So iirc Marco did a thing last year…
Shifter only money race with a good sized purse. It was one driver per factory, iirc. I wonder if it was successful?
Shifter only money race with a good sized purse. It was one driver per factory, iirc. I wonder if it was successful?
Did it actually happen? I remember it being talked about and sort of thought it was a silly idea. I get the concept of making it a “professional” event with “factory” teams, but just calling an event those things doesn’t mean it is. Forcing drivers to wear only “factory” gear and limiting the number of each manufacturer in the class gives it some illusion that it’s like an F1-level “pro” race, but that doesn’t mean it is.
I don’t know, actually. I believe they may have dropped the one entry per manu part.
I think prize money, for it to be a defining factor of success, needs to be something integrated into a professional long term viability based structure. For example SX has prize money distribution as well
as the manufacturers having a system for customers to gain income form their success. While not perfect it serves the purpose of creating a sustainable professional environment.
For one off kart races, while certainly a nice addition, they are decoration i.e something nice to add on top… The market doesn’t react particularly well to prize money being an main incentive because generally the market has no expectation that karting is a professional activity to pursue. It’s not in the psychology of sprint karters for whatever reason. it’s very cultural and I hope it’s changing. I think it’d be great for top karters to earn a real living racing (and by real I don’t mean a free drive while coaching too). Everything has to be right in a companionship first before you think about prize money if we’re talking one-off races.
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There hasn’t been a formal mention of it since April of last year and now it appears Rok Cup USA is going to be racing there, wouldn’t be surprised if they’ll just be absorbing that date. But the F Series still uses #ROR in their posts, so make of that what you will
I thought it was optimistic when I first heard about it, but was interested to see how it unfolded. Unfortunately, I don’t think you can announce an event like that over a year ahead of time and expect it to promote itself thereafter.
Are there enough really great shifter drivers to have a non-international event with 25 karts? Sort of an American “king of the hill” come quali and earn a chance at a big-ass purse.
Alan says that money (purses) doesn’t work in that there is no expectation that karting is a “pro” sport.
Would that change if some American kart manu put together a shifter championship with really compelling purses. Maybe like 5 big races.
If you gave them a chance at let’s say a 50k purse…
Prize money is weird. In some competition it is seen as a necessary professional component, other competitions its seen as distasteful, other people think it’s just a way for the ‘rich’ drivers to off-set their costs so it doesn’t really help anyone, and some see it as a fun addition. I can see all view points.
For a purse to work in the context you describe we might be in the realm of actual start money. i.e all drivers get some kind of remuneration for their appearance in a particular competition. Or at least have prize money that gets distributed right down the grid like in SX
but it does depend largely on a cultural shift and expectation of professional opportunity, because without that it’s very hard for the competition to even exist in the first place.
it then requires a promoter who moves from the model whereby income is generated from entry fees (and tyres and maybe engines), but generated via sponsorship and spectators.
This is an incredibly hard hurdle to get over. Karters, at least in our realm of spring karting (by and large), don’t seem particularly willing to see themselves as true professional entities, or believe they could be at some point. And then you have the general perception of karting.
purse will need to be more than 50k imo. More like $250,000+. Maybe more, because otherwise its hard to maintain a grid of drivers returning and not moving onto something else. You need narrative. You might need $500,000+ come to think of it.
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What makes motorsport so difficult to get corporate dollars for? Lack of TV opportunities? Too small a fan-base?
It seems like there are many “hobby” type sports that have pretty elaborate events with prize money.
Heck, looking at the pic Elias shared of his soapbox derby days, it looked like there was considerably more $ and coverage of that than pro karting.
There’s even spectators!
There is a ton of money in motorsports. Billions of dollars. Just not karting. And there are about a bazillion topics on here covering the issues karting has from a spectator’s perspective, a participant perspective and why it doesn’t generate the same monetary interest from companies that other motorsports do. Karting is convoluted, complicated, confusing, and strange to the general public.
Soap Box has decades of heritage; it’s a part of Americana. and it’s pretty dang simple. Make the car go down a hill fastest. Try explaining the differences between KZ, KA, KT100, Rotax, Leopard, X30, 206… yawn I’m already getting sleepy.
To Alan’s point about prize money… it’s weird. USPKS has offered big purses before. No one seems to care one way or the other if the money is up for grabs. Part of the issue with prize money distributed as has been, is that 90% of the field doesn’t give a shit about it because they know deep in their hearts, past their ego, that they won’t see a penny. The same 4-5 drivers will get the money each weekend. If everyone got some money back it might be different, but disbursing money to 40+ drivers requires a good chunk to start with. Plus, until the money you win offsets the cost of competing, it seems a bit silly. “Oh great, I won $1000, that almost covers my entry fee, which I was going to pay anyway. My hotel, travel, food, and race consumables were $4000.”
Maybe you could try this strategy on your two-year old. 
I saw a video of a dad explaining his data/IT job to his baby the other day to put the baby to sleep 
It worked!
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Perhaps Danny’s rant is working:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ceokn_WO7Is/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Hannah appears to accept the challenge and I think I saw Ryan post about testing a shifter, too.
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Ego. It seems analogous to surfing. Bear with me: technical high performance surfing on smaller waves is probably more difficult than dropping into a giant Slab wave off the coast of Hell and racing the lip to the channel.
From a casual perspective the real danger of the bigger waves and consequences seems to generally demand and get more respect than the switch 360 launch on a shoulder high competition wave.
I think it’s just human nature to value the thing that appears more consequential.
She’s been running shifter for a couple years now, I think she just feels confident enough now to go at it at the national stage. She looks good, I think she can fight for a top 5 this weekend, but I don’t know if she can bring it to Marijn, Jake, and AJ.
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I can’t stand watching any kart racing on tv because the video coverage is horrible. Just when the camera starts to follow a good battle they switch to another angle where drivers are just playing the lead follow game. Shifter is the pinnacle without doubt. To race at the top level it takes top level money and that’s just how the world works.
Karting needs.
A strong local club and a good track.
A great shop to support the club and track.
Club members to participate in whatever class their budget affords them.
Karting does not need.
A bunch of people fighting back and forth about my class is better than yours.
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KZ getting spicy.
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Karting could use a little drama 
I’d agree to a point. I think what makes Xander’s efforts so different is that he’s bringing the whole package, not just great race footage.
It’s the jibber jabber and color that’s making me feel more invested in the pro stuff.
I honestly never heard Danny before, ever. Come to think of it, I’ve never heard a peep from most of those guys. Other than Ryan who makes an effort to have a “presence”:
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Absolutely agree. Him, Greco and others are bringing something new to the table as they have parallel careers. Then you have Kremers with PSL that basically provides a benchmark with Europe. Xander is doing a phenomenal job and to top it off we have all sorts of drama. Some real, some a little forced but it’s all good, keeps the interest up. Finally everybody is on a KZ platform and if I’m not mistaken there are also a couple of very fast female drivers in the group. Exciting times!
I just wish there were few road races in calendar, to bring all of this closer to the general public
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Hope Danny gets the OTK shifter up to par for Vegas…
I just wanted to bump this thread to hear from you guys… what are your thoughts on Dannys performance for RPG… It might take some seat time to get it dialed in…
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