Ideas for bridging gap between try a kart and race day

[tay]

Had some ideas on ways to bridge the gap between try a kart and racing. Figured I'd share in case anyone agrees:

The Problem:

• I've talked to several people now that are really interested in racing and convincing them to sign up for try a kart is easy. Those that do try a kart end up loving it. However, despite their interest in racing, they don't end up racing

• What's interesting is that the cost isn't usually the deciding factor on why they don't join (for briggs level $$ at least). Instead the problem seems to be friction around equipment rules and concern/intimidation over competitiveness

Examples:

• Snell helmet requirements. Those that own motorcycle helmets get surprised they can't use them (snell's not a popular safety standard anymore). They also don't know anything about the 10 year expiry requirement. Needless to say it's a big barrier, esp for people who just bought an expensive new moto helmet only to find out they have to buy another.

• Transponder. People seem to hate buying these once they realize it's different from a mychron/lap timer.

• Weight limits. Figuring out your total weight, buying/drilling/mounting lead isn't that complicated but it can be for a beginner

• Concern over being lapped/getting in way. Seems to be more a concern for people in lighter classes or women since they'd be racing with the highly competitive younger group who've been racing since they were kids.

Some ideas to bridge the gap:

• Have a mock race class at say 2-3 events for new members to get comfortable and learn the ropes without having to jump straight into the fire. Since time is tight maybe they only get two shorter sessions. Would let beginners experience starts and passing (which they don't get during T&Ts). There would be no trophies or official scorekeeping so they wouldn't need transponders. Weight limits encouraged but not enforced. Goal is to get some competitive laps in and get them hooked.

• Provide Snell helmet rentals. These could double as try a kart helmets. Also transponder rentals for first year racers. One less thing to commit to means a better chance they actually make it to race day

• Women's specific brigg's class. This seems to be gaining popularity in Edmonton. Brigg's Sr is really competitive but also the most likely class for new women members to race in. It can be an intimidating class for a beginner.

[JasonL]

A few thoughts:

-I agree that the Snell helmet thing is a little strange. One would think that if a helmet is suitable to protect from a motorcycle crash at 100+ km/h on busy roads, it would easily work for karting.
-There are many Test and Tune days to work on one’s racecraft in a non-competitive fashion until someone is ready. The Driver Development Camp is another great opportunity to improve skill.
-People can have plenty of fun NOT racing. I am one. Heading into my fourth year as a member, and have never entered a race, but have countless test and tune laps. I’m enjoying the experience and sensations of karting and working to beat my time from the last T&T session, regardless of how that compares to how other drivers are doing. A significant percentage of club members are similar - never entering a formal race.

Similar to you, I have a number of friends that claim to be ‘car guys’ into racing, and interested in karting, but making the commitment to joining the club is a big additional step that few will make. Money is always a factor, but I think inertia is even bigger. People continue to do what they’ve been doing, and few grew up karting, or with friends and family karting. Our sport isn’t much more expensive than hockey, but signing up for hockey is almost expected within Canadian culture.

[Jackmazury]

I have a couple of thoughts and inputs on this.

I agree that it is a big gap between Try-A-Kart and actually jumping in the deep end. As Jason mentioned, there are plenty of members who solely test and tune and only have the desire to participate in that. Nothing wrong with this, but I do believe those who want to eventually race do so typically after a series of practice sessions. Getting lapped in LO206 is relatively rare so long as there are no major mechanical issues or crashes involved. I vividly recall my first season doing plenty of 4x4ing and never getting lapped even though I was nervous of the prospect. You would have to be an average of 5-6 seconds off the pace to be lapped, which is a fair amount. This does not apply for new drivers who start in two-stroke, where lapping is likely as the time variance expands significantly.

As nice as it would be to add a few additional classes, for example ladies Briggs, Mini Max, etc. there simply is not enough time in our race schedule without other groups losing track time, which nobody is eagerly volunteering for. This has been an ongoing discussion for years now, but really just can't work unless we want to be at the track until 8PM or race less. There is a mock race in the works this year, however it is early in the season and most rookies would likely not be ready. As Jason mentioned, there is the development camp. I will let others speak to that for fear of becoming a self-promoting shill. It is also worth noting that when drivers do start racing, they do 3 races from the rear of the grid regardless of qualifying position. This is by design to make the starts less intimidating and reduce the chance of accident.

Transponders can be rented, I believe the club has a rental fleet of them, John Kwong has also gotten me out of a few binds over the years with his spares. Typically somewhere between $20 and $40 a day.

