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Wow… :loony: What a day for announcements! First we learn that a Colorado karter meeting will be held in October to work out 2009 plans early, then we learn IMI has become an official Rotax dealer and service center and will be hosting a RMAX series in 2009, then the location (neighboring state of Oklahoma) is announced for the 2009 Rotax Grand Nationals, then this on ekartingnews:
“MRP Motorsport, the newest authorized distributor for Rotax, held a comprehensive dealer and service center training conference this week in Denver, CO for… new Rotax dealers and service centers, including 3G Kart Racing, Billet Performance Karting, CKT, Miller Motorsports Park, Motorama Karts & Parts, The TRACK at Centennial and Turn 1 Prosports.”
By my count that is four Rotax dealers and service centers in the Denver area. Include CRE and Grand Junction and you have a half dozen Rotax dealers in Colorado. Is the Colorado base of Rotax customers and potential high enough to support this many dealers? I guess it is good for us customers… With any luck, maybe we can have a killer, state-wide Rotax program next year.
Will TaG be dead in Colorado for 2009? 😯
Is this crazy Larry?
Looks like Jim is putting together a great series which may include a some options racers have been hoping for over the past year or two (Miller Motor Sports?, cool temp circuit? etc…) plus Jim seems to love a great party. Anthony mentioned connections bringing in names like Carlton and Fritzer to race our Pro Shifter field! This really would be awesome to have top national racers show up in our region vs the marquee pro driver here and there. And it would make our regional guys much better as he mentioned. It will be cool to have more class particulars and rule book for the RTR series before the Csc meeting?
If the Csc comes out of the gate early and hard, maybe it can return to or exceed the elite regional status it was once heading for. Particularly if the Colorado Juniors bring some of their 30 – 40 entries and those involved keep pulling on the rope! Could have some great participation counts and competition. Maybe some kind of Skusa structure? Who knows?
Maybe Rotax won’t be an embarrassment this year. Certainly low counts last year and only 2 Colorado racers representing at the Grands?
Who knows what other WOW factors are brewing Larry? It’s no secret Imi And TTAC surfaces have both become very rough and hard on equipment (heard several racers comment these were making Bandi look smooth, saw some brand new karts tore up pretty bad after a day or two?) Maybe improvements are in the works to save the racers equipment ($) for next year. Looks like we may have 2 or 3 short but killer series to compete, could be awesome.
Maybe it is going to be a good year to be sprint kart racing in Colorado. And… Maybe it fragments without much of a bang and it becomes a good year to hit a few road races with Roman and Lucy to just have some fun. Just going to play it by ear, but will more than likely lock into a decision by new year or so. Either way, will still come out and do what I can to help Kartworks customers continue to fill the podiums as much as possible.
I just hope the economy gives more confidence to the kart racing community across the country. Karting really is the best and most pure racing in my eyes. I also wish all the track owners can get along and work to help karting get better in Colorado, not worse. They are all good guys. I wish Stacey could have experienced a better Tag Worlds turn out, those guys deserve to get races and certainly have been rated by the racers as the best kart track around. Maybe a best 2 out of 3 series with Utah for all the marbles? 5 classes?
Probably a pool of 200 – 250 racers here in Colorado who want to race their equipment and spend their money, hopefully this will work out to keep the bulk of these racers competing against each other to have the maximum amount of fun and for those who care, to know who really is the best when the smoke clears.
What is Jesse going to do? What / how did you guys do last year?
Rick
Couldn’t agree more Rick. I guess karting has its own version of silly season… I hope it works out for Colorado karters that we can see and experience some great racing at multiple locations. I always liked that we had so many nice tracks in Colorado but maybe it is a little bit of a curse??? Let’s hope that everything works out well for Colorado karters. I do agree that all our track owners are good guys.
Last year we planned to run the entire FWT. Unfortunately, during the first event Jesse re-injured his ribs he cracked in Monaco so we watched from the sidelines. They have some great racing down there but it is hard to watch when you want to race. Jesse wanted to finish his last year of eligibility in the Jr Rotax class. Unfortunately, there are not too many Jr Rotax drivers in the state. We completed at CRE where they had the most drivers in his class. Once again, Jesse won the So Colorado Jr Rotax championship and Colorado WKA Jr Rotax championship. Jesse is now a senior and looking forward to mixing it up with a large number of class participants next year.
We’re hoping to run Rotax and maybe a gearbox class but will have to wait and see how things settle down. It sure would be great to see some of those big names make it into the state.
Who’s going to the Super Nats? I think we need to put a team or two of Colorado drivers into the Machismo 500. Any takers?
Now it is off to the track to get some seat time in before the first snowfall…
Rick,
Lets hope we can all work together to make 2009 a success.GJMS is planning a few special events that will include a “Boarder War” with Miller Motorsports, Colorado verse Utah shoot out with a traveling trophy and all. should be fun. GJMS will not be making any decisions on 2009 until after the meeting on the 17th. Lets all show up and decide as a group what is best for Colorado racing. by the way the grass is looking great, hopefully next year we will have the wild grass planted everywhere else and the road paved..
As for this whole Rotax deal and Joe Ramos/ SSC, I won’t even bother going there.. Can you say Leopard and ROK with a hot new kart line 😆
On the flip side of the coin, I am seeing:
*dilution at racing events (another new series/split club series/CSC/rotax series)
*decrease in CO karters
*best division is still Tag Masters–we had 13 at IMI todayI’m still waiting for someone to start a less expensive class for Sr’s and the 12-15 age group that can’t afford an expensive TAG or shifter kart and new tires every few races. I know we can’t afford to go a 12 race season with a TAG Jr and Jr1. Faster more expensive karts may be exciting but it is not the answer for keeping the existing racers, getting new people into the sport, and former racers back IMHO. I think with the price of fuel and money getting tight, there will be even fewer racers next year.
We are looking forward to MAYBE running less demanding schedule at The Track next year to save money and is a closer track for us. We will have to see what Jim’s club series is offering for classes and make our decision then.
Thanks for the comments guys. I guess, other than Jim’s licensing idea, there hasn’t been any additional “wow” moments this week. Maybe things will stay relatively quiet until the 10/17 karters meeting.
On the national level I see there has been a shake up at Stars. I’m pleased to see that Ardigo, the 2007 and 2008 World Champion and defending SKUSA Super Nats Champion is returning to America to put his stuff up against America’s best. It was a pleasure watching him last year. I think our top guys got his attention.
Stacey, are you saying the “grass is greener on the other side?” 😆 You’re interactions with the Utah group sounds interesting. Maybe we can share a beer sometime and talk Rotax “off the record.” See ya on the 17th.
Rich, I see what you see. I hope dilution doesn’t hurt Colorado karting. I would rather see multiple club series and one super regional series than a bunch of weak competing series. Unfortunately, we may see even fewer karters in 2009 if the economy continues on its present course. Tag masters – yeah, yeah, yeah. 😀 Actually, you guys are often the envy of all the other classes. Keep it up.
Les, I hear you. Every year the same concern is raised and yet an easy solution never presents itself. As the kids grow they naturally want more speed and horsepower. More horsepower equals more $$. Unfortunately, that graph is more exponential than linear. I hope you can find the right combination that works for your family.
:clap: Here’s to hoping that 2009 is a great year for Colorado karting.
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