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Enduro 2017 Wrapup

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2017 9:16 pm
by Mark
Great race today; results here:

https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Events/1465125

Interested in hearing people's opinions on having to make weight -good or bad ?

Re: Enduro 2017 Wrapup

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 1:56 pm
by Hillbilly
Thank you to the organizers for putting this event on again this year. This provided me that opportunity to get a new member for next year out on the track and into racing for the first time, he was the guy running 1:18's...

I would prefer to not have to make weight in future races, although our team did. I like the format of this race with limited tech so you can run potentially less reliable / more powerful parts and see if they hold together for 3 hours and the need for pit strategy.

I would love to see more than one endurance race per year.

Re: Enduro 2017 Wrapup

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 6:41 am
by SteveO
My only thought was that if you're going to have weight classes, then all drivers on a team should make that weight, or really what's the point. With the Try A Kart Heavy team which finished 3rd in class, every driver easily made weight; I believe the same was true of Scott's team. Otherwise, why have any weight classes at all?

Re: Enduro 2017 Wrapup

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 8:43 am
by John Kwong
The discussion on the enduros usually only starts heating up within a week or two of each year's enduro, so you can imagine that any format changes are done on the fly. The weight classes was kind of a last minute bandaid to address some disparity in weights from previous enduros and to hopefully provide more motivation for more entries. 18 karts started the Senior race, 17 finished so the mechanical endurance part of the race is not really an issue and most of the drivers were experienced so physical endurance wasn't much of an issue either. Karts pretty much run until they get nearly out of gas. All those who decide to participate enjoy themselves and I believe for the most part have no major issues with the way the enduro runs. Every once in a while we tweak the rules to make it more "equal" or interesting.

Back in the Kart Gardens days when we worried less about putting time on a motor or chassis, the enduro race was 4 hours long and was run primarily with Honda 4 cycle motors and Yamaha 100cc 2 cycle motors. Eventually, it was reduced to 3 hours and we ran the entire Kart Gardens circuit including the rental kart section which made the race much more interesting. One year we had a mid-season 2 hour enduro. When we moved to Varsity Speed Park, 2 cycle karts had transitioned from Yamaha 100cc to 100cc Reed motors from Europe. These motors were more sensitive to the amount of running time and the enduro participation got smaller. With the introduction of the Rotax, enduros got better participation again. To invigorate further participation and to introduce new people to karting and pull a few drivers out of retirement, a new rule where you had to have someone on your team that had not raced that year. This is before the Try-A-Kart days and it is a wonder that we did not have any major incidents.

Here are some suggestions that we can discuss for future enduros.(These are all individual ideas and couldn't all be implemented)

1. Everyone starts with 2 litres of fuel and can only re-fill with a small 4 litre can at pitstops.
or
2. Enduro teams and their kart must meet a minimum combined weight of 500 lbs for Briggs, 550 lbs for Rotax and 570 lbs for Shifter kart
or
3. Briggs only race with each minimum of 3 driver team having to have a driver who has not raced that year and a Rotax or shifter racer on their team.
or
4. Transponder relay race (Tony Illing idea from way back) where each team uses several karts with the same type of motor to relay a transponder at pit stops.
or
5. Add your suggestion here

John K

Re: Enduro 2017 Wrapup

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 11:25 am
by Jaro51
Thanks for the context and history John!

I like ideas #2 & 3

How about having some iron butt (and ribs) categories. Solo 3 hr. Team 6 or 8 hr. Logistics of running a longer event might be tough but it'd be "fun" to have the opportunity push the limits a little and get to a point where each driver would have to do at least 2 stints. In my mountain bike races its a big step change to have to prepare yourself to get back out and perform for a second stint rather than doing just one and kicking back with a beer after you finish stint #1.

Big talk coming from a guy who put in all of 20 mins on Sunday :)

Re: Enduro 2017 Wrapup

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 9:39 pm
by Mark
My $0.02 worth is to embrace the wild west: no weights, run what you brung. Yamahas, Hondas, 206, Animal (gas and alcohol) shifters, ICA, Rotax, ROK, dual motor setups, Whatever !

2 classes: 4-Stroke and 2-stroke. Period.

All safety rules apply and all drivers must have completed an absolute minimum of 100 laps in the last 60 days at Northstar or other recognized track. Despite some rulesets in previous years, given the disparity in speeds, this is not an event for raw rookies -you must be able to hold a line and a minimum lap time (1:15 ?) and demonstrate both prior to being allowed to race. I volunteer to police this !

Re: Enduro 2017 Wrapup

Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 9:15 am
by pauldeadman
Id like to add that mindset to the junior 1s and let them run a black slide for the Enduro. We spoke about it quite a lots this season but never got all the kids together to do it at a T&T. It might help get more interest for the race. I'd still like to entertain a pit stop and 2 man team aspect to this race to make it more appealing, Could make it 1 hour long, reduce the time to 30 mins each drive.

Some reasons kids didn't show -

Heard rumors that it wasn't good to run the engine for 45 mins
kids just not interested in doing it
Too long no fun
Clashed with Hockey/soccer tryouts

I know its traditionally the end of season race but we had a big gap mid Aug-Mid Sept this year. Could it be scheduled at another time?

thanks
Paul

Re: Enduro 2017 Wrapup

Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:52 pm
by Nathan B
I like the wild west version of this as well. I think the weights were a little unnecessary and probably didn't affect the outcome at all.

As for the 100 lap minimum... I don't think I have even done 100 laps out there in the last 2 months! So that might be a little steep. I think a minimum lap time is more prudent, and if timing sees a driver not meeting the cut-off lap time for more than X laps in a row they should be called off the circuit.

Re: Enduro 2017 Wrapup

Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2017 5:45 pm
by franksartor
Guys,

Lots of fun that weekend along with some really sore ribs and hands. Great ideas. The reason we added in the weight rules was to provide more podium places, this is to give more teams the glory of finishing in the top 3 in their classes.

Cheers.