I think this has past the “rumour” stage so I’ll share.
Keith Raffa of FullTilt informed me that E-Town is going bye-bye, to be replaced by an Amazon facility.
Goodby you lumpy but adorable track. I will miss you.
Simultaneously, I am told that the F-Series is no longer welcome at NJMP. So goodbye to the F-Series. I enjoyed my time with the series immensely. I have no idea what Marco’s next move is but I imagine that it will involve his facility upstate NY.
It is my understanding that Keith Raffa and Alec Vidal (TKC race director) are working on a new series for us.
It is also my understanding that lo206 is going to be a part of this and that they have already had successful partnership discussion with IAME.
I guess it’s time for me to give Jerry White of Kartworkz a call and work on getting Cecilia the Compkart going asap.
Your margay is suddenly of interest. Sadly it’s in IL. @DIG78x
Although, I haven’t heard anything formal yet. I texted Jerry to see if he knows anything.
Whatever happens, you will have the coolest helmet on the grid.
If all else fails, I can race one of these (in my dreams):
So what I’m hearing is that lo206 isn’t really being considered but 4-stroke in general is and we’d be looking at more available engines should it come to pass. Like predator.
Looks like all the team owners and the folks thinking about this (what comes next, if anything) have to get together and noodle things out. We shall see.
I’d pass on the predator (Including the Ghost) unless I have reliable data on parity. For sure the stock 212’s are all over the place, as you would expect for an engine that costs $50 + shipping from China. That’s to be expected at that price point.
Tillotson seems to be the most logical choice for four stroke if it’s not going to be 206.
Briggs being a US company I’m sure is a factor. Also keep in mind that it’s more that just an engine, it’s a universal rule set and Briggs offer all kinds of different prizes. People in America like to buy American brands and in this case I think the brand does a good job of offering a karting engine.
On why not gx? Having used Gx in Europe (Twin 160’s) back in the day …. My answer is parity. The 206 is much better parity wise and therefore is a much lower TCO. Gx was the premier platform in Canada and was swamped by 206 pretty quickly.
As to why the likes of the SA are not more popular, it’s a great question. I think it comes down to a lack of a support network. There was a company in the US called racing4engines (or something like that) who imported the SA and other cool OHC four stokes but they never really took off.
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