Why aren't Champ Karts more popular?

Average cost runs about $500+/- more than a flat kart. Then you have your regular kart maintenance plus new belts every so many years, etc. That stuff is all part of the game we choose to play!

When it comes to safety I don’t think one is necessary different than the other.
 
95 shaw said:
I giggle when I hear the arm restraint usage.
Not good enough protection for late model and modified racing because the window opening is larger than the tires we race. So a window net is required.
A whole kart will nearly fit through a cage kart window opening.

Just saying.
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Had one poke it's nose through my opening one night.... not far enough to hit me but I know what you are saying.
 
I know some that have run both flat and champ to get more seat time. At least kids....then maybe it the extra weight, time getting strapped in, and just hard to dial in some times steers them away. Even some kids get too tall or big and cant get percentages they want in a champ. But....if you promote them, they will come. Then not going to clone as soon didn't help them in the eyes of a track promoter or flag man having to wait or run with a starter. Wish there was more.
 
I don't understand the need for a champ kart, when you have sprint cars.
Sprint cars, as in 1/4 midget, 1/2 midget, and full size. Makes about as much sense as those mini wedges. I don't understand how they built a few of those, saw how terrible the racing was, and decided to mass produce them. 0 sense to me.

A family where we race, just put up a 100 to win for champs, no minimum kart, and they are not even a regular class. (Kriders Stateline Edon, OH) if anyone is interested
 
Prorookie34, I suggest you do a closer look at the $$$ for running small sprint cars - I can't speak for 1/4 midgets, though from what I've seen, I expect the price is pretty reasonable, maybe about the same as a champ or a bit more, but having owned and crew chiefed on flat and champ carts before moving on to ownership of a 600 micro, I can tell you that the "small sprints" can get pretty expensive. And, if you want a real eye opener, price the engines used in the 250 - 270 micro sprint classes - you can buy a brand new champ kart and 2 good engines and have a fair amount of money left over.

You don't even want to know what it costs to run a full size sprint - even the 305 sprint class, which has restrictive engine rules that help really limit cost, our budget class for the full sized sprints, swallows enough money to finance a small fleet of champ karts, even if you start with well used roller. A number of years ago I crewed on a 358 sprint here in PA; the driver, who had just graduated from my 600 micro, was given a mother's price on a very competitive 358 engine because, as a senior in high school, he also worked part time for the engine builder, and it was still $18,000. And that was more than a decade ago. Lucky he had good sponsorship.
 
It isn't easy to compare racing a champ kart to any of the bigger car classes. Karts are unsprung. Sprint cars, as mentioned earlier, along with mini sprints, micros, quarter midgets etc are sprung and use shocks. Completely different racing and most of those teams have more money tied up in shocks than your cage kart cost.
 
My dad had a 98 Twister champ, liked the racing but always said it was the engine that limited the class. It was always slower. Many have said it here, that is still the case now. They're just too slow.
 
Plenty popular in the North East.

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I always enjoyed racing a Champ back when I was still racing. We had some nice turnouts as far as numbers for the class. Everyone was pretty much running the same equipment so it made for some good competitive racing. And isn't that what you look for in a class.
 
mike97760 said:
I had forgotten this. A few years ago we went to HBR Raceway in southern Illinois and they had some champs there running some pretty pumped up engines, looked like a lot of fun. Maybe Old Loco can tell us the class details?
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mike97760 said:
I had forgotten this. A few years ago we went to HBR Raceway in southern Illinois and they had some champs there running some pretty pumped up engines, looked like a lot of fun. Maybe Old Loco can tell us the class details?
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hbr has been closed for about 7 years now. they had champ karts with modified 342s running there. thats was about all h.p you could handle on them. they had a open class for them that a bunch of guys were suppose to build some karts with the spring loaded cage on them but it never got off the ground.
 
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