I imagine the OTK / TM news released today was one of those other rumors swirling around. I was surprised to see some of the financial figures released in the announcement.
Yes, thatâs one, but thereâs more. Thereâs a consolidation as owner driver karting weakens as a force.
Itâs conceivable that decent prize funds could change the game somewhat. I know âprofessionalâ drivers in well known series living off a basic income. So if it was realistic to earn decent money from racing karts, then you would naturally attract âstarâ power so to speak.
Thereâs a video of Valentino Rossi racing karts at San Carlo when he starting to become a star in 125s. It was a âcelebrityâ race with other bikers. Now Vale spent a ton of his time as a kid racing karts on the streets of Italy, so it wasnât unfamiliar to him as a sport. When they interviewed him, you could see he was a star, and I canât help but wonder had he just been a karter he still would have been able to draw an audience such was his charisma.
Anyway, some lunatic with a few millions in the bank could change the game, we have plenty of karters who got rich and put somehting back in (like Paul Fletcher), but whether itâll happen or not now? I doubt.
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For star power I should add that Iâm thinking more of stars that are outside of karting, taking part in karting events. Like Bercy:
Events like this promote both the stepping stone aspect as well as the fact that karting is absolutely for adults too. The star power attracts viewers of course.
Building stars IN karting, I think Kart Chaser have done a great job to raise the profile of drivers⌠but connecting the dots outside of the sport seems to be elusive.
I had a dream of holding a pro-am ice karting event with pit bike based stroke shifters with the visible gear lever. Bolted to rental kart chassis so ensure maximum mayhem.
I disagree. This is adults going back to the sport they did as kids. It doesnât promote karting in my view. It didnât raise profile of the professional karters, and if anything put them âin their placeâ. They were a sideshow at Bercy.
We all love the Bercy event, but I donât think it necessarily âhelpedâ karting. People only watched because of Senna and Prost. They didnât return to watch karting outside of that.
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People need to forget about spectators. Itâs just not a thing for 99.9% of sports and thereâs no reason to think karting should be any different. For where karting is currently at, itâs irrelevant. The focus must be on generating a healthy ecosystem within which the sport can exist; where thereâs healthy grassroots competition providing a strong base for a professional layer at the top of the pyramid.
You have to admit that karting is inherently a high barrier to entry sport. Almost all popular sports have a very low startup cost. Football, rugby, basketball, tennis, golf. They all have significantly lower startup and ongoing costs than karting. It will never be a big sport, but it should be much bigger. Start thinking about all the barriers to entry that exist now that didnât previously and work on those. Find out why enthusiasts left the sport, why theyâre not returning and whatâs stopping all those people that want to race from starting and solve those problems. There are thousands of people who want to race âbutââŚ
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Thereâs currently a Daytona 190 class / group on facebook that are making the karts you envision. A few raced at Daytona. (Daytona squared?)
I think karts CAN be a stepping stone, but should always be promoted as a âalso/andâ proposition. Theyâre so affordable and such a great training tool that even if you go full-size, you should keep the kart and still race it! And promote it as such! And in a âproâ series, the only-karters could compete with the âalso-andsâ for additional spectator dramaâŚ
Really, we need a balanced organization⌠A promotor that could talk a single company into a $250k investment could probably take over all of US karting from a club perspective. The various âseriesâ have so diluted the power of WKA that itsâ on the ropes (IMO.) The problem being the WKA is the US ACCUS CIK/FIA body, so itâs canât (shouldnât) go away without a viable replacement⌠Vision and courage are needed now more than ever⌠The vendors / suppliers make the rules and buy out the markets, and it shouldnât be that way.
Weâve run this experiment and the FIA World Championship is now an irrelevant championship for karting. The âstepping stoneâ mantra will consume and dominate. You canât co-exist for longer than a few years before the âproâ side of the sport is eviscerated.
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I think in todayâs American Market, NKA has taken that role over. Most tracks near me are running their insurance, or scoring app, or rule book, or combination of all three. That organization is in a unique spot to have a large influence. Now⌠the questions becomes what do they do to grow karting? What is the next step?
Most sports with large numbers of participants have decent spectators counts. Karting now relies primarily on F1 which has enormous spectator numbers. The downside is the demographics that come with it and inflationary pressure on costs. This is why karting as itâs âownâ thing is important. I donât expect to reverse this perception though.
This is where it gets tricky. Having frequented the historic scene for a long time now, while some of the older karts are fiddly, as an ownership experience they are leagues ahead of current karts. The peak of karting came when one man could lift a kart up and put it under his arm. These are weird intangibles that are impossible to reverse. You need so much less space. Less fannying about with plastic etcâŚ
All the top sports havenât materially changed in 50 years⌠karting has gone under the most change.
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Perhaps that is true in Europe, but from my POV, âowner driverâ karting is as strong as itâs ever been in the US. I want to say all three major US series averaged close to 250 entries at each event this year. CKNA Grand Nationals has 500+ entries next weekend, approaching 550. SuperNats had 500 entries in the first few days.
The LO206 classes appear to have 20+ entries each race at many local clubs, and KA100 classes in some regions not far behind. I know specifically in Western PA / Ohio, the Rotax class is beginning to take off as a 2-cycle alternative to LO206 at the club level due to the efforts from the local dealers and the attractive maintenance intervals.
Owner karting is alive and well over here. I think in part to a different kind of spectator, on Kart Chaser, rather than in-person spectating. But thatâs the way everything is trending nowadays. Online media consumption.
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So I was in Texas and I drove by a nice looking football stadium. I said, what pro team is that for?"
The uber driver told me it was a 40m high school stadium. After it was built, the town next door built a 50m stadium to not be outdone.
