I think this is a crucial thing to understand and to go deeper into.
Karters, for whatever reason, maybe it’s a pure numbers thing, don’t consume dedicated karting content. Not like they used to at least. Social media, changing demographics… many reasons
By that I mean there isn’t enough to create a self-sustaining eco system with regards to media type content. And by content I mean the rich tapestry of stuff you get in other realms. Not how-to videos (which obv do have their value, i don’t want to undermine it) and borderline advertorial content, I mean the richness you get in Motocross mags or other activity based content.
Now, channels that may only serve current karters, and thus suffer so, is a problem for the sport. For example, if I wanted to do electronic music production I go to my local shop and buy Future Music Magazine. It self-sustains because there’s a lot of people who make music, but it also functions as a promotional tool, as a route in. The self-sustaining nature is incredible important in that regard. It allows investment in content that can serve various aspects to the market.
So, when Karting1 was doing well it served both those who did karting, and those who were looking to get into karting. In fact a lot of new people to the sport came through Karting1 and then the forums, but I never made content aimed at bringing people into the sport (edit: budget kart challenge duh). It was the same with F100 back in the day. K1 was part of an ecosystem (that included the now defunct Kartng Magazine and Kartlink as well as others) that allowed people to get involved and find out more etc… the content didn’t necessarily have to be aimed at new people. You just needed to be a sphere of influence. A warm blanket of existence.
The point I am trying to make is if karting can’t create content for itself that self-sustains then investment beyond that will be very difficult. It’s neither good or bad, I am just trying to describe the situation as I see it.
Exactly! I look at Oscar of IAR and Matthew O’donnell of TrueRacer and see more than just the Karting Content. They are both trying to bring more to the table than just Karting. Maybe more Matt than Oscar. If you have followed Matt, he is into so much more. Sim, Mountain Bikes, his Wife and New Kid, meeting Jay Leno to name a few. Its a Human Story as much as it is about Karting. The guy is a welder by trade, a blue collar get your hands dirty and make it happen kind of guy. Davin is another great example. Though his passion lies in Karting, he is always venturing out into non-karting subject matter that brings a general appeal.
I wasn’t privy to Karting Magazine or Kartlink. They were not on the shelf of the local stands. I could find a lot of Auto Racing and RC Racing mags. Had I known Karting was as big and accessible as it was, I would have gone that route as a kid. You mentioned the Juniors classes in your area dominating the fields and maybe that is just a geographic thing in Britain. “America is a Big Place”, so things do not always catch on as quickly as they would in a more densely populated region of the world. I love the idea of “Sphere of Influence” you brought up. It doesn’t need to be about targeting, but rather than awareness. Look folks, you can do this and this and that and its all available to you if you so desire. It feels like, at least in my area, most people relegate karting to some obscure fringe of motor racing or are not aware it even exists outside of the pathetic novelty establishments that offer batting cages and arcades. Like its just random entertainment and not an actual Sport.
Their are some out there trying to wake the I Want To Be Entertained Masses up to the fact that the basis of their Entertainment is actually rooted in Sport. I reference a local guy, Mike Jones. Rotax World Champ, multi-time SKUSA Champ, owns and operates a Rental Kart business. For several years, he and his partner funded a professional karting team. DKC (Dallas Karting Complex) still host club races, but because it shares the facility with a rental program, he has in a way merged the two. During club races, they will run rental sessions. Its a win win. Effectively they are feeding the business with rentals and drawing interest in the actual sport. Patrons are stuck waiting for their turn to go out, yet witness to spectacle of actual competitive racing. Maybe a few of them look beyond just playing for the day and want to delve deeper into the “Ecosystem”.
I cannot tell you how many times I have gone out to practice or test at DKC and someone has come up to me asking questions. They obviously recognize the difference between the Heavy Slow 4 Stroke Rentals and a Lean 2 Stroke Beast (Proper Kart in comparison) and want to know where to start. Most are just average Joes that want some excitement in their lives. Given a little exposure to what’s out there, the ones interested will gravitate to the Warm Blanket of our Sphere of Influence. They just need to be Exposed to It to realize it.
The internet has made it so much easier to disseminate information and your contribution has bettered the world of Karting along with many others. I was born into a GearHead family, so my view is biased. How would you propose we expand our Sphere of Influence? How do we extend our world beyond those already active in motorsports?
I think that the video you did on Karting1 is pretty on the nose.
Karting rarely does any cross promotion with larger audiences or influencers where the viewership is.
Inside the sport, we don’t invest telling stories about other drivers/ adventures anymore. ( I think a part of that comes from where do you start, but also if you don’t leverage point #1, then I don’t this a new or fairweather racing fan will know or care about what you’re talking about.)
We need more ‘how to get started’ content for people, but I still think it comes to making content that’s interesting to other people and have them come kart racing, rather than content for kart racers who are already involved.
