Karting?

[V8VENOM]

Having done America Iron for a year or two and soon running out of money, I'm now Karting (125cc 6 speed Stock Moto). I'm curious as to why the SCCA supports Karting but NASA does not?

 

Now that I'm more involved in Karting (Russell series, SKUSA, NCK, etc.), I've noticed that there are many smaller organization of Karting that could and probably should be brought under one larger National organization.

 

Karting is becoming more and more popular and is VERY affordable. Many Pro racers started in Karting and/or have gone thru a Karting series (Stars of Tomorrow series sponsored by Red Bull) at some point. Obtaining sponsorship in Karting is also considerably easier than many other series due again the lower cost to sponsor.

 

When I ran American Iron, I could not afford to do ALL the races let alone do any type of off season testing or other weekend testing. In AI I had to pretty much show up and hope -- not exactly the best way for me to try to win races. My only saving grace was that most (not all) of the other AI drivers were in the same boat, show up and hope.

 

Due to the affordability of Karting, I can be at the track every weekend testing and tuning and preparing for races -- as can all my competition. The end results are very tight fields of racers. For example the SKUSA event in Las Vegas had 30-40 drivers in the same class separate by <2 seconds for the entire field and the top 10 drivers < 2/10ths.

 

Since NASA has made provisions for such activity as "drifting" in the parking lot and/or on track, it is my hope that NASA could make the same provisions for Karting.

 

For those not familiar with the performance aspect of Karts:

Braking forces 2g

Corner forces 3g+

125 CC Stock Motor shifter = 100 mph top speed (laps Infineon at 1:47)

125 CC ICC Shifter = 120 mph top speed (laps Infineon 1:42)

250 CC single shifter = 135 mph top speed (laps Infineon 1:40)

250 CC twin shifter = 160 mph top speed (laps Infineon 1:37)

 

Rob.