The NKA - Our vision, the demise of the Honda, and taking over the sport

Joe Janowski

New member
NOte: this appears in the general section, but I thought I'd put it here as well as it does deal with the now infamous GX200 and the clone class...

In the last few years, we’ve been very busy at the NKA. While 2013 was our 28th year in business, it was only in the last couple of years that we decided to move 100% into providing technical regulations as part of our rules package. During those 28 years, our customers were the tracks and series that many of you go to where we provided a comprehensive pit pass program along with other services for tracks.

With that in mind, it has dawned on me that I haven’t done a very good job at explaining who we are and what we’re doing to those of you that are not a track or series operator. So today, I invite you to take 3 minutes to look this over to learn, straight from us, three things that you need to know about the NKA.

1. The NKA Vision…

It is important for any company to understand what it is in business to do, and how it is going to accomplish that. I call it our ‘vision’, while other companies may call it something else. No matter what you call it, it provides a clear objective that everyone that works for or with the NKA understands and is focused on. This vision provides the roadmap for our company as we evaluate our programs and offerings in an effort to serve our customers.

The three things that provide the vision to our company;
• We believe that we should challenge how the business of karting works to find new ways to grow our sport and provide long term stability.
• We accomplish this by providing simple and easy to use resources that can be used independently by our affiliated tracks and series, or put together to form a complete facility resource designed to maximize their success.
• We pull this all together by offering our ‘Trak’ line of products, which include our pit pass program (TrakPASS), our rules (TrakBOOK), an integrated membership and licensing program (TrakCARD - which will be released soon), and media offerings (TrakMEDIA) among other services that we’re developing that will be released as time and finances align.

We want racers to choose to go to NKA affiliated tracks or series because the pit pass program is solid, the rules are good, the tech is fair, and the tracks simply put on a better show. This isn’t a quick fix, but a process that we’re working on that will take time. But…it will be awesome when we’re done.

2. The Honda GX200 will not appear in our rules…

For 2014 and beyond, we’ve chosen to not include the GX200 in TrakBOOK, even after extensive work and investment on our part. Our commitment and consistency to our original goal (provide better rules for the clone) was met and the Honda was ultimately not required to achieve that goal. We feel confident the rules we’ve developed for the clone will do a good job stabilizing the tech of the engine.

And for the record…

Our move to incorporate the Honda was not to push the Honda on the sport. Rather, it was to attempt to regulate the clone by providing some type of benchmark so that clone doesn’t continue down the road of constant changes. I’m sure many of you have had to deal with that in the last few years in some way, and that’s not a good thing. Frankly, I/we did not do a very good job of explaining that, and I own that. What ended up happening is that many of you felt we were pushing it in to hurt the clone class in some way, or that we were being paid by Honda to push the engine. Both were not the case in any way.


3. The NKA does NOT produce racing events…

It has come to our attention through some industry sources and the infamous karting grapevine that there will be a series, or group of series, that will be promoted or co-promoted by the NKA with the express purpose of taking over and implementing our evil wishes onto the sport while eliminating the local tracks. Folks, those local tracks are our customers and are the reason we exist, along with the series that use our products. So no, that is absolutely not our goal.

Our vision, as detailed above, is focused on the growth of tracks and series and the supporting industry and not ours. We grow only as a result of their success. When a sanctioning organization produces racing events it is working for its own interests, and not the interest of the tracks. We feel that for us to produce our own series is counterproductive to our vision.

Note: I’m not saying that organizations can’t put on their own races. I’m saying that we don’t do it and why we feel that way.

What this sport needs very much is successful tracks and series, and we will help any and all that have that goal by providing them any and all of our resources.

If you heard a silly rumor about the NKA you’d like me to personally address, or have questions or comments (or…complaints), please post them here, or send them to me at joejanowski@nkaonline.com, or to our tech line at tech@nkaonline.com.

Thanks for your time, and look for more from us soon!

Joe Janowski
NKA, Inc.
 
NOte: this appears in the general section, but I thought I'd put it here as well as it does deal with the now infamous GX200 and the clone class...

In the last few years, we’ve been very busy at the NKA. While 2013 was our 28th year in business, it was only in the last couple of years that we decided to move 100% into providing technical regulations as part of our rules package. During those 28 years, our customers were the tracks and series that many of you go to where we provided a comprehensive pit pass program along with other services for tracks
With that in mind, it has dawned on me that I haven’t done a very good job at explaining who we are and what we’re doing to those of you that are not a track or series operator. So today, I invite you to take 3 minutes to look this over to learn, straight from us, three things that you need to know about the NKA.

1. The NKA Vision…

It is important for any company to understand what it is in business to do, and how it is going to accomplish that. I call it our ‘vision’, while other companies may call it something else. No matter what you call it, it provides a clear objective that everyone that works for or with the NKA understands and is focused on. This vision provides the roadmap for our company as we evaluate our programs and offerings in an effort to serve our customers.

The three things that provide the vision to our company;
• We believe that we should challenge how the business of karting works to find new ways to grow our sport and provide long term stability.
• We accomplish this by providing simple and easy to use resources that can be used independently by our affiliated tracks and series, or put together to form a complete facility resource designed to maximize their success.
• We pull this all together by offering our ‘Trak’ line of products, which include our pit pass program (TrakPASS), our rules (TrakBOOK), an integrated membership and licensing program (TrakCARD - which will be released soon), and media offerings (TrakMEDIA) among other services that we’re developing that will be released as time and finances align.

