Jim,
Coyote will here next year. I know the gentleman that is bringing them in. He has working on this for a bit. I’m super excited and really forward to trying them out.
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I’ve heard rumors, so I’m pretty sure I know who you’re talking about.
2 of those wins were very heavy team orders, either work together and push away as a pack of 4, or sacrifice one kart to let the other get away. It’ll be interesting to see how the field reacts to that next year, it definitely set a precedent for manufacturers that if you want to win you have to support multiple drivers to get up front.
Last year was a 4 day format as well. Personally I’m used to it, but it’s not normally my favorite thing since it means leaving on Tuesday or Wednesday. I’d rather see only 3 days but with 513 entries you gotta find time somewhere. I think that time should be found by bringing out lights running later in the day Friday and Saturday. We’re already there, I’d rather do that than have a 4 day show. It doesn’t even affect me, I can get Wednesday and Thursday off no problem with my work, but I know it causes difficulties for others.
The event really didn’t feel any bigger than last year, after a certain point the pits kind of just become endless and you stop noticing if they’re further out. Not necessarily too big, SuperNats was 570 last year, but there are decisions that got made that caused problems.
You don’t even need to go to MG, just run a different Vega compound. We durometered my 4 session old race tires at the shop today, they came to a 45. The Hoosier R60A durometered at a 50. The MG Green durometers at a 46, and that’s softer than the MG Yellow (The KZ tire. You know, the engines with literally 5x the horsepower.)
Absolutely. Xander and I have talked about this on Happy Hour, 60 is way too many. Stars does 40 and even that’s pushing it. I’d be comfortable with 32-36. Combining that with no pushback bumpers is asking for disaster on the starts. At the drivers meeting they said they have less turn 1 incidents than 2-stroke racing which 1) I still doubt and 2) doesn’t consider the next 5,000 feet of lap 1. The only reason there aren’t more turn 1 wrecks is because we’re rolling in at 30 MPH with more grip than a lost 4 year old holding their teddy bear. Instead it goes to turn 2/3/4/5/wherever, or someone lifts into 1 and we see 3 karts go off from the accordion effect.
I don’t think the extra rubber changed things, but the lack of rain did. That’s where I missed the setup by a mile on Friday and the last heat on Saturday, underestimated how much grip there would be, and tried to tune the kart like a KA.
Go to their website and they’ll tell you it’s a hard tire. I don’t know who thinks they can pull one over on everyone but it’s a load of shit. Supposedly CKNA helped develop the VAH, I think they just took the softest tire Vega could make and had them add a layer onto the tread so they could last 2 racedays with no consideration for whether they should be running that soft of a tire with 8 hp. You can see the extra tread thickness if you look in the wear marker.
Malcuit was on a BirelART, then a Sodi and OTK, not sure about 4th and 5th.
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You nailed it, @Aaron_Hachmeister_13
It doesn’t have to be MGs, but that’s the norm.
Anything harder. Literally anything. The racing would be better. It would be safer. If you touch tires even the slightest on these things you get launched fast. I BARELY touched wheels with a guy in heat 2 and went up, sideways, then back down… I watched Rob Howden barely touch with a guy right in front of me in the final and get pulled up on top of him and shot down off of the guy and luckily didn’t go over.
I can bang tire to tire with reds all day and not even lose momentum.
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In the third heat I barely rubbed sidepods with a kid at the start exiting the scales corner. It pulled me to the left damn near shot me off the track. Honestly I’ve heard good things from guys at club events about MG Oranges. I ran 206 at Stars on MG Reds a couple years ago and those still felt like too much grip. I could charge into the corners way harder than I should have, and it took away like 3 braking zones compared to a KA. I could live with an MG Red or comparable tire, but an MG Orange is about perfect for 206 from what I understand, especially for club level racing.
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In junior 4th place was on a Coyote and 5th was a Birel.
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The MG oranges are awful for the first half of the club season until the track grips up and then they’re decent. April-June is a mess with colder temps and less rubber, everyone is just sliding around. I like MG Reds a lot but yeah the Vega is too grippy.
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It was also a completely fresh track at Badger this year though, once it wears in would that still be an issue? Like once there’s a thin layer of permanent rubber down
Yeah it might be but it wasn’t great at the beginning of last year either. Could just be the chilly wisconsin springs though.
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I drove Oranges a few times this year and they feel fine for 206.
That Vega VAH is so overkill for 206. Like when we were running old compound MG Yellows in Yamaha Can…
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First time attending Grands. People everywhere. Track management mentioned that more people were on property for this event than any other in history. 4 days was fun but LONG.
Did well in cadet on our GFC. Qualified 4th and set a few quick times. Landed 10th in the final after a spin. We had a strong setup for lower grip conditions and just didn’t go enough to account for what was happening. Got crushed in the SR classes as we do not have the time and experience put in on those karts. We got sort of close on the setup by Sunday, but it was way too late. Came home 29th in masters and elected not to run in SR medium as the chances were so high of tearing our stuff up having to run the LCQ. We were flipped 180 degrees from the setup we run at our local club track. Track had taken a ton of grip. Well run by CKNA as always. Way more carnage at this event than other CKNA events we’ve attended. Noticeable lack of an ambulance. Great facility. Great track. Good weather. Tons of really nice and helpful people
If you want to get better, race against people better than you. We learned a ton at this event and will try to carry that knowledge forward.
A huge thank you to Tim and Trackside Karting Service, he really went above and beyond to try and help us at this event. Really enjoyed having Tiffany and Justin Kelly at the track with us for this race. We didn’t get the results we were after but they are talented drivers who bleed this stuff and we never stopped pushing all weekend. Was great to meet Howard Stewart and see him on property, thank you for providing us with a piece capable of winning the race!
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Reggie, thanks for sharing the experience. I wanted to pipe up and say “beautiful livery/helmet” as well.
(If you want the image, lmk and I’ll do a proper cutout for you)
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Thanks man, that is awesome.
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YW. Remind me not to arm wrestle you for money. 
If you wanna put it on fridge, lmk and I’ll complete it.
Was Margay a factor at Grands? They seem to really focus on 4-cycle with their Ignite program, but I didn’t really hear much about their stuff last weekend.
Typically they aren’t if/when the grip is high.
They don’t need to do any chassis development with Ignite, since it’s all spec. Doesn’t matter how good/bad the chassis is when you only race against your own brand. Outside of Doug Cook in Legends, the Margays weren’t anywhere to be seen.
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Doug Cook was on an Eagle with RRD for grands.
Yes, Margay is a non-factor in 206 racing nowadays. They are focused on Ignite (which they should because that is their big piece of the pie right now).
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Another T-Shirt worthy quote from the folks at KP!
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Yeah the margays struggle quite a bit up against any other chassis especially with the higher grip.
Just out of curiousity, why is that do you think? I understand not needing to develope in a single make series, but Margay has been around for a minute, how’d they miss or what did they compromise on for the spec kart?