Helmet rentals are a bit more cumbersome. The Snell rating is required at ALL times on the track, not just in races. This is an ASN mandate and is inflexible. The problem would become how do these people rent a helmet on a practice night, or what happens if it gets dropped, etc. Luckily Snell SA and K rated helmets have gotten more accessible recently. An M rated helmet can be had for under $200 typically, with I believe a K rated Zamp starting at $320ish. Not cheap, but also not a massive dent in the starting budget to karting. I personally will always recommend spending the bit extra and getting the SA or K helmet which will have an auto use in mind, but I know others don't share this philosophy.

Good topic, look forward to hearing others thoughts on addressing the gap between renting and owning. Solving that step would likely generate a good chunk more membership.

[Jen and Don]

After reading your comments Jack, I can understand the reluctance by some having issues with the equipment purchases. But you earlier stated that the cost isn't usually a deciding factor whether to get into racing but if they are complaining about buying what is required, then I do see it as a cost issue for some. All that can be done. is to fully lay out what they need to be prepared to buy and do, in order to get into the sport. Short of taking them buy the hand, it all comes down to them making an informed decision whether they can afford it for one, and whether they have the time to put into it, in order to do well in the sport. I truly think that people are surprised at how difficult it is to be competitive early on. I know we were. But Carter logged a lot of seat time in his first year. Almost the whole first season he went without actually racing.(and with Jen having summers off, they were at the track constantly).
I think some parents expect big results instantly because they have invested a fair bit of money and don't fully realize the importance of seat time prior to starting to race.
Lets face it, it's not a cheap sport if you want to get good at it. We can't sugar coat it either or they will be in for a disappointment later on. Maybe a more detailed outline in the forum of what to expect when starting out. But with estimated dollar figures attached and explanations of why certain equipment is required and it's not just our administration requiring it. I know that some info is on there giving an outline of what classes run what kart and shows how the price is affected by which class you run. But like I said, more detail might be needed. Sure it might scare some away, but that comes with any sport. No body seems to balk at what equipment is needed in hockey but that is because the information is out there and standards are set. Ours is a unique sport. Way more unique than I originally thought.
As far as being thrown into the fire, it is very intimidating when first starting the sport. Our eyes were as big as saucers for weeks when we got started. It must be worse now for beginners due to the sheer numbers on the track now at T and T sessions. There's not many other sports out there where you are competing against others that are so far advanced and experienced. Hockey has House League for those that don't want to be at a high level. Unfortunately we can't really accommodate that here. Anything we do to try to make more room for other classes ( woman's class, beginners etc) will surely take away from our usual race format during the weekend.
I guess I wasn't aware of the "gap" as the numbers of memberships seemed to be growing at a very fast rate anyway. I think enviably there will have to be changes to race formats due to how fast we are growing already.
I certainly don't have the silver bullet, if there is one out there at all. If potential new members are given as much information as can be, then it's up to them to decide if it's a good fit at the moment. Regards, Don

[Fubar686]

I'll offer some input

I joined up last year as a first timer, I had driven some karts maybe 15 years prior at a rental place in Westbank, outside of that and sim racing I hadn't done any proper motorsport, so call it 0 experience. Went to rookie school in April before the snow had melted or I had gotten to try a proper kart. When it did melt I tried a kart with Alan and then promptly went searching for my own, found one and started practicing.

There were a compound of things that swayed me from bridging the gap and attending a race my first season, the first of which being the initial costs and second a combination of the costs and the competitiveness.

In my situation I own a sedan, didn't own a trailer and sea can storage was already booked for the year, thankfully Keith and Joey helped me store it for a while to get some T&T days in without having to rent a uhual each time, big thanks to them! I didn't have any problem with having to buy kart specific gear for safety, and after turning laps on just a briggs, I don't think I would want anything heavier than the required rating helmet anyway.

The big things that held me back were race day fees (entrance and transponder rental) on top of first season costs, while running 9 seconds behind pace and not having any experience in practice days jockeying for position. I've mostly fixed the 9 seconds off pace issue but the practice races would for sure help improve skill and confidence. With T&T not having competitive passing and being just practice, unless you have a buddy to joust with those skills aren't being developed, and I would certainly join mock races on practice days. If you ran all the classes 10min practice rotation and then had a mock race on the last rotation I would probably just be waiting around in the pits for just that. The race day and transponder rental fees are fair, my rational for not wanting to pay and participate right away was "why would I pay to accidently lockup like I still do in practice and probably ruin laps for others who also paid, maybe cause damage, maybe get hurt when I can have the rotax guys pass me all day at T&T for *free*"

Not sure if any of that rambling gives you some ideas or insight, but to summarize, mock races on practice days, yes please

[Naila&Tanveer]

I can speak to women's class being a great idea as a female racer myself for the last 10 years. I have had conversations with a few women volunteering at the track or even new to driving, and many of them do say it is daunting to enter. The womens class in Edmonton was great fun to race in, as it built our own small community where we can empower each other. No one is saying you have to race the women's class if you're a female but it will definitely bridge the gap as you mentioned.


