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Tracy |
24 February - KMI, CIR & The Sponsor Most Likely To Do Us Good
In what is becoming an annual wintertime pilgrimage, Conlin SpeedSports headed to Chicago for the KMI Kart Expo trade show. Tracy, Julie, Eric and I pointed the Monster Truck NW in the early daylight and were in the show by 1pm. Immediately it seemed foot traffic was down from prior years but more notable was the absence of many kart importers. Missing were J3 Competition representing Kosmic, Champion racing rep'ing Intrepid, Grand Products/Top Kart, Italian Motors//Ital Kart, SSC/CRG(!). To be sure, these importers were busy with the Florida Winter Tour and who can blame them when they're making $10Ks & $10Ks servicing their customers but the fall-away of big names like that usually mean the beginning of the end for a trade show.
The other reason given for the absence of key players was that many put their money into the PRI show in Orlando in December. The problem there is that the PRI show is only open to motorsports businesses, not the general public. And if I were a dealer for one of these importers that declined the KMI show, I'd be a little disappointed to not have my product in front of the general public.
Tracy, Eric, Jim ready for action at Chicago Indoor Racing
- photo by JulieBut there were still plenty of stuff to look at, lots of aftermarket equipment and services. The big thing this year was the small video packages for mounting on your helmet with no less that four booths showing their video wares. Another booth gaining a lot of traffic was Leatt Braces, a new neck brace set to replace the foam neck collar kart racers are required to wear. It isn't mandated anywhere but is gaining a lot of interest as a way to make neck injuries almost impossible. It looks a lot like a Hans device but rather than only keeping the driver's head from snapping forward, it limits movement forward, backward and side-to-side. It will definitely prevent some potentially devastating injuries but at a cost of around $350 it will be slow in replacing the $34.95 foam collar unless it is mandated. If it is mandated it makes racing karts that much more expensive as it is like having to buy two helmets. Most interesting to us were the brake systems from Wild Kart and Kelgate as we continue to research the best brake solution for long distance sprint kart racing.
Of course it was good to run into some friends as we walked the aisles: Alex, Phil and Fran Kish were attending their first KMI show. Terry & Shirley Riggins were there promoting their new Great Lakes Pro Tour series that replaces Great Lakes Superkarts! USA. We crossed paths with Andy Stevensen who was browsing the room. And our friends from RaceFanRadio.com, Charlie Brown and Chris wheeler were manning the RFR booth and broadcasting live, interviewing karting's movers and shakers every hour.
In addition to reviewing karting's new products for our team, Julie was working an agenda of her own. Graduating this spring from Ashland University with a Bachelor of Business Administration and Marketing degree (and solidly on the Dean's List) she is determined to find a marketing position in motorsports and took the opportunity to look for contacts at the KMI show and seminars in addition to the direct contact she's had with racing teams and tracks so far. Her persistence may have paid off as she made what looks like a very valuable contact at the Sponsorship seminar. More on this as it develops.
That evening we drove the 10 miles or so to Chicago Indoor Racing, one of the best indoor karting facilities in the country. We'll review the place in detail more another time but for now we'll just assure our readers that a good time was had by all - except for Tracy in her last race in which she drew a kart that was cutting out and about 1.5 seconds off the pace. This was an exception to the equality of the karts at CIR and, in fact, in our second race Eric's and my best laps were only .03 apart. By the end of the night we had the 6th, 7th & 8th best times for the day and Eric had the 18th best time of the week. Not bad for a trio who'd not seen the track before suiting up.
Sunday was more of the same back at the convention center, tracking down a few booths that we missed or were too busy on Saturday. Most challenging was the TAGUSA booth which was abandoned every time I went by there. Of the seminars going on, the one presented by Chicago Indoor Racing's Tony Stewart (not the NASCAR one) on starting and running an indoor kart track was most fascinating. But as Julie and I soaked up the advice of Mr. Stewart, outside the seminar the rigorous pace of the weekend was catching up to our other team members.
Eric & Tracy lose the fight . Looks like we need an energy drink sponsor - photo by Fran Kish And it was upon receiving these (shall we say, "spy") photos of Tracy and Eric that we realized just which sponsors our team needs to focus on. As you can see, what our team needs most is an energy drink sponsor. Not for the funding, simply for the product since some of our team apparently so desperately need it. RedBull: Monster: RockStar: Conlin SpeedSports will race for drink.
23 February - After A Long, Uncertain Winter, There's Hope
The Vortex Rok TT - The engine that can strike fear and loathing into the hearts of 1000s of men
Frequent visitors to this humble web site are used to us announcing our racing plans for the new year in January or early February. Here it is nearly March and visitors have found the site almost abandoned, having had no changes since December. The reason was largely that we didn't know what we were doing. It wasn't indecisiveness on our part but due to a general insatiability in the TaG category.