Also, I agree at an international level, the FIA have noooo strategy around promoting karting, at all.
I think it’s easy for us to criticize from the outside though. For some time WSK had a contract to promote the CIK\FIA events and that contract ended a year or two ago.
Also, it’s not the coverage we wanted… but maybe we deserve?
I’m going to repeat my unpopular stance that I’ve had for some time when I put my marketing hat on.
Lack of coverage/exposure isn’t the biggest problem. It’s an excuse and a crutch.
Truth is, sport isn’t setup to benefit from it and it largely gets squandered. The problem is that there’s no cohesive process to get people onboard when they encounter the sport.
Until that’s fixed, any benefits from coverage/exposure are severely crippled.
The “product” of Karting needs to be packaged in a ways that resonate with the avatars that exist in the marketplace.
Most places (online or IRL) are not easily organized to educate people how to get into karting, so information about the sport just bandies around as tribal knowledge.
It’s highly unlikely that you’re going to into a series that’s is going to market karting in an organized way, altruistically without a financial return. So that’s a pass.
We tried to gather up content via the Kartpulse website, when that was a thing, but we kept trying to advocate for ‘citizen karters’ to write articles and make a content hub for the sport.
However, your average racer isn’t going to do that without incentive, and it takes a certain quality bar to be useful for other. They also don’t have examples of what’s good, and it’s a huge time commitment.
What we should have done is have a few writers and content creators make some content and organize it on the Kartpulse website for people to find easily, and then keep leveraging the forums as a community space for the general karting conversation.
A core team of probably five people, who would encourage the community to do simple actionable things, while they did the heavy lifting.
Make some more “value of kart racing” videos that people can share about, interesting karting history and option (ala @Alan_Dove) and some actionable articles that people can share, and then encourage people to share live stream links and YouTube content on the forums, for the admins to highlight the good stuff on the website.
Ideally if we could get people to engage on the forums, and actually design/buy swag to promote the sport, we might get somewhere, eventually.
F1? Yes they have to some extent. The new Super License rules were created to keep drivers in the lower categories longer after Verstappen did one year in cars and jumped into F1. I don’t think the junior formula car teams liked seeing their value diminish rapidly after Verstappen proved you only need F3 for a year (yes I know some drivers need longer, max is special etc… etc…)
In no small part, money is an entry barrier. The “ball” sports don’t suffer from this because, being relatively “cheap”, about everyone can participate. I would submit that ownership ups the commitment compared to the casual rental user, & in that vein, a $5K-$10K budget (for “everything”) to participate is going to be a tall order for many.
That said, for someone with the financial resources, “why not” karting (as opposed to MX, etc)? That’s the demographic at play.
But that’s another conversation, I think. What we’re talking about (at least I think we are) is, ‘Once you have the money to go racing, how do you go karting?’ No one makes the practical ‘getting started’ information super clear, without overcomplicating it.
Talking about ‘price of karting’ vs ‘value of karting’ is a another thread for another day. I could go on for pages about that topic. We probably have a thread on this.
I don’t look at that as a barrier, rather it’s a datapoint for targeting decisions.
/edit
I did a quick dig in Facebook audience manager… According to it’s algorithmic magic, it came back with 2.3M people in the US that match the types of people that visit the KP forums.
I have to jump on board with James on this one. I have witnessed first hand, parents renting dwellings to enroll their kids into schools outside of their normal districts just to give them the opportunity to get noticed by the next level of competition. Be that college or professional. If someone is motivated enough, they will find a way.
Going back to an earlier statement, you get out of sport what you want out of sport. I will give you that in Motorsport, it helps if you want to be at the Top, you need to be willing to Spend. The reality is like most sports, there is huge fun in just participating and being competitive. I have a coworker that plays in “Beer League” Hockey just to play. He is not expecting to be the next Wayne Gretzky. He just loves the game. Karting is not that different. If you want to play, you can at a reasonable price. If you want to move on, you can do that too. If everyone that came to the table wanted to be the next F1 superstar, then Karting would have died out long ago.
The more the sport grows, the more used gear at a more affordable rate will be available. In time, that 10k all in budget could decrease to sub 5k. In the mean time, organizations could augment the transition with “arrive and drive” programs that offered affordable race karts for rent and equipment by the event. It could be its own class at bigger events. That way, people could try it before they commit a month’s or more income into launching their racing career. Is that not similar to how the Academy is for the FIA (in reference to spec grouping, not country representing).
I don’t disagree. Just the observation that lesser priced alternatives just seem to have higher participation. It’s a correlation, if not a cause.
Arrive & drive is out there. Rentals are probably the lifeblood of the track facilities. IM-USA actually offers arrive & drive 125 single & shifter karts, but for obvious reasons, it costs a fair amount more than their rentals, & the track time is short.
Be curious to know what % of renters become owner-drivers, & their avg comparative participation “lifespan” in both.