-Naila

[Joey Guyon]

I really like this post. It's refreshing to hear feedback first hand from a new racer and their friends.

Perhaps once we compile a bunch of info, we can insert into the getting started section to simplify the story of Transponder / helmet etc.

Also, This idea of fun races. Not a bad one!

Perhaps on those 2-3 races there can be rookie senior briggs, and minimax on a weeknight?

best regards,

Joey Guyon
Overdrive Motorsports

[dvelpel]

Recalling my first race experience (minus the competitiveness fear) was mostly around am I ready, is my kart ready, and im I missing anything? Having some motorcycle racing experience I could guess, but I'm always learning.

meaning...
Do I have all the proper gear
Do I have a laptimer installed correctly and do I need todo anything with it?
Did I sign up for the race correctly
Is everything on kart safe and will it pass tech?
What do I need to bring on the race day? (Tools, Food, etc)
What does the race day look like? where do I need to be and by when?
Who do I talk to if I have a question?

I think there is a great opportunity from either the class rep or just individuals that want to mentor the new group to take this on. Maybe the Monday/Tuesday (allows enough time to remediate any gaps) before the race to sit down with the new people and walk them through everything. And this needs to be visible to the new comers or ensure we are checking in with them. They may not know who to ask and don't feel comfortable just walking up and asking. (at least I didn't feel comfortable)

[tay]

Good point about how unusual it is in most sports to have beginners alongside experts. e.g. motorcycle roadracing has skill based classes expert/intermediate/novice classes and I believe you have to earn points to advance.

I suppose the other problem is retaining beginner racers who make the jump. It's not super fun being the lone beginner racing around by yourself all season and they're more likely to quit, esp when competing against experts running new tires every weekend. It does seem like mock races could help them as well.

More Ideas:

Problem: Learning curve for beginners

• Put together a youtube playlist of videos (Basic rules, flags, how to change oil/tires, lead weights, walk through of raceday, CKRC raceday highlights, etc.

• Create a Whatsapp group for new members to quickly ask questions in. I know the forum exists but seems mobile chat could work better.

Problem: Up-front cost commitment to something new you're not sure you'll like

• Have a turn key basic briggs/equipment package for sale that rookies can purchase without having to research everything. This would help reduce uncertainty and effort which are classic sources of sales friction. Maybe try a kart participants get an incentive coupon

• Better advertised rent a kart options. I think someone offers these already but I could see some people being willing to pay a decent chunk to mock race or practice without buying their own kart immediately.

• Better advertised transponder rentals. I didn't even know this was a thing so I doubt most beginners will either

Problem: Logistic problems for those without trucks/trailers/home storage

• People who live in condos or who can't afford to buy a trailer on top of their initial kart investment would benefit from on-track storage. Maybe in the future some storage space could be reserved just for rookies so they don't have to buy a trailer their first year

Problem: Race day schedule limitations

• Split day schedules (e.g. Group 1 does practice/qualy/races and finish by noon then Group 2 does theirs all together in afternoon) I think this is how they did it at Nationals last year.
  
  Maybe that could be a way to add classes? It could also help address long days for volunteers (two half day volunteer groups instead of one long one) as maybe racers would be more willing to stay to work off RVF hours if they're at the track already

[phil]

Better advertised rent a kart options. I think someone offers these already but I could see some people being willing to pay a decent chunk to mock race or practice without buying their own kart immediately.
Better advertised transponder rentals. I didn't even know this was a thing so I doubt most beginners will either
Problem: Logistic problems for those without trucks/trailers/home storage
People who live in condos or who can't afford to buy a trailer on top of their initial kart investment would benefit from on-track storage. Maybe in the future some storage space could be reserved just for rookies so they don't have to buy a trailer their first year

On the rental side - Alan Haggerty- 403-652-0995, or [email protected]. There may be others as well, but he does everything from kid karts to shifter, either for private rentals, T&T, or race days.

Blake Newson is in charge of parking, and has been trying to ensure there is adequate sea can space for newcomers.

Phil