On Saturday December 5, Kart Shops from around Western Canada met at the Calgary, Alberta airport to discuss the future of karting from a grass roots perspective.
Hosted by Overdrive Motorsports’ Joey Guyon, the other dealers in attendance were: Guy Budel of BRE Karting in Winnipeg, Dave Campbell of Karting Canada in Saskatoon, Keith Miller of KM Motorsports in Regina, and Scott Sinclair of SKZ Motorsports in Edmonton. Due to prior commitments important members could not attend in person but communicated by e-mail prior to the meeting: Blake Choquer of BBR Karting, Danny Kacic of CRG West/CRG Nordam, Steve Rickman of The Racelab, and Kevin Dowler of Apollo Motorsports.
After discussing the various versions of the Western Canadian Championships from 2007 to 2014 and the Canadian Summer Challenge invitational in 2015, it was clear to all parties that club based racing and fun events need to be the priority of race organizers in order to rebuild the base of karters from which to draw at larger events.
For the moment multi-race regional and national championships (with World’s Tickets) will be on the back-burner in favour of one-off events with unique themes. In order for these to achieve success, a few points were deliberated – among them: uniform club regulations, club schedules with the fewest conflicts, and ongoing communication.
“To Create Seamless Intra-Club Travel” was the mission statement chosen by the group
Recommended travel dates for Western Canadian Karters will be:
July 29-31 Canadian Summer Challenge in Warburg, AB (Edmonton)
September 10-11 Alberta Shootout rounds 3 and 4 Strathmore, AB (Calgary)
For Rotax Racing, the group will suggest to their clubs to delay the implementation of the “lettered cylinder rule” requiring 2011 and newer cylinders exclusively, while informing racers of the rule at the National Level.
While edging toward unified Briggs LO206 regulations the likely SR category tire rule will be:
B.C. Vega Blue 4.6/6.5 @ 55”
Alberta Mojo D2 4.5/7.1 @ 55”
Saskatoon D1 4.5/6.0 @ ASN width
Regina will table Alberta regs vs. Saskatoon regs at their rules meeting
Winnipeg will likely stay with ASN regs and BRE Karting will offer members loaner 210mm rims for Alberta events
Please stay tuned for more suggested race dates and information on their events. For Questions on this Press Release, Please contact Joey Guyon @ Overdrive Motorsports via email: info@odkarts.com
