A little backstory, I posted in another thread about the recent Track Revival of Batavia Motorsports Park. We had a very successful club series at the track for many years in the early 2000’s all the way until the track closed in 2009, and further continued our club racing as a traveling series until 2015 when ultimately it no longer was viable.
With Batavia being renovated and karts back on track we are talking about bringing the club back online and hosting races for 2025. The infrastructure is in place (rules, competition notes, organizational notes, etc.)
We are in a unique position to build a club back up with an already existing foundation and excitement around a revitalized track. While nothing is official yet, this had me thinking, what aspects have local racers found in the last 10 years that makes them enjoy being in their local club community?
I’m not necessarily looking for marketing ideas but rather, what have you found to be the most important aspect to you as a club racer?
(Information sharing?, community involvement?, teams? , race day atmosphere? , incentives? tracks?)
I know a lot of these go hand in hand, but I’d love to hear from different parts of the country about what works and what hasn’t worked.
Man, you are in a very cool/unique spot. I think its awesome that you are asking this question too. I will speak in generalities as there are quite a few tracks near me. Here are some things that I love and/or keep things growing locally near me.
Keep the race days short. Dont add 10 classes. Dont take huge/long breaks. If you can get a race done in 6 hours instead of 10, the moms, siblings, and friends will all appreciate it.
Try really hard to maintain the “club” feel. Encourage experienced karters to talk to new folks. Encourage new folks to talk to experienced karters. One of the things the local track near me lost is the “fun” or it. They host 3-4 pretty good size teams and the races now feel like a national instead of that local/club race.
Keep the entry fees simple (and as cheap as possible). Don’t nickel and dime people with membership fees and pit spaces and extras on top of their entry fee. Give them an affordable price and keep it simple.
Pick a suitable club tire. Make it one that lasts and not one where there is a perceived (doesn’t even have to be real) advantage to putting new tires on every week.
I’m sure there are other things that will come to mind. I’ll reply again. Good luck!!
Derek’s points are all great. I also would say that one of Badger’s keys to success for many decades has been a strong community who are always willing to donate time and volunteer to help the club. That might be a more intangible ideal, but if you foster that type of communal pride in the track, facilities, club etc. then I think it serves all the people who come race there. It feels like a big family.
Keep rules fair but simple and have compassion and empathy for racers, many of which who are learning the ropes. No one wants to go to a club race and get yelled at when they mess up because they don’t know better yet. And on the other hand, no one wants to feel like tech or officiating is too lax and not providing a fair playing ground for everyone. Club racing should be a safe place to cultivate respectful and strong relationships in the sport, between racers, officials, families etc. I have heard of many people having poor impressions at local venues because they were treated poorly by power-tripping officials or tech people, or the opposite where the rules are so lax that it feels pointless to even show up to race if you know you’re being beaten by someone who isn’t playing by the rules on purpose.
Derek and TJ both make great points, and I will repeat some of them. I have been a member at Badger Kart Club for 10 seasons. I started out as a Kid Kart parent who didn’t know a thing about karting. Now, I am currently in my 6th year on our board of directors, handling the position of Vice President. We encourage our members to get involved, and it makes them feel important, and they want to be “part of the club”, in a good way. When people talk about Badger, it’s always referred to as the “club”. Our club is 65 years old, and we’ve averaged over 150 entrees per race this season.
We have a strict rulebook, but we allow club members to suggest rule changes each year, and rule changes are voted on by club members.
Rules are not changed during the season unless there is a safety concern, and even then, it’s the entire BOD that agrees to change the rule, not one person.
The Board of Directors runs the club and facility, but we are on 2 year terms, and these positions are voted on by club members.
We ask our members to help when help is needed. The volunteerism isn’t as strong as it once was, but it’s still an important part of our club.
Always remember the club and it’s racers come first. Make your class structures and fees to accommodate the members who come to all the races. Don’t bow to the pressure of big money teams or racers that want you to run the rules or tires they run in their travel series.
Hold events that create a community feeling. We hold a swap meet in early spring that doubles a s a social gathering. We do cookouts after Saturday races. We also have a huge banquet at the end of the year.
I should state that I am in no way affiliated with the new owner of the track.
Myself along with a few others have stayed in touch over the years and this information is all useful in creating a plan (should it be decided) to resurrect our club and bring it to modern 2024 standards.
I’ve seen and been part of various series in the Northeast, and some do well in drawing local drivers, and keeping it fun, but most are run very bare bones, have little investment and outreach, and do the minimum in providing an experience that makes you want to return.
