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Post by mikeh on Jun 6, 2015 16:36:36 GMT -7
Some of you might know me and some of you might not. My name is Mike Holland and I used to own Mike's Kustom Kart Engines here in Tucson and I was tech director some years ago and had a good time with my step son helping me weigh karts after they were on the track. So down to brass tax I would say, I have been chatting with Mr. Steve Mullen on Facebook about TKC. I understand from him that there is an average of about 12 karts per night racing. To say the least I was surprised at such a low number as I expected him to say 20 or somewhere near there. I don't know how many members TKC has of right now but there has to be some since there is racing going on. When I was involved in the sport at TKC we held meetings with non club members along with club members to discuss topics from safety to tech to racing procedures and what the club could do to increase the numbers that both attend the races as spectators and race themselves. I know for a fact that there has to be at least 70 karts in this town just sitting in houses in Pima County just collecting dust for some reason or another. What changed say from 8 years ago till the present time? I don't know the answer to that question but there has to be some people who do know what happened that turned the racers away. Is it the current kart rules or classes or has the cost of racing gotten to far out of hand for people? Is it the current schedule on certain nights that are keeping people away from the track? I had mentioned to Mr. Mullen that when I was involved in karting we contacted TRP now called Tucson Speedway and had 10 karts on display with the parents and kids standing next to them and the amount of interest was incredible. I sponsored 1 racer that had my engine on his kart and we fired that engine up like once every 30 minutes and made allot of noise and it stirred up allot of questions regarding kart racing. I brought out 2 unlimited engines that I had for demo that were very loud with open headers and used to let the kids rev them up and every kid that played with the engine smiled and so did the parents. That night alone I perso0nally talked to at least a 100 parents and handed out over 200 business cards and within a month sold 6 karts that other racers had around and sold 12 new engines mostly for the junior classes for the kids to run. At intermission time the karts were on the track and did like a 3 minute circle race around the cones right in front of the grandstands and the crowd loved it. As far as reachable demographics go I think the Tucson Speedway was a perfect place to show what TKC had to offer at that time. There has to be other places in town to show of karts for TKC like car shows at Little Anthony's at Broadway and Kolb. Anywhere cars are displayed TKC should have a spot to showcase what they offer. Print out $2.00 off coupons to start an incentive for first making the trip out and save a few bucks on admission. Maybe a free hot dog when you show your ticket stub to the food stand if there is one still out there. You know they are going to buy a drink for one and how much that actually cost the club in overhead compared to the price that is listed for that item. There has to be some incentive for the parents to take the kids out to watch and learn about the sport of racing. TKC was an awesome place for racers kids to start out. I remember racers coming out on Friday night with their kids racing and then the following night seeing those parents race at Tucson Speedway! Cmon folks, get a meeting scheduled and communicate with your board and toss ideas around for a bit and see what happens. There has to be current members who knew people who used to race or got them into the sport to begin with. Where are those people and why are they not racing? If they still have their kart stuff see what steps you can take to dust them off and sell them or get them race ready to race yourself or sell for them to give a kid or an adult a chance to go racing. Use these discussion boards to your advantage to exchange ideas karts and information about how to promote TKC and get the kart counts back up where they belong.
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Post by mikeh on Jun 6, 2015 22:55:48 GMT -7
There are a bunch of people looking but no comments on my thread. Don't you want to see more karts racing? Please comment and lets exchange ideas to make TKC a good destination to spend time at with friends and family and get into karting!  |
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Post by thooper07 on Jun 10, 2015 16:22:44 GMT -7
Mike thank you for your post. We are currently working on almost everything you mentioned.
A few things that hurt the Tucson kart clubs kart count; hornets, with drivers being able to race at 12 years old we saw a lot of parents buy hornets instead of karts.
The price of karting with new equipment is not cheap, but it is very reasonable compared to other forms of youth motorsports. But with recent engine changes (clones) those prices are lower than before.
Economy, look at all tracks and you less and less competitors and fans. Even NASCAR ticket sales drop every year.
And the snowball effect, less karts=less help=less time to promote=less interest.
Nathan has stepped in and a lot of people have started helping. We will return to large kart counts it doesn't just happen over night.
Travis Hooper.
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Post by mikeh on Jun 10, 2015 21:35:51 GMT -7
Thanks for the first response on my posting. Glad you read it and understand it. There has been allot of people reading but your the only one who responded. I even gave the president of the club a private message and still haven't received a response and that's disappointing to me. As far as your post, you make some valid points concerning youth racing at TKC. I will not argue with costs but it's by far cheaper to run a kart rather than anything next door. I like the "Clone" engine concept kinda like a crate engine next door at Tucson Speedway. Like I said in my original posting there are ALLOT of karts in Pima County in people's garages and shops etc. I also stated that there has been no club meeting scheduled that I can attend. If you look at azkarting.com and they also have a discussion board they have meetings scheduled once a month and they had 44 karts last weekend and I don't recall the exact number of 1/4 midgets but there were people there. My girlfriend showed me a conversation on Facebook that you were involved in and you had some really good input to the conversation. There was a statement from Russ Demarco made a statement on Facebook that said his son was the president of TKC and is open to new ideas and "Failure was not an option." I agree with those comments that were made but like I said I have attempted to contact him via private message on here and no response as of yet. Bottom line is something needs to be done to get the count up. It's sad to see what has happened in the last few years. I might be able to make it out to TKC on Saturday and hopefully be able to meet people and bounce ideas off of people and see what happens. Hopefully I can meet the president and have some kind of conversation with him about what is going on. Again thanks for your response and happy racing!
-Mike Holland |
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Post by racer223 on Jun 10, 2015 22:46:49 GMT -7
Hey mike. I have sent you a reply in PM form. I would love to talk with you over the phone if possible. Again I am very sorry for having not responded. I had posted a few things on the forum and didn't seem to get any responses, so I quit checking it every other hour. I'd more discussion happens on the forum I will certainly get back to being more active on it. However my job is in season, I fix air conditioners and business is booming right now. I'll make my self as available as possible.
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Post by racer223 on Jun 10, 2015 22:47:25 GMT -7
Please come to our race this weekens, I would love to meet with you face to face.
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Post by thooper07 on Jun 11, 2015 1:40:15 GMT -7
Well mike, all of the items your talking about are being addressed. Our drivers meetings is currently the easiest way of having having a "club" meeting. Our current racers are not every weekend races. We have a SOLID core of great racers that support our club. With out our current racers, who all have the same vision of growing the club, we would be worse off. There are around a dozen individuals that volunteer there time and money, because time is money.
The clones are not a "crate" motor. They are builder motors like the old flat heads. The simple fact that a clone motor is less expensive and last 2-3 times longer.
We have current plans that are in the works for upgrades. The outlaw karts are the new trend. We will have outlaw karts this weekend. We will also have UAS karts and some phoenix drivers this weekend. We plan on getting our schedule and there schedule on opposite weekends. Friday night racing, practices, meetings, etc. Right now its only a few people that are working to put on races. And yes FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!
Travis Hooper
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Post by carracer on Jan 20, 2016 17:37:52 GMT -7
This is Colin Germain. I haven't been involved with TKC since 2003. At that time we had over 75 karts each night. It is sad to see the kart count so low. I have 2 grandsons that will be racing the 2016 season in the JR JR 1 class. We are hoping to have at least 6 karts in this division, so if you have a 5 to 8 years old that wants to race, their will be other kids in this class.
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