Iâm not sure what the moral of the story is but it probably has something to do with broadcasting, merchandising, and gambling rights.
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Not in terms of Americaâs peak in the early '60s. Like I said I recall seeing a figure of around 100,000 karts sold by 1960. These are big numbers. It was a genuine âfadâ and there was a ton of events that simply donât exist today. Bottomless Lakes, Sebring, Tecate (Mexico, but mainly American racers) etc⌠There are literally 100s of events and races that have simply been forgotten. Karting got a lot of mainstream press back then too even though it was largely a âwow look at this new thing taking the country by stormâ type stuff. Donât forget America sent a whole team to race at World Champs before FIA did theirs.
The British Karting Championship had something like near 500 registrations. Nearly 20% of ALL licensed karts in the UK. basically 1 in 5. Thatâs quite high. This accounts But we have also seen several major circuits now not run club meetings, at all. Consolidation of entries into national level racing isnât a sign of health. This falls largely in line with the Formula 5ing of karting - strong grids of national level championship, mainly populated by children. The demographics will skew younger and younger over time.
I am not saying itâs doom and gloom. You are the worldâs largest economy and the creators of karting as a sport. but youâre still way off where you were.
Is that the Club version without the valve?
The biggest problems I have noticed with karting is ease of getting into it and expense. Both are absolutely ridiculous.
Lets compare it to motocross dirt bikes for an example. Go to nearest big city, walk into power sports store of your preference tell the sales person âI want a bike I can race on the weekendsâ hand him $5-$6k, he might sell you some boots and a helmet for $500 extra. You load it up in your truck, drive to gmals field, put some gas in the bike and away you go.
With karting you have to find a shop that may or may not exist, drive hours to get there. Tell the sales person you want a kart you can race on the weekends. Then all of the problems start to unfold. What class are you running? We only have one new chassis and 2 used ones to pick from. New chassis is $6k and you need an engine package too thats another $1000-$4000 depending which one. Youâll also need fuel line, filter, throttle cable, chain, sprockets, etc etc, kart stand, mychron, set of tires, these special tools.. you get the point.
Then comes all the safety gear expenses. WHY on earth is a âgoodâ rib protector $500+. Itâs just a bit of foam plastic and velcro!?! Thereâs more engineering in a set of football pads.. Btw the store doesnât carry everything you need so you have to hunt it down online or go to some national race, do a secret hand shake to get into xyz team tent who sells the stuff.
Now you have get a buddy who can help you for the day and find a track, figure out when they will be open but not have some other event going on so you can actually get in some practice, you have to pay to get the license or join the club membership plus the daily practice frees, transponder rental for that day.
Most people just want to pay some money then go have fun. Not pay and pay and pay then research and travel to pay some more then eventually have a little fun.
Itâs a very frustrating and discouraging process for new people. I think thatâs why the tent programs are getting more popular. All you have to do is get over the sticker shock, show up at the track and have fun. So it basically scares most of the âbudgetâ folks away.
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I Myself 100 % Percent agree with your whole statement ( Garlan McNew ) How come all this ??? Thatâs why I like what Electric Karting and Tillotson T4s and Ignite are trying to do to keep cost down..
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I really like the idea of a club like Jim hall had. I wish we could have done that at GRX, for example. Everything under one roof. Weekly races.
I absolutely hear you and these are all problems karting has tried to eliminate over the years but doesnât always get right.
The motocross comparison is apt, but also the market for motocross if enormous compared to karting. Even today after the exposure and links to F1 or car racing, karting remains a very niche sport. Which means it can be difficult and expensive for those just getting into it. Once you DO get into it deep, you will discover the ways to make it cheaper; where you can buy used, what classes are most economical, and what you really need vs what someone is trying to sell you.
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I bought a full s/h Rotax/OTK kart for ÂŁ600 and raced it for 50 quid entry. I hate Rotax, and to be honest, the whole in experience of a modern âkartâ is a pain in the arse, but I have never been convinced these ânewâ classes every truly lower costs for newcomers.
Ignoring the other stuff like space, and intangibles, the costs of starting karting are largely dictated by the S/H market not the new latest class where the cost of a new packages is, and expectations.
Motocross also benefits from a class structure and philosophy that hasnât changed since its inception. 250F/125 & 450F/250 is what it is now, and thatâs relatively simple to understand.
Its the structure karting âusedâ to have, but we splintered off into spec stuff, and thatâs partially to blame for karting overwhelmingly complexity (which is kinda of almost paradoxical)
The other benefit, as you infer, is its popular. The âspectatorâ element to it means even noobies can enter a âshopâ with already a decent level of knowledge and understanding. Karting, you often donât get that.
You can also buy a bike and be 10 seconds off the pace, and that is perfectly in line with expectations. The risk of getting the âwrongâ bike are outweighed by just how rider dependent it is anyway. You can buy a bike straight from Jett lawrance and youâll still be a C-Level rider.
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I generally donât think tinkering with classes is the answer but⌠maybe the FIA were ârightâ with World Formula, just at the wrong time. Look at Lo206, GX-UK, T4 etc. I think a multi make ~15hp 4s formula would be great for budget/club racing.
You could then have 125cc multi make air-cooled 2s as the next. Then KZ as the top/pro class.
Weâre almost all happy with open chassis choice. I donât believe the gap between generally available engines and the top in the 100A days was any bigger than the difference between engines in Rotax or X30. We should get used to open engine choice again. It would make everything way more interesting, easy to explain, and give a strong second hand market. Make tuning open, within the ruleset, too. Again, spec classes and seals were meant to be fair and low cost but evidence says theyâre the opposite.