It depends on the nature of it. If you met a young driver and they said
“James, I want to be the next David Fore. I want to be the greatest of all time. I want more people to watch and follow elite karting”
You’d not be excited by that? I would. Rossi did that with MotoGP, Jett Lawrance has stated his desire to make supercross more popular. I think there is ego there, but I also think having a sport where competitors can dream to be the best is also good. Karting doesn’t have it all. We have the strangest structure whereby real success in karting is a failure.
I think that people will generally agree with that take, at least I would.
The difference I think when referencing the MX community is that in karting the ratio of “performance” guys vs recreational is almost the inverse.
For MX, the pro’s and their choices influences a much larger aftermarket. There, ‘stars’ are elites inspiring the local hero.
Contrast that with karting (set aside indoor) and you have your elites, pros, and then a majority of racers that are integrated in some sort of pursuit of those pros. Most karters are much closer in value and identity to Norberg, than Joe weekender. I think that is a pretty key difference to recognize. I wish there was a more cohesive enthusiast / hobbyist group, but I just haven’t seen it as much.
Huh? Undermining? That implies the FIA did anything in the last 10 years. They haven’t. The last time the FIA did anything, it was working with SKUSA to get the Supernats on the FIA Calendar, homologate the track, and that’s when we saw a flood of european support and eventually F1 driver participation.
To clarify, that wasn’t the FIA’s idea. It was SKUSA trying to get the factories and celebrity drivers to come over. The FIA was a means to an end.
While I’m bearish on the FIA as it applies to USA karting…I’m very curious to see what “kick American racing” in the teeth means here? It suggests something malicious and intentional in some way to me… Open to hearing what events or actions you’re referring to.
James as a larger picture the interaction between American Racing and the FIA going back in history has been painful at best in all types of racing. I think no place has this been more clear cut then in endurance racing where IMSA got the bad end of the deal time and time again. The most insane of all accumulating in the Grand-Am split and while currently things are as good as they have been between the American and European Endurance series I suspect we are a market crash away from utter chaos.
I agree with your premise Alan, however where I draw issue is that I don’t see it being sustainable in the environment we’ve created. There’s a massive differentiating factor between every motorsport we draw comparisons to karting with, whether that be Motocross/Supercross, grass roots auto racing, etc and that is the fact that all of those industries are propped up by a healthy base of recreational enthusiasts. I can only speak for the US, as the UK and Europe may be different, and my views are biased to the Western US.
However, the US 2-Stroke “industry” is a pretty bad joke when you realize that over the last 15 years or so, Kart Shops have largely disappeared, and now what were once shops, are now traveling teams that go from event to event making their living providing service to the handful of drivers who have the time and money to commit to racing.
If there isn’t even a visible/reliable path in to the sport, how can we feasibly build a base of business to support the top of the metaphorical pyramid?
We could also bring up the fact that motocross and other motorsports don’t have this fun thing where chassis and engines are two separate entities. No one runs a Yamaha engine in a Honda motorcycle, (and don’t even get me started on fucking dirt bike engines in go karts. One day I’ll build a TM KZ powered Honda dirt bike just for the sake of trolling). So for anyone used to any other motorsport, Karting is very poorly understood.
Whats more baffling, is that you would think that a country like the US that is such avid fans of motocross, would have no issue accepting the FIA model, which, much like motocross, allows modifications to homologated equipment.
Ah, see, I don’t consider the FIA and FIA Karting to be the same entity because I’m convinced the two have never actually met each other insofar as the American market is concerned.
To be frank, I’m somewhat concerned that the office at USAC where the “karting guy” is supposed to be, may just have a corpse at the desk at this point and no one has bothered checking on him because the smell is awful even from down the hall.
Not directed at anyone in particular… by all means be critical, but let’s be as constructive as possible. Yes that includes me, feel free to call me out if I fall into bad habits