Late last year there was a outright uprising due to the Vortex Rok TT's (the engine our team uses) performance by Buddy Rice (yes, the Indy Car driver), Joel Miller, John Zartarian and Victor Cabrera, Jr. at the SKUSA SuperNationals in Las Vegas. Despite an entire season of racing in which the Rok TT lap times were at best matching the Parilla Leopard's, people with a financial interest in maintaining the Leopard's market dominance in North American TaG racing began pressuring the governing groups to penalize the Rok TT based on the results of this one race. To understand the dynamics here, the Parilla Leopard is the category's standard, having gotten into the category very early. There have been approximately 9000 Leopards sold in the NA market in the last 7 years compared to 500 Rok TTs sold in the last year. So you can see how thousands of panicked voices can influence the people trying to run things. Leopard owners and dealers that felt threatened by the arrival of the Rok TT quickly formed an ugly mob calling for more handicapping weight to be added to karts using the Rok TT. Interestingly, when the same drivers that were in the top 5 in Las Vegas raced on a similar course (a temporary track set up in a parking lot - Stars All-stars in Orlando) two weeks later, they didn't dominate and had best laps on par with the Leopards and Rotaxes proving to the sensible people that the SuperNat results were a fluke or simply a reward for better preparation.
For us, adding more weight to our karts was not an option. Because our drivers are so light, healthy and fit we already have to add 30 - 40 pounds of lead and another 15 pounds (which the Leopard masses had been screaming for and which WKA in their endless ineptitude conceded to) would be just ridiculous. In addition to taking advice from Leopard dealers and engine builders on how to penalize the Rok TT threat, WKA decided to permit modifications to the Leopard and Rok TT that were contradictory to the original "box stock" concept of TaG racing. The problem is that a "box stock" anything doesn't do much for all the 2-cycle engine builders that are struggling to keep busy and look to WKA leadership to help them out. Further, WKA approved the use of front brakes in TaG, the only non-shifter class now to allow front brakes. The idea was presented nobly as a safety feature but for people that have been watching WKA's motives for years, the move was simply a way to allow karts shops to sell about $1000 worth of equipment to mount front brakes on existing karts. Or to sell new karts to racers replacing their "100cc" chassis for "125cc" chassis that come with front brakes.
We saw nothing but parity from the Rok TTs in a season of racing against Leopards, Rotaxes, Bilands and Motori 7s
So we crossed WKA (which sanctions the Midwest Sprint Series and the Great Lakes Sprint Series) off our list for 2008 but TAGUSA (which most other clubs thankfully use for TaG rules guidelines) was expected to do their own thinking and we could do nothing but wait for their '08 rules to be published in January. When the rules did come out in January every engine's rules were set except the Vortex Rok TT's which was listed as TBA. TAGUSA was going to re-test the Rok TT and set what it believes will be rules to retain parity with the other engines in the class.
In waiting for TAGUSA to do their testing and announce their findings we were completely prepared to sit out the 2008 season while we let the situation settle if necessary. Three different sets of rules; front brakes, no front brakes; 10 pounds more, 15 pounds more, 0 pounds more; engine mods, no engine mods... it was getting really stupid. Our argument in this debate was that if the engines were found to have an advantage (despite a year of race results that indicated there wasn't) additional weight shouldn't be the equalizing penalty because many, if not most, of the people that bought the 500 Rok TTs did so based on the weight the governing bodies set after initial testing. Suddenly many of those owners would have engines that no longer "fit" them and the values of those less-than-one-year-old engines would plummet (such a thing never occurs to WKA). Instead of adding weight, changes could be made to the engine to reduce perceived advantages: Specifying (exhaust pipe) flex length, restricting intake or exhaust, mandating base gasket thickness to change port timing. The one that made the most sense to us is the easiest: spec'ing head gasket thickness which would not only take compression out of the engine but would in turn reduce internal stress and give it improved longevity.
As we neared the end of February, neither TAGUSA or Stars of Karting had completed their testing of the Rok TT and neither had announced the medications they would impose, if any, to maintain parity to the Leopard. Press releases and industry forums could provide very little insight as to what is really going on behind the scenes so we made a last minute decision to attend the KMI Kart Expo in Chicago and try to get some answers.
The first glimmer of hope was from our old friend Curt Puluzzi owner and editor of National Kart News. He had been speaking with Marty Casey, the technical director of TAGUSA who had told Curt that they weren't sure they were going to do anything but if they did it would not be a weight penalty. Later we spoke to Andre Martin of TonyKart Florida who, as a Vortex importer or distributor, seemed to be able to speak with authority to the situation. He felt that an exhaust restrictor might be the solution and that a header exchange program could be in the works. While he could say for sure that would be the final solution, he also said that additional weight would not be imposed. Lastly, discouraged by the TAGUSA booth being empty every time we stopped by (which was about 4 times both days) I gave up on trying to get an official comment from TAGUSA. Eric however managed to run into Dave Larson of TAGUSA and in spite of what was described as Dave's uncooperative demeanor, Eric was able to get confirmation from him that the Rok TT would not receive additional weigh for 2008.
So while this news won't be good for the Leopard crowd waving their torches and beating on the castle door, we left the KMI show at least knowing that we were not going to have to sell our Rok TTs and reinvest in new engines yet again. Instead we can turn our attention to the usual concerns like race schedules that work for us and budget. Right now with the cost of fuel and the economy in general it looks like we'll return to our racing roots and run as many races as we can with our home club Mid State Ohio Kart Club as much as we can. There is even a notion floating around that this Old Man might run the club's Masters class. We're already stocking up on Advil.
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