We want racers to choose to go to NKA affiliated tracks or series because the pit pass program is solid, the rules are good, the tech is fair, and the tracks simply put on a better show. This isn’t a quick fix, but a process that we’re working on that will take time. But…it will be awesome when we’re done.

2. The Honda GX200 will not appear in our rules…

For 2014 and beyond, we’ve chosen to not include the GX200 in TrakBOOK, even after extensive work and investment on our part. Our commitment and consistency to our original goal (provide better rules for the clone) was met and the Honda was ultimately not required to achieve that goal. We feel confident the rules we’ve developed for the clone will do a good job stabilizing the tech of the engine.

And for the record…

Our move to incorporate the Honda was not to push the Honda on the sport. Rather, it was to attempt to regulate the clone by providing some type of benchmark so that clone doesn’t continue down the road of constant changes. I’m sure many of you have had to deal with that in the last few years in some way, and that’s not a good thing. Frankly, I/we did not do a very good job of explaining that, and I own that. What ended up happening is that many of you felt we were pushing it in to hurt the clone class in some way, or that we were being paid by Honda to push the engine. Both were not the case in any way.


3. The NKA does NOT produce racing events…

It has come to our attention through some industry sources and the infamous karting grapevine that there will be a series, or group of series, that will be promoted or co-promoted by the NKA with the express purpose of taking over and implementing our evil wishes onto the sport while eliminating the local tracks. Folks, those local tracks are our customers and are the reason we exist, along with the series that use our products. So no, that is absolutely not our goal.

Our vision, as detailed above, is focused on the growth of tracks and series and the supporting industry and not ours. We grow only as a result of their success. When a sanctioning organization produces racing events it is working for its own interests, and not the interest of the tracks. We feel that for us to produce our own series is counterproductive to our vision.

Note: I’m not saying that organizations can’t put on their own races. I’m saying that we don’t do it and why we feel that way.

What this sport needs very much is successful tracks and series, and we will help any and all that have that goal by providing them any and all of our resources.

If you heard a silly rumor about the NKA you’d like me to personally address, or have questions or comments (or…complaints), please post them here, or send them to me at joejanowski@nkaonline.com, or to our tech line at tech@nkaonline.com.

Thanks for your time, and look for more from us soon!

Joe Janowski
NKA, Inc.



well Joe....to it sucks that you want to exclude Honda. there is NO reason and it will be a mistake on your company to do this. All engines should be good in the rules.You sound like the Bubbas here in ne Texas, they are afraid of something good and inexpensive. I wish you good luck with this and would expect Karters to not race at your tracks.
I have only been into karting for 10 years but have seen this time and time again.

Fred Jones
Jonesboyz Racing.
 
Fred,

Thanks for responding. While I agree that the Honda, according to our testing, would work fine it created a level of confusion that isn't necessary at this point. The feedback that we received from our tracks and industry folks was that there wasn't very much interest in it except for a few sprint tracks. We're interested in stability and products for our tracks, and are not interested in pushing any particular product if there doesn't seem to be interest in it.

Time will tell, but thank you for your thoughts.

Joe
 
best move you have ever made there is no need for the higher cost engine with the clone being availble.

And ive been in the sport for 41 years
 
I would also agree that there is no need for the honda in kart racing, all it would do is add cost to an already expensive hobby. I cant believe people are still trying to push this engine into karting and no matter what you tell them, they will not give up. Some people just look right past the cost of that engine and dont think about the budget racers, which is the majority of people in this sport. Without them, karting takes a huge fall. The people that keep pushing for honda to be allowed are forgetting something, there is a class where it is allowed already, and its called the open/outlaw class. If you guys want to run your honda engines, run the class where it is already allowed to be ran and stop trying to get the rule makers to make it legal for stock class racing when the majority of racers cant afford it.
 
Which I don't quite understand...
Our track in S/A class we are allowed to run Honda.
Yes you can buy a $100.00 clone or a used Honda for $100.00
Each needs the same amount of work to be competitive...

To be honest, we took a used Honda, and used clone....both bone stock...
The clone actually produced a 1/2hp more than the Honda in stock form.
Then did a air filter change open element and Winnie pipe on both, and dynoed them and the clone still produced a 1/2hp more.
Took them apart the clone was .008 in the hole and the Honda .035 in the hole.
Tolerances were pretty much identical in both engines.
Ran them in our S/A class all year...end of season tore them all apart, and still almost identical measurements?

Don't understand the big deal here?
 
Most people in karting buy new engines to race with, if you were to buy a clone new and a honda new, the price is actually considerably more for the honda, you can actually buy 3 clones in some places for the price you would pay for one honda. This is the reason i believe that honda shouldnt be allowed, not just that, but we already have the clones and have been working with organizing rules for them since they came out, there really is no need to include honda's in the rules. You said yourself, the clone gave 1/2hp more than the honda, so why would anyone really want a honda anyways if they provide less power?
 
I hear there Weddle...

Just pick up a couple of Champions on sale for $99.00 each...

I wonder if they are legal in WKA Box stock class...since the rockers are different?
 
Because our track is right on the US/Canada border, we run both ASN Honda's and Clones. The Honda cases are beefier and the flywheels can be left stock and they don't blow up. By the time you buy another flywheel and prep the clone to last the price isn't that much cheaper than a Honda which has proven to be less troublesome. If anything though, you pay a little more for the added reliability of the Honda but not really any more performance.
 
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