Tillsonburg Outlaws.
Comments on the combined race last night.
Who poked the Hornets nest?
Things were buzzing this week when the racers arrived and discovered the Juniors and Seniors were going to have the experience of racing with a full track by combining the groups for one race, in essence one 1/3 of the night.
In reality we have been doing this every year and sometimes twice but it always surprises me how much resistance there is to try something new.
The detractors, ("the sky is falling") will point out all the bad things that could happen.
The indifferent, ("whatever") deal with it and take it in stride and continue on.
The supporters,( "was that ever fun") will quietly come over later and say that was cool.
I heard all three versions this week.
If you never try anything difficult, the easy stuff becomes the new difficult.
The reality is:
The race was really exciting.
It takes a bit longer to line up the drivers after a caution.
The best drivers place well regardless of the number of karts on the track.
We have some very good drivers which enabled the 18 kart field.
So just what does the club hope to achieve as a result of occasionally combining the two groups for a single race?
The answer is multi pronged.
For racing to be fun, a driver needs to learn and improve and be challenged each night. A strong point of this club has been our ability to provide this to both the new racers and the multi season veterans. It does take different approaches to achive both though.
Helping the more advanced drivers actually requires making it harder for them to win. As in starting them at the back as a reward for doing well the prior week. Most clubs put their fastest drivers near the front of every start. Our method provides an opportunity to make lots of passes. This system also gives the newer members an easier chance of winning to improve their confidence but does nothing to improve their passing skills. To improve their passing skills we eventually try to blend in some slower drivers when doing so will help both parties.
Further, two things have started to show up in the Senior class. Passing has become infrequent as the speed of the group increased and there are not any racers off the pace enough to create lapped traffic resulting in less passing opportunity. The second, is drivers crashing has little consequence because the karts don't break and the restart position is likely only a couple places back which they likely can recover from. Evidence of this? The Seniors have had multicar pile ups before the race even starts. We can send them to the back, but really it's not much of a penalty with a 6-8 kart field. A full starting grid addresses these two dilemma's, More karts for the Seniors to pass and unneccesary crashing has a larger impact on the restart. ( additional incentive to not crash). The Juniors get something out of it too, namely confidence that they can keep up just fine and the next level is certainly attainable. All around it is win-win situation for both divisions.
Could a race that accounts for 1/36 th of the season effect the outcome of the series? Absolutely! Every race, every pass, every result effects the series. Every racer stands before the same challenges to get to the Championship goal. Since the club is trying to neither assist or prevent anyone from winning a championship, adding a new opportunity for drivers to learn and improve should not be passed over because there are objections. Isn't that the point of having a series, to determine who did best OVERALL?
Whether our current racers go no further than Tillsonburg or move on to faster and likely more expensive racing, they will be better racers from their experiences in Tillsonburg, including a full race track occasionally.
As a result of our high intensity style of racing, our drivers are more skilled than most parents would have ever imagined when they first entered the club.
Initially happy to just have their drivers go around the track without spinning out or hitting the wall or getting in the way.
Last night those same kids put on one heck of a race comparable to any National Event you are likely to come across.
The nights results will follow on a separate email, but the link for this single race is below.
Link to the feature race.
Dave Chesterman.
Chesterman Power Products
Tillsonburg Indoor MX
Tillsonburg Outlaw Kart Club
www.chesterman.ca519-842-5977
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