Briggs Jr classes proposal .

[Mac Norman]

I think my picture of this was to combine the classes and the participants all run gold plate with the same weight. If that is the proposal, this would insure that the lap times would be close enough that no-one would get run over. What do you think about leaving the purple plates to race by themselves and learn racing technique, advance the blue plates to gold plates, and talk the unrestricted guys to moving down to gold plate? Hey Rick, How extensive is the difference between blue and gold plate racing? Are we talking about a tremendous jump? Would this create a large class that would be a lot of fun w/o compromising safety?

Or, someone could just donate Animals to the lot of us and we could stick with WKA rules!!!
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Mac

[Dale Seeley]

I have no dog in this fight, so to speak.

1. What other local tracks run Gold Plate at the proposed weight? When people who are not already racing in Barnesville come to Barnesville, are they going to have to decide between adjusting engine and weight to the local specification, or not coming?

2. I flagged the last racedate, and was very glad my kid was not running a fourcycle anymore. Equal weight and engines to not mean equal speeds and ability, and certainly not equal laptimes. There were sevewral 'new drivers' who were in the combined qualifying session who were a serious hazard to everyone else on the track, in a competition setting. (this didn't just happen in 4 cycle, just ask Brent). Putting those new drivers in a faster than normally available kart would have made it much worse. Yes, there are always new drivers, and I welcome them. Shoving them in with really experienced drivers from multiple classes is probably not the best way to introduce them to the sport.

We're talking about kids getting lapped 5 times in 10 laps here, not once or twice in ten laps.

3. If the Flatheads are disappearing from the National classing structure, we *should* begin phasing them out at our Regional Level. That does not mean obsolete all the older engines, just make them compete on an uneven playing field with the replacement Animal engine. Those that are invested in Flatheads can continue to run and rebuild them for fun, those who desire to win will eventually upgrade to the Animal.

[Mike Pugh]

Mac your picture is what I was proposing .
But after review , posts , and several emails Maybe combine the blues with the unrestricted and make one class for gold plate.
And keep a purple plate class for rookies and newbies .
Then we have to come up with a fair weight .

And like Mac said .
Would this create a large class that would be a lot of fun w/o compromising safety?
Safety is my #1 concern ,having a group to race with is my 2nd,having no one to race with will send me somewhere else .

And Dale
Very good points .
We were at Darlington last week and they had the gold plate class at 300 lbs.They also had a blue plate class .The blue plates were faster than the gold .(weight differance I suspect )
As far as phasing out the flathead , How many animals show up at the track ?
None .
We have a fair amount of flatheads and I'm for one not ready to give it up quite yet .
This could be a class that would grow fast because of the fact that the flathead has dropped from the national scene and there is a boat load of them still out there.

Just getting input now .
Wka has no rules for this class because they dropped them .
It is open for discussion !!!
Or we can go back to last years classes with small classes .

Ok , I will put my neck back in the guillotine now.
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[Southern Star Karting]

Another comment from a newbie to this class is that if i am putting the time and effort into a kart for my son , he will loose interst very quickly if he runs with only 2 or 3 karts.

I agree that new drivers should start in a rookie class and get some needed experience, but, the experience needs to be with a good size class.

I do have a suggestion for the club that seemed to work well in the past and that is to have rookie orinantation day for junor drivers to the club and give them some sort of a certificate after completion of the day. ( kids love recognition)

As for myself I would be happy to pay a fee to have my son go through a rookie day taught by someone else .

[Darrin Tebbe]

The way the club is doing it now is the way it should be. Stick to the WKA guidelines and just run purple & blue together and the unrestricted ones together. I've already bolted 50 pounds to my sons kart, and no way would I bolt another 50 pounds on. No way I want him running with teenagers either.

We run the local races to "train" for nationals, and running my 8 year old at 300 pounds with a gold plate would be pointless other than general seat time.

DT

[Mike Pugh]

Hey Dtebbe
Point well taken .
I guess I didn't think all the way through the age thing before I made the post .

You guys must be running an animal if your training for nationals .
If you are running a flathead you need to look at 08's class structure 1st .
http://www.worldkarting.com/pg/series/gc/gc-classes.html

Ok guy's .
There are too many negatives for me to carry on .
I've done dropped the ball .
If someone else wants to pick it up go ahead .
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[Dale Seeley]

just change (make a new) poll.... Dtebbe's proposal sounded good to me... not that I'm even in the class....

[Mike Pugh]

Dale , did you almost pick up the ball ?

Maybe I should have kicked around the idea 1'st before I done poll ?

I liked Steve's idea .

[Darrin Tebbe]

[quote="Rippinrace"]Hey Dtebbe
Point well taken .
I guess I didn't think all the way through the age thing before I made the post .

You guys must be running an animal if your training for nationals .
If you are running a flathead you need to look at 08's class structure 1st .
http://www.worldkarting.com/pg/series/gc/gc-classes.html

My son is not quite ready for the nationals yet, I'm hoping to take him to Charlotte the end of next year. We will probably keep running his flathead locally since I've got 2 of them and they are not that far off the animal in purple plate form. I just mainly want him running at 250# like he will have to in WKA events, and we will be running the DCM tires / wheel combo we have to run just so I can get an idea of what it takes to make the kart work. Probably mid year next year the animal will go on, and if all goes well he'll be ready for Charlotte in the fall. Hopefully he'll do better than dad did last month

And as far as having racers, we are planning on making most all of the races next year, he'll be running purple plate.

DT