With the buzz and excitement seemingly back here in Western New York, I’d love to see a club series that builds off the past, but is modern in operating and competition and most importantly something that racers want to be part of.
Lean into classes that you can help support, or that industry professionals can support at your track. My experience with local/club racing was growing up at NCMP. While not every track, has a full blown kart shop at its disposal, I think the concept of having direct support can still be applied. The amount of questions we asked over the years would’ve gone unanswered without the great support from Comet folks working at the track on race days. Most club racers won’t know how to identify their random engine issues, or know when to replace a diaphragm kit without the guidance of someone with experience. Arming your racers with knowledge will make for smoother and more enjoyable race days, and therefore, happier racers.
With us being new here in central Indiana I have found that at one track you feel like you’re in the way and they nickel and dime you to death. The other one we feel very welcome track staff is friendly and it feels like they go out of their way to make sure that we are having fun and are more than willing to answer questions. That is huge in my book and honestly we would be perfectly content just racing the one track all season. We don’t race often and my kid is definitely not gonna make it to F1 so having fun is key.
Hey Will! I believe we crossed paths a few times when BeaveRun hosted the traveling club back in the late 2000’s - I ran the kart track there for awhile and we’d incorporate your classes in to our club days. Always a great group of folks that made the trip!
While I don’t work for the track any longer, I do run a trackside support shop for the local community and help the track with promotion, intro programs, etc. A pretty cool symbiotic relationship that has paid dividends for both parties. We’ve grown from a local series that would draw 40ish club entries a few years ago in just 4 classes to averaging 105 entries so far this year.
A few thoughts on what has made it succesful:
Trackside pro shop open every practice and race day with basic consumables, tires, etc but most importantly general service, quality new & used karts and coaching/instruction.
Trackside storage - as simple as racks for flat storage or space for vertical storage plus tire racks for rain tires and a tote rack so racers can have basic lubes, spares, etc.
Intro and Arrive & Drive programs - try before you buy programs let people try the sport that would never buy first just to see if they like it. Also eliminates the “bad experience” scenarios where someone dumps a ton of money in for the driver not to like it. People that have a good experience entering the sport tell their friends, people that have a bad experience tell everyone.
Keep classes simple and the day only as long as needs to be. Having 16 classes with 5 people in each on average makes for bad racing and general ambivalence. We ran just 4 classes (KK, 206 Cadet/Junior/Senior) until three years ago and have added just one of 206 Masters, KA Jr/Sr and Swift each year for the last three years to go from a 5 hour day to an 8 hour day over that time. Compressed classes drove excitement and growth 100%.
Benevolent dictatorships > committees. Have someone in the series director role that listens to racers but ultimately is willing to make the tough decisions and stand behind them. Racers are their own worst enemies when it comes to rules.
206 is your primary driver and the ultimate entry package. I wasn’t a fan being a 2 cycle guy myself initially but it is the greatest thing to happen to club karting and is dirt cheap for racers. Don’t get caught up in cheaper alternatives, just work to channel everyone in to 206 at the entry level with the primary 4 classes.
Pick a tire that lasts a long time and doesn’t reward buying new tires to qualify. The Mojo D2 is the ultimate club 4-cycle tire. Consider it at the very least and maybe talk to our local racers that use it.
Just a few thoughts!
Maybe bring some folks down for our season ending double header Sept 28/29 and ask our racers questions if you guys have some time. We have a paddock that is probably 60-70% plus people that have been in the sport less than three years. No better way to find out what attracts new people to become kart owners than finding a pile of them in one place. If you need a kart to play with for the day I can probably make an OTK 206 appear! Lol
All great answers, but let me add one small point as a brand new racer competing in club series at two different tracks:
Allow enough time between tech and the first session for amateurs like me to make changes. I didn’t understand how to use safety wire during my first race and some of my weights had double nuts but no washers. If you give me time, I’ll ask for help from more experienced guys and I’ll fix these things. But sometimes, the tech guy is late and I only have 15 mins between tech and the start of practice. One time, we did tech after practice and before qualifying. When you’re inexperienced and working alone, everything takes a little bit longer, and this can make race days pretty stressful.
From my club experience, my 1 suggestion is to keep class weights fair and equal to other clubs around you.
Our club runs lower weights than everyone else in the cadet and jr2 class. This has caused my twin daughters to run in 2 separate classes as 1 is taller. at 11 years old, she is already at the max weight of our jr2 (285 lbs). THis can be discouraging to young drivers, who cant be competitive because they hit a growth spurt.
