CKRC Forums

Before the beginning of the season there was some concern as to where the Rotax motor's future and the direction of it's popularity was going to head with the U.S. market being shook up over the dissolution of a major Rotax importer. I figured, now that we have come through this season, it would be worth looking at our numbers to see what if any changes had occurred.

After 8 races these are the numbers for participation in Rotax in 2017:

CKRC

Senior Rotax

R2 - 5
R3 AB Shoot-Out - 7
R4 AB Shoot-Out - 8
R5 - 9
R6 - 7
R7 - 3
R8 - 6
R9 - 3
Avg - 6 with a total of 13 drivers participating in the championship

Rotax Masters

Race 2 - 11
R3 AB Shoot-Out - 12
R4 AB Shoot-Out - 12
R5 - 12
R6 - 12
R7 - 11
R8 - 10
R9 - 13
Avg - 11.6 with a total of 24 drivers participating in the championship

The average entry number for Rotax senior in 2016 was 5.5 and 9.76 entries for Rotax Masters.

Just for some relevance, here is what EDKRA and West Coast Kart Club are doing for participation numbers in their Rotax classes:

EDKRA

Senior Rotax

Race 1 - 5
R2 - 4
R3 - 4
R4 - 4
R5 - 2
R6 - 2
R7 - 3
R8 - 3
R9 - 2
R10- 3
Avg - 3.2 with a total of 6 drivers participating in the championship

Rotax Masters

Race 1 - 10
R2 - 7
R3 - 7
R4 - 6
R5 - 4
R6 - 4
R7 - 3
R8 - 4
R9 - 3
R10 - 3
Avg - 5.1 with a total of 12 drivers participating in the championship

West Coast Kart Club

Rotax Senior
Race 1 - 8
R2 - 12
R3 - 10
R4 - 11
Avg - 10.25 with a total of 16 drivers participating in the championship

TAG Heavy (they don't have a Rotax Masters class)
Race 1 - 3
R2 - 4
R3 - 6
R4 - 6
Avg - 4.75 with a total of 8 drivers participating in the championship

Considering the economic downturn that the Alberta economy has seen the past couple years we have done well to increase our numbers slightly. There will continue to be Rotax bashing south of the border and pushing alternate engines such as Rok and X30 or X125 and it is hard not to become confused and distracted by this media. Love it or hate it the Rotax we have now is the most maintenance free, best performing and equal motor they have ever produced. As new racers who have joined our Alberta clubs begin to seek faster classes to race in, I believe the Rotax numbers will come back. There have been other years where the Rotax numbers dwindled to mid single digits and that was with only a single rotax class (read no masters) and the class rebounded then as well.

Will the future lead to multiple engine brands running together like the GearUp F series or will we stay the course as Canada has always done with one brand of power plant? Are there weight options to make it feasible for PreVO Rotax configurations to run and be competitive so that the masses of older rotaxes could be coaxed out of retirement? Let's share your thoughts and concerns so that we can grow the classes back to solid double digit participation.

John Kwong

Good data -thanks for digging that up. Interesting to note that those numbers show that Rotax doesn't actually qualify to be a class under our bylaws !

I think it is hugely important for people to consider that for any class to succeed, it needs support. By that, I'm talking about parts and knowledge. Having 4 different TAG motors in the club with weight breaks is a nightmare for a shop. We are fortunate to have Overdrive and the loveable Jo-jo to feed us wisdom; we can't expect the level of support we currently enjoy if we have multiple brands vying for supremacy. Love the Rotax or hate it, a single motor is the way to go. If Rotax can stop changing things for a year, people might not want to throw their stuff in the trash and replace it so much !

Great detective work there John!!!

I agree completely with you that sticking with Rotax is the way to go, as there is a sizable inventory of used parts & gear available in the local market. Mixing in other classes such as the X30 only complicates things dramatically, and will ultimately kill the class, and make it an Open series.

You've got a good point regarding the non-Evo engines, but coming up with a weight differential could be an interesting task. But it's something that should definitely be considered.

One other possibility worth throwing out is that if there really are that many non-evo spec motors floating around, would it be worth considering a weeknight night series for them like Edmonton does with DD2 ?

It looks like John is on top of the stats as usual

I think it is a good idea to find a way to bring back as much of the old Rotax equipment into racing as possible. A mid-week race format could be appealing. I did investigate buying my old Rotax engine back but when I looked at the cost to upgrade it, it simply didn't make sense to me. Feedback that I received was that it wouldn't match the performance of the newest EVO version anyway.

I do find the X30 a fun engine to drive and from my perspective it is simpler to work with. The engine hasn't given me any performance issues since I bought it (aside from needing to use the external starter). Attending races at Warburg was more fun this summer because race performance/ results actually counted in the end of the day. Whilst I do appreciate the senior drivers welcoming me into the Rotax class, not actually being part of the results has made it less motivating for me to come out and race this year. It's kind of liking paying extra for T&T.

I do respect the thoughts and decisions of the CKRC Rotax drivers and executive team to keep things the same in Calgary with the Rotax classes.