Bad news, followed by good news from NCMP’s facebook page…
Bad news
Robopong News - NCMP has decided after much debate to cancel the 2017 Robopong 200. This year was most likely the last chance for this event to happen and we hoped with some changes it might still be a viable event but the changing landscape in karting, primarily the decline in TaG racing, has made it almost impossible to find enough teams to enter the event. We had discussions on switching to LO206 but the Robopong 200 was founded as a TaG event and we felt it needed to stay a TaG event or not happen at all.
It feels like a passing of an era, the Robopong 200 featured some amazing races, giant field sizes and some of the best race car drivers on the planet racing wheel to wheel with club racers, national racers and future Indycar stars. We are sad to see such a fun and unique event fade from the sport but we hope that conditions in karting will change and allow a successor to the Robopong 200 to eventually take it’s place.
Thank you to all who competed in this event in the past and to those who entered this year.
Good News
NCMP is happy to announce details on the NCMP 125 Briggs LO206 Endurance Race scheduled for October 28th and 29th. The NCMP 125 is a 125 lap endurance race for LO206 CIK karts around the famed New Castle Motorsports Park! This race also features pit stops and optional driver changes.
NCMP 125 Race Details -
Qualifying and racing will be run on a single set of 450/710 Bridgestone YLC’s included with race entry
We will follow KRA LO206 CIK rules including seat, bodywork, wheel widths
All competitors must run track fuel
Minimum of 1, maximum of 2 drivers per team
All team drivers must make weight after the race with no fuel added to the tank
All karts will grid up for the race with empty fuel tanks and NCMP will supply the first 2 liters of fuel. This will ensure all karts will have at least one pit stop without enforcing a tank size limit.
Race length should be around 2.5 to 3 hours on a dry track, track configuration
Payback will be based on number of entries
The highest finishing Masters team (all drivers on team must be over 40) will receive a bonus, if a masters team wins the race they will receive a bigger bonus
What irritates me most about this ruleset is then literally hosted the biggest LO206 racing series last weekend and failed to learn from what was right in front of them.
It seems the NCMP has the 206 cup add a special CIK class as well.
Yeah, I saw that in the entry list and was thinking to myself that I never knew 206 Cup ran a CIK class. I’m not sure why NCMP is so adamant for that. I think their big thing is the fairings. The bullet nose is worth 4 tenths on some tracks from what I’ve heard, but that could just be solved by scoring the two classes separately in the same race
I think that’s it really. CIK only is to null the controversy and complaining of CIK vs US bodywork and dimensions, esp somewhere like NCMP with it’s long straights.
Gold Cup nose was about .2 average faster in qualifying. I don’t like to to look at race times because its all over with the draft. Though I did notice that the CIK seemed to make a bigger hole in the air and let those behind pull up and draft past more than the GC nose. Not a engineer but I am thinking that is due to the driver more upright and dirtier air flowing over kart.
This can be moved and a convo/argument properly commenced
I’d guess it’s more the nose, and the only reason I say that is one of our tricks to help free up a kart is to roll the seat back. We have never noticed a top speed change when doing that, only handling making a kart more free out of the turn, but we never specifically looked at top speed either
That is exactly correct. The lower CG keeps the kart free on exit. It’s the same as lowering the weight on the seat or raising the axle relative to the chassis. It’s really effective for taller/bigger drivers
I know a kid that tried running CIK bodywork in 206 Cup and was always off by a couple tenths until he put the bullet nose on and immediately found the pace. There is something to the bodywork being more aerodynamic
Careful, there’s a lot of mind over matter in this class. What is more important is if it helped the driver change his mental state. .
There was a guy at our local track that slapped a 206 on an early 90’s tony kart with (period correct) CIK bodywork and wiped the floor with everyone, including karts with gold cup body.
He’s since retired from the sport, but he definitely left his mark (hat-tip, Dan. We miss you!)
My thought about that is that this one driver is simply better than the others. That’s why running the same driver, on the same chassis, on the same tires and setup, is about as close as we can get.
You can’t really change a nose and say “we’re not gonna tell you what’s on the kart, just drive it” because it’s too obvious as opposed to, say, an axle. I could probably ask him what the data from the two sessions said his top speed was, though.
EDIT: I totally misread what you said there. Yes, it did help him think that he could go as fast as them, but I’m interested in what the data says as well