This has been mentioned before and may be slightly off topic, but I don’t understand why more clubs do not limit tire changes, wouldn’t iy be in the spirit of club racing (especially 4 stroke) to limit each racer to a certain number of sets per year?
I understand there are clubs that are tied up with shops and so the incentive to profit off of tires doesn’t align, but I have seen open tire rules at clubs with no shop onsite at all.
Perhaps it would be too difficult or require some equipment to enforce…
At North Florida Kart Club has increased kart courts each of the last 3 years, and here’s what I think drives that:
President of the club is passionate and connected to regional karting kingpins that help bring series to the track.
Non-profit status - People tend to be more involved if they know the profits are put back into the track and its operations instead of some ones pocket (there is nothing wrong with for profit kart centers, but they should be ran as such)
A social webpage, we have more community feel when members and new people can start conversations, unlike on the official page where only the club can start posts. So we have 2 pages, an official page and a social page.
Small constant improvements to the facility. We have done small things to improve the track in 3 years, like new FIA curbing, new/bigger grid shed, improved scales w/ posted current certification, upgrading scoring system, power to a good size section of the pits, etc. If karters see you investing in the future, even if only a few thousand dollars at a time, they invest in the future by staying in karting.
Having an ‘expert’ in each karting class, a go to for newbies to get real info from real karters in the class. And sending people to them from the registration office is a big help, so make sure your registration people know the ‘class experts’
The biggest issue is club racers don’t show up Race 1 and race every race. Nothing is stopping anyone from showing up Race 8 with new tires to race for the first time.
The reality is that requiring new tires is the only way to level the playing field on tires across the grid, and that’s the reason most creditable travelling series do that.
I think this brings up another great point. Make sure your club is accessible/approachable by non-regulars. Website/schedule that is easy to understand, Rules that are consistent with other series, things that could allow a new guy or a guy from another area to show up at your track and not be frustrated/lost. There are a few clubs who have historically catered to their “regulars” a little too much and i think it stunted their growth because no one wanted to come and feel like an “outsider”
To add to this… (I think it’s already been mentioned), but have a plan and\or someone in place to continue guiding the person through the process of getting started “in real life”. This person ideally needs to be more of a listener than a talker or boaster. Their goal is to understand where the newcomer is at, their goals, skills etc… then cater the “tour” to this.
Connect them with members, point them to kart and class options etc., perhaps connect them with equipment for sale that they can look at. We often suggest to newcomers that they come on a race weekend which can lead to a lot of confusion. They arrive at the track and are expected to talk to drivers, at best that’s hit and miss. If it’s the kind of track that has big motor homes and tents that can be intimidating. So you need someone to show the types of karting and drivers that match where the newcomer is at. If they’re the type that wants to go all-in on a motorhome, big trailer, tents etc. thats fine too.
Somewhat like a mentorship program, but I think it’s worth dividing the getting in the seat part and the first day at the track onward into two duties where possible.
Manage and guide the getting started experience…
I’m cognizant that it’s not trivial to find the right people for this though…
Some tracks and series in my area (NW Ohio) go with a spec “range” of tires that all perform somewhat similarly and last a decently long time (Hoosier R60B, MG Red, Vega Red all competing together). This accomplishes both of my points by having a tire that last a while, while also allowing drivers from other tracks to run with us without having to buy a new set of tires to do so. Every track/series near us uses one of those compounds.
Too many weight classes or just too many classes in general hurts a local program. Lets say you have 12 guys running 206 sr on a weekly basis. Then you feed into the hype of this Tillotson 225 motor and decide to offer a Tilly class too, now youre gonna split that strong class of 12 into two small classes that are less fun. And eventually one or both classes will fail in the long run. If a class grows in numbers and gets a lot of karts, take care of that class. If a class is only getting a few karts weekly, try to convert those drivers to the bigger class.
I’ll always error on the side of longevity for club racing. When we ran Bridgestones at Pitt you needed tires at least every other race. I’m maybe buying 2 sets now with the (mojo d2)
Those rock hard Hoosiers tires were fun too. We ran those for the 24hr races. R80? I think can’t remember.
I am very biased but I think the Pitt Race Club has done it very well outside of some staffing issues and tech problems which I’m sure almost every club faces when they get bigger.
Have someone in the series director role that listens to racers but ultimately is willing to make the tough decisions and stand behind them. Racers are their own worst enemies when it comes to rules.