In your view, what essential elements should a “World Class” website for karting have?
If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your “digital” karting experience right now
We’re finally moving forward with a redesign of the “main” site at www.kartpulse.com and your feedback is essential.
Don’t worry, the forums are not going anywhere
The original site started out in 2014 as a social network with directories and articles. But for various reasons (Usability\appearance\frankly crappy code) it ever really caught traction like the forums or our social media channels have.
My vision with the redesign is to create a world-class website for karting. IMO we don’t have one either in terms of platform/experience or content.
But that’s only my opinion… I’m keeping my other opinions and “ideas” to myself for now so that I’m not leading the question too much
It will be more than just a visual and platform change. Perhaps more importantly, I envisage we’ll be pivoting towards building a media hub that connects content across the sport, creating more original content ourselves and adding context to what is out there already.
Let’s discuss! Describe your ideal karting website.
A FAQ page would be great. Us newbies have questions that I’m sure have been asked 100 time over, but can only be found with a keyword search using the right words.
For example:
Carb settings for X engine
Chassis tuning for X problem
Typical race weekend expectations
Typical budget for racing X series
I’ve wondered if karting needs more marketing & product focus to generate buzz & reel in onlookers. Look at motorcycling: it has brand name recognition. Karting doesn’t.
Is there a potential way to feature chassis & engine brands/makes to give the tangentially interested, but uninvolved something to “chew on”, so to speak, by introducing them to the respective classes & the chassis+engine makes available?
Frankly, there’s lots of cool stuff to own, tinker with, & learn about in karting. So why not figure out a way to feature it? Granted, that’s not going to serve the needs of the informed, hardcore crowd, & maybe it’s not in line with the vision behind the founding of this site.
Say more about this… do you mean special projects or something else?
The vision is to have a place (Or brand that covers) for all kinds of karting activities, so that fits in. From pro tour to no tour, weekend warriors, test-day only addicts, people that just like to build cool stuff and everything in between. An karting enthusiast site if you like that allows people to explore the dynamism of the sport and connect with others that share the interests.
Something that represents the sport of karting on the web in a modern way. Ideally to the point where the experience and content transcends the sport of karting itself and helps it stand above other forms of racing in the digital space.
We do have a kart projects category which I’d love to see more activity at even just for myself. @The_Karting_Channel and myself have always thought it would be cool to have a karting version of speedhunters. Just featuring sick pics of interesting karts
You raise a really good point. The information is out there, but it’s not linked/packaged in
Some of that is down to the complexity of the sport in some ways, or information gaps with specific scenario combos.
But that’s not to say that a lot more couldn’t be done with even what we have ourselves on kartpulse to tie that all together.
Inclusive of all types of Karting. I race just prokarts. A lot of karting sites ignore this.
A few years ago I saw an advert for a TKM endurance race. 2½ hours. A prokarts endurance race is usually 6 hours and there are several that are 24 hours.
Every October, The Race of Stars brings a handful of the worlds best kz2 racers to my local track for a 3 day orgy of speed on a spectacular 1.6 km lap. Thd final last year was the greatest motor race of any kind I’ve ever seen. The lead was changing 4 times a lap, multiple world champions were side by side in the sweeper at 170kph, while young local guys had the crowd out of their seats getting around some glamourous Europeans.
Presents a chance to get some high grade eyeballs on this site if we can come a with a cool way to do it.
I was more thinking that we come up with thd content james and I use that to solicit interest in your site. Don’t know what that content would look like but i guess it could be a brochure, an ebook (a chapter from Terrence’s book and Warens writings and whomever else), a sales video or … dunno. Just random thoughts so far.
Anyway, might be an opportunity there if anyone can come up with a compelling way to leverage it.
I was simply thinking along the lines of featuring some of the readily available commercial brands of engines & chassis, since that’s fundamentally what getting into kart ownership entails, & for the less do-it-yourself types, the available karting businesses - to include tracks - in the various regions out there that can build a turn key package. I can say from personal experience that, while the guys I work with daily know how to acquire a motorcycle or car, & even the aspects of attending a track day, they have no idea how this sport “works”, even though they like the what I’ve shown them concerning the local track action. Why such dichotomy? I’d owe it to ignorance & a perception of (relative) low accessibility. Everybody knows where to go to get a car or bike. How many know where/how to purchase a kart & get involved in the sport?
I guess, like the motorcycle market, showcasing what’s available can “raise awareness” (I hate that phrase) about the commercial support that’s available to prospective, interested individuals. Now of course, this gets complicated as far as this site’s relationships (if any) with commercial businesses, so I don’t know how far you can go down that road without stepping on toes. Seems like the emphasis on kart racing kind of obscures the fact that there’s an industry that supplies all this equipment, that it is actually possible to buy & (learn to) drive these rigs. A lot of people probably don’t know that. They probably think karts are entirely fabricated by hard core enthusiasts in their garages or something.
That said, it’s true that the relative inconveniences of karting - wrenching/building/maintaining, hauling stuff to the track - aren’t everyone’s idea of a good time. Some people simply don’t like to get their hands dirty at all. But that’s certainly not everyone.
KartPulse can provide audience\distribution if that counts as leverage? We’re always looking to connect people with interesting content.
I honestly don’t think that would help, (although I’m sure people would ask for it). It’s a lot of information that really a newcomer can’t use. If we (for example) compile a list of 50 chassis brands, in reality there’s only a handful of those that will be around (let alone supported) in their area.
Same reason I generally avoid talking about classes, brands of chassis etc etc. It’s just overwhelming to people. I think what we need to do is have the person talk, listen, understand their perspective (not our own racer’s opinion) and use that to relay what is the best likely option for them.
Now how can we get more of those conversations going, that’s a great thing to work on.
One compromise, is to have location-aware directories as a means to help guide people. It is however a colossal amount upfront and ongoing amount of work.
We did make an honest stab at a kart track directory, including dirt ovals. Admittedly, the UI/appearance isn’t great, but it is the most comprehensive one that I’m aware of. When I first started building it, I found about 1/5 of tracks were missing from google maps.
We gave a business directory a go too: We're sorry!
But again, I found that it’s something that requires full focus to make it really valuable. If someone is willing to take it on, I can give them the tools they need.
I think the simplest and most effective path for most of these folks are “try a kart” days. They pay <$200 to drive a racing kart (Usually four cycle) for a half day, get coaching and so on. It’s interesting, easy to do, simple concept to understand. Get in the seat and drive. That’s the ah-ha moment for most folks.
We would love to see links that are more instructional, I go to YouTube in my quest for knowledge and that’s fine but is limited and I am unsure as to the things they build is legal to run on community races Where teams and individuals race in their particular class.
Where teams and individuals race in their particular class.