wish I had a "Wayback Machine" and could go back....
How things have changes....
 
Not an intent to hammer you, these are good points but I instantly had a commet that I feel needs to be thought of.

"Enduro racing is about driving and racing ... Grand Am racing puts Prototypes in with GT Class cars.
It is the responsibility of the approaching car to pass a slower car with respect to that car.
They are racing and that's how it goes.."
Yep, how do we go about enforcing that?

"Grand Am racing puts Prototypes in with GT Class cars."
And they have mirrors headlight and brake lights, I don't mind brake lights but mirrors?


So "back in the day" how many combined classes were there? I don't mean laydown with similar engine at different weights, I mean laydown sit-up, 36" and 54" wide, water pump vs weed eater all together. If memory serves there were none, but I'm open to correction.
 
Hey Dennis, You just hear it all the time....(The concern of clubs for $$$$$$$$$$)As I pointed out in my original post. MANY good clubs out there. Just imagine a joint race with DART, Michigan, CES. Look at all the markets that are covered by those 3 clubs alone. Have one of our racing attorneys draw up the contract for EQUAL involvment(risk/reward) and see what happens. It can be done. However, clubs need to open their minds to something like this. If you notice, there are NO replies from any Midwestern clubs officials.
dfsmith said:
Steve, You keep talking like this and someones going to nominate you as Midwestern Promoter of Kart Racing! lol
Click to expand...
 
B-man said:
So "back in the day" how many combined classes were there? I don't mean laydown with similar engine at different weights, I mean laydown sit-up, 36" and 54" wide, water pump vs weed eater all together. If memory serves there were none, but I'm open to correction.
Click to expand...

Largely because there were (usually) no less than 20 karts per class without a gazillion classes. AND they ran for 1 hour.

FYI: B & C-Open ran together quite often. I've seen B Limiteds combined with B Reeds on occasions. As did FKE 1, 2, & 3. Once they quit letting us run in the rain, time constraints required it happening. So yes, it DID take place "back in the day".
 
"without a gazillion classes" Makes point of Need Less Classes!

All the classes you mentioned are reasonably equally ill equipped for corner speed and all 2 cycle with no great disparity in acceleration.
 
Good point about the number of classes.
But on the local level, most clubs did combine some classes like Stock Lite/Open Lite, etc..
And I agree that there is no need for all the classes, except that it makes for more entries $$$. Supposedly...
Yamaha Medium, Yamaha Heavy, Animal what ever... Many like these could be combined..
But how many racers would scream if the clubs started combining classes that effected them???
And combining classes would have to start at the WKA level...
But how much time would it take to run an event??
That cost is a lot.. That is not unique to anyone club..
 
I recall that class combinations were permissable by WKA and IKF with the only exception being at the Nationals. Then they were to be run separately.

B-Man, "No disparity in acceleration"? Then when the Unlimited class so got it's name, it included B&C Opens, B-Ltd's, B-Stocks (foreign AND American), and add to that mix shifters which included 125cc opens, 250cc opens, 400cc stockers, singles and twin cylinders with 5 & 6 speed trannys. Sounds like quite a disparity in acceleration to me. Especially when you throw a Rotax 256 on a Gibson into the mix.
 
"At the Nationals" is where the animal class is getting the sticky end of the stick.

I stand corrected in terms of disparity - Although having the ability to "go plaid" helps to recover from bad driving and or circumstance, our converted water pump engines lack that, its more like "gym sock".
 
And of course "back then" there was only one "Nationals" annually known as a "Grand Nationals". More prestige winning that one Grand National than the ones scattered across the country as done nowadays.
 
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