We are fortunate to have such a wise leader.
I think there is a pretty similar setup to what is being proposed here in place at Autobahn using Margay Ignite/L0206. They’ve a rental fleet of the traditional wraparounds, and then they have a big storage bay full of Ignites (and other race karts that owners store there).
Not sure if the Ignites are owner karts, owned by the track, or a mixture of both.
When a ship is scheduled to come into port, they have to unload it and thus unpredictable weekends.
He does bring up a good point that not everyone has line of sight on their weekends.
Would you consider individual race weekends ala carte with different pricing for those who can’t commit to season?
Maybe make the full season a bit of a better deal than one offs but not punitively so?
I would think “dedicated private tuner” would be a good add-on, and tipping source for your staff.
I would also think “exclusive kart reservation,” – meaning nobody else could use it for practice or whatnot within season, would also be another good fee option.
I am envisioning a privately owned fleet, rented to fly-in racers, with options for dedicated tuning / coach / data aq. / etc.
Consumables and race fees covered by racer.
That would be great in theory but they would have to charge you quite a lot more for it in order for them to not have a loss, no? Because they would need more karts to accomodate the same number of drivers.
A private tuning service would be nice but if there are a lot of people using their service, surely there will be overlap at some point between some drivers.
When I raced there in 2022, it was a standard Birel N35 rental kart. From what I can gather, the only modification to bodywork is removing the plastic that wraps around the tires.
I would kill for a Club 100 clone, stateside
“Exclusive chassis” – you need 1 per driver anyway on racedays… for practice you could rent out the karts that weren’t exclusive. Demand would dictate whether it was a losing proposition or not.
And a "private tuner’ was meant in the sense that a team tuner will help you instaed of you doing all the changes yourself. Exclusive tuner would indeed have to cost more.
I see the costs being $3500 chassis / $1000 engine, amortized over 4 year lifespan and sold cheaply after. The equates to a little over $1k / year, and charging $250 / race would recoup your costs over 2 years with a 10 race season. Racer pays for consumables, opting for new or used tires at their discretion, etc.
The only way to make money in racing is to charge addict…er…“racers”!
I think there’s a group in SoCal that does a Club100 variant. Stu Hayner is involved. I don’t recall their name, but if I run across it I’ll post back.
Ah, yes, Formula 100 Karting Series:
Not sure if they’re still active or not.
A little off topic, but you may be surprised how long 2 strokes can go. I did the karting school at Sonoma karting center and the mechanic claimed that they have not rebuilt their ROK GPs in 5 years… According to the mechanic, they run them rich and cap the horsepower at 27hp to achieve this lengthened interval. As far as what they are counting as a rebuild, I am not sure, but if you are interested in squeezing every last hour out of 2 strokes I would contact their karting center mechanic.
Yeah I think they were getting 80hrs on the kpv at Jim’s.
I like the idea. I’m not sure the numbers work. If I was investing the money I would want either a guarantee (use puts down a non-refundable deposit Until the last of the year) or a faster return on my investment.
Being newer racer and not owning the kart will mean more wear and tear on the units. And you can count on a percentage of people not showing up later in the season. And we all know that when the fields gets more the races becomes less appealing to the remains racers.
If you allow people to own their karts that also runs the risk of parity between karts growing.
Don’t get me wrong, I would like to see this work. Anything that helps introduce more people to karting is win for everyone. The challenge is to find a way to make it profitable enough while remaining in a price point that people will flock to.
My thought is I have an extra race ready kart. If i rent it out and help fund my racing and get new people involved in the sport that’s a win. Is there a market for that that’s not already covered by teams associated with the local clubs?
Our experience with KA Arrive & Drives has been OK, but not something we can do a steady diet of. The per lap cost was way more than we anticipated. I think I’d reserve it for experienced racers only or serious buyers after the last few seasons.
Will check that out for sure!
Yep - that’s definitely the structure. One-offs are available every practice and race day already. The ten race deal is a proper 20%ish discount over the one-off offerings. The $5000 package would be close to $6250 retail if booked individually versus a paid season.
I think there is always a market for that kind of program. Particularly if you are at a club/track that doesn’t have a good outreach program. Excited racers are generally great sales people and can reach friends and family better than the club often times!
I would NOT consider offering a 2-stroke arrive and drive league. EVERYTHING about 2 stroke adds cost, and will likely push the fee’s high enough to limit your participation.
Engines more expensive to buy and more expensive to maintain
Soft tires VS Hard tires
Fuel and oil more expensive
More brake pads used each season
From a fairness standpoint, it adds a reason for customers to complain. There isn’t much difference between a 10hr and 50hr 4 cycle motor. There’s a huge difference between a 10hr and 50hr 2 cycle motor. All motors would have to be an identical rebuild cycles to eliminate any complaints of engine performance.
Same thing with tires. Hard tires don’t have as noticeable a fall of as soft tires do. Similar to the engines, the tires would all need to be changed at the same intervals to maintain fairness.
My opinion is use the KISS method. If customers want to go faster, then it’s time to buy their own stuff or go travel racing with a bug team.
Ok this can be photoshopped…
Chitin Kart: Bug racing goes Big!