Saying buying the bigger teams take offs is funding there tire budget is partially true . It helps their budget it also cuts the small team nudget .
Buying there used chassis also cuts their budget . Engines , seats it all gets sold off and moved down the line too smaller teams .
By this line of thinking we should stop buying any used / experienced equipment .
Then the tracks would really suffer , with no racers out there on not new equipment .
The small teams sell there equipment as well . As they improve , the trickle down effect continues to the beginners.
In about 2001 i went too a ikf national at Marshalltown . They did not sell their used tires they threw them in a 4 ft by 10 ft bin . It was overflowing. No one saved anything or recouped any of the budget. It also did not save that track .
Just focusing tires one topic at a time. I will gladly discuss my opinion or thoughts with anyone in a rational manner on here.
So instead of having a set or 11s,22s,33s, and a hard tire. We have piles of junk maxxis everywhere or now the market flooded with 33s on all the classifieds as well. We had 52 on rims with a 3 kart team dad my sister and myself. Mix bag of all different compounds , but we didn't throw em away after a weekend. We washed dried and prepped got oil back in the tires and kept racing on them for years not a weekend. Why has tires in karting become a throw away sport. I feel because new is faster, so they run on 50% of the new tire budget because others are on the take offs. Again my thing is why do we FUND the bigger/money driven teams to beat us?
If we stopped buying take offs they would either go broke on new, or have to run them longer. Which would turn the table and we wouldn't be funding them to beat us.
@racepromotor I never brought prep up in my original post.
Prep isnt bad, but I do feel we over prep because people see the fast guy doing it. Shoot he can be using straight acrysol with a tinted color and now your adding bite ! Monkey see monkey do.
However we are now relying on prep not on talent or chassis. We used to chose the compound for the track at times 4 different brands at 1 time and won. Prep was a conditioner or a way to fire off the tire. Karting is a niche clicky thing and if something seems popular it goes like wild fire. Now we use 1 tire mainly especially here south east red clay land, and manipulating it for all those different tire conditions that we used to pick a compound. So are we really saving are really not buying as many tires?
Need soft med hard yet, and more or less bite. Can't predict the track so you prepare more tires than needed.
If you run multiple tracks need multiple sets, it's the same just on one brand and pouring prep in and on them.
Please instead of a defensive answer meaning reading to respond , look at it from a objective perspective and not one that has spent the years and money on maxxis and prep and being told what to pour on or in em. If I am just 100% I don't wanna be right.
More and more people are selling out and less getting into it. Every day people are selling out. Majority of people buying it is the people who flip the stuff. It's not new drivers and teams.
We have to realize that the top % of people cannot and will not carry karting. If your on the top % I applaud you. In my hay day I was too. Today we can't get enough laps because of 20+ classes in one night to get track time. Qualify race go home. No time for adjustments.
