Kathy Hartman

L

luckie13

Member
Just curious, does anyone know if Kathy Hartman (Lady Lightning) is still with us. She is probably the most well known and winningest female driver in the history of Karting. I do know that she was Kathy Michala before she married John Hartman.
 
As far as I know she still is. Last I heard she went back into the nursing field at a hospital somewhere in Ca. But that was some time ago.
 
Lets not forget Linda Emmick and all her wins . It would be neat to be able to compare wins and championships of everyone . One thought is the time period each raced in . Fay started in the early years of karting then Kathy and Linda later . All over lapped each other for a period . Fay and Linda did a lot of sprint racing . Kathy spent some time road racing . Since IKF was the main sanction body in karting im sure theres a record of wins for each .
 
Kathey ( I think that is the way she spelled he name) has way more National Titles than any other female driver. In fact she is right up near the top if not the highest total male or female.
Mark Dismore and Lynn Haddock are in the same ball park for National wins as I recall.
Remember that through most of the 70s and early 80s Hartman Eng. would field an entry for her in 5- 6 different classes each year at the enduro nationals. I would estimate that she entered close to 100 enduro National classes during her career and always with new or virtually new equipment.
She ran sprints in the late 60s and early 70s and won some titles there too but nothing like the road racing results.
If you are in the business of building and selling karts and engines and you enter a bunch of classes every year as those three drivers did you are bound to win a few each year and after 10-15 years you end up with 35-40-45 wins.
It would be interesting to see winning percentages, not just totals.
I entered 15 IKF Nationals with my own equipment and won eight times, four 2nds and three DNFS (flat tire, rain, and fuel line fitting). Two of the 2nds were the result of late race mechanical issues that cost sure wins. In another I got beat by a few feet!
I wonder if any of the big names won over 53% of the National Championship races they entered and never finished worse than 2nd???
Steve O'Hara
 
Steve you were good!! Jim Barkley and I talked about you all the time. He was motivated by your innovation, and I can assure you, that made my karts faster! :) I think Fulks just won his 50th Daytona, and that has to rank up there somewhere with the greats.
 
50! That has to be a record. Amazing longevity. Fulks was at it when I stopped racing enduros in the early 80s.... 35 years later and still racing and winning!
Unfortunately road racing just faded away out here on the west coast by the end of the 80s. When I started running enduros regularly in 1975 we used to have local club races draw 250 to 300 entries. It remained strong until the bodywork was allowed... went down hill fast as the karts became much more expensive and required much more fabrication ability to build. At the same time, the streamlining virtually eliminated the draft so the close racing disappeared and all of the fun of racing in packs, drafting strategy etc was lost.
SteveO
 
I agree!! Bodywork, ruined the close racing somewhat, and I certainly remember the club races with 25 or more in every class, the Yamaha slippy pipe days and more. Good times for sure!!
 
Oh yeah, remember when you could see a kart pass by pit road at speed and be able to identify if it was a Hartman, Hornet, Invader, Hegar, Van-K, etc? Now they just look like the same karts passing by with different color schemes.
 
Same thing happened in Eurpe. Even with bodywork in the 90s you could still identify frames and different engines. Then came the TAG nonsense, specially Rotax, which was supposed to lower costs and so on. Last thing I learnt is kids running Jr classes for FIA/CIK World Championship races were paying between 10,000 and 25,000 euros per race, and they are running ¨spec¨ engines, junk compared to the old ICA, JICA and Formula A/Super A classes.
 
I just downloaded a video of Barnesville from 1990. I think it was 100cc controlled. Will upload soon. No bodywork. Just number panels. I was the flogging the ole Mac Minerelli trying to make speed. It was tough.....
 
If I'm not mistaken, Lynn has more national championships than anyone. If he doesn't, he's probably *still* the most diverse of all the people that are in the 25+ championship club. Sprint, dirt and road-racing (we old people still like to call it enduro racing), he's done it all. Not only that, but he's been super successful in Jr. Drags (building, tuning, etc.).

When looking at the whole picture, I don't feel anyone is even close. :)

PM


(disclaimer: Lynn and I are friends) :cool:
 
I don't know about his experience with dirt track karting but if success in sprint and road racing over a number of years with a variety of equipment packages, open and stock, foreign and American made are considered then Mark Dismore belongs in the conversation.
One can only imagine what kind of numbers Mark might have piled up if he had not moved on to full size cars where he broke many records as the most successful Pro Atlantic driver ever and then after recovering from a horrific accident at Indy went on to win in the IRL and at the 24 hours of Daytona.
He's also done a pretty good job with that little kart track in Newcastle! :)
I won't try to rank them, they are both karting legends.
Steve O'Hara
 
Ask Haddock and Dismore both who is the best (especially Sprint racing) and they will say Kyle Adkins. I have never been able to beat any of the three when their engines were still running at the end of the event, so I think they are all "Legendary" :D
 
And of course, Dave Knapp had his way with Kyle and Tony when they were Juniors soooo.....
You get the idea... at any given time or place... who the hell knows? LOL
The one thing that they all have in common is they or their family were in the business of karting and they were basically racing against each other and their customers. Do you think their customers had a chance? ;-)
Here's a prediction for you... If Pete Muller had been in the business of building kart engines, chassis, clutches and pipes and ran 6 classes a year at the nationals for a couple decades he would have at least 50 Duffys too!
Pete's level of preparation was unmatched by anyone I ever saw in the sport.
Steve O'Hara
 
Went to Adkin s track port washingtom oh 80 s . Started pole all three heats won all comtrolled stock, at championship of americas race. kyle started tail with an open and couldn t catch me. THE BEST PART OF PRACTICE WAS HE HAD A YOUNG GUY TESTING A SETUP, HE WOULD KEEP GOING OUT AND KYLE WOULD CHANGE THINGS WITH THE KART,WITH WATCH ON HIM.THE KID WAS GOOD,KYLE HOPPED IN AND WAS ALMOST HALF SECOND

FASTER. PS MARK DISMORE BUILT MY ENGINES!
 
Ha ha... thanks for the compliment Steve! Bottom line though is I didn't have much money at all, so spending a huge amount of hours on prep was the "affordable advantage". :)

And for that matter, the best move I ever made in karting was to get out of the McCulloch classes so I didn't have to race against you any more! LOL!

Pete
 
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