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| EKN One-on-One: Buddy Long - World Karting Association |
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 | Buddy Long
(Photo: K.R.A.P.P Photos) |
The World Karting Association is one of the prominent sanctioning bodies in the sport of karting. Servicing a wide variety of aspects for the sport of karting and its many different disciplines, WKA is a busy organization. Not only does WKA provide five different national programs, it provides the basis for karting regulations in all five divisions from class structure and safety standards, to race procedure and driver conduct. The organization works with tracks one-on-one, to help provide a solid foundation at the local level of the sport, as well as dealing with key members of the diverse industry in the United States and abroad.
One series program that has increased in numbers over the last few years under the WKA banner has been the Manufacturers Cup Series. The 2-cycle sprint program has seen entry numbers into the 500 and 600 mark, with drivers from California and throughout the east coast competing in the five to six events per season.
A number of people are behind the drive that has made the Manufacturers Cup Series so successful. WKA Director of Operations Buddy Long is just one of the persons behind the scenes that make the series what it is today. We had a chance to speak with him about WKA and the success of the Manufacturers Cup Series.
eKartingNews: Your title states ‘Director of Operations’. Give us a quick overview of what that entails?
Buddy Long: Basically it started out as taking care of the operationally needs physically of an event from the time we leave here (Concord, NC) till the time we go to the track and come back. Mostly, it’s dealing with loading and unloading of trailers, the maintenance of everything, making sure everything is there where we needed it, coordination with the event’s track operators, making sure all the I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed, for all five major WKA series, in coordination with everyone here at the WKA office. I deal with hiring the national staff and the officials that go to the different events, taking care of their travel needs, the payroll. Every physical aspect of an event, pretty much falls in my lap to make sure it’s done and done properly.
EKN: On average, how many hours do you spend preparing for one event and in-turn, how many are spent wrapping up a WKA national event?
BL: I’ve prepare for events so far in advance typically for our events, around three month prior to. But adding in the physical preparations of loading the trailer and such things, I would say a week worth time at least, a good 40 hours physically and administratively.
 | The Junior categories continue to show high numbers year after year
(Photo: Sean Buur - Go Racing Magazine) |
EKN: What have been some highlights you’ve seen in the first three events of the 2012 Manufacturers Cup Series?
BL: I would say the continued turn-over rate we have with the Junior programs. When we lose some of our drivers on the lower level, like the Cadets to the next level of racing groups, there are that many more that come in behind that. I’ve been just amazed from year to year of the continued growth even when we do lose drivers. The development of our Yamaha Rookie Sportsman class has done very well and the continued work that has been done with our TaG class. When you have so many engine packages that you have to deal with and corresponding weights to keep a level playing field, it’s really tough. I think one thing that really has improved is the decline of aggressive driving. The last two or three races have seen severe penalties put on drivers to ensure that this is going to be curbed. Your running with the best of the best, you need to be treated as such out on the race track.
EKN: The series has welcomed some record numbers in recent years from event to event. What do you think attribute to that success?
BL: I think it is a variety of different things. There is a lot of hard work done by many people, not just within WKA but the industry itself. Our office staff, the tech officials, race staff, the competition committee and our board of trustees that support what we do. There is so much work that goes into developing these classes and trying to keep them on a level playing field for each driver as much as we possibly can. When you think about our dirt program and the 2000 entries that we once enjoyed in Daytona, people ask when are we going to get back to that, or why is the Manufacturers Cup so successful now? And a lot of people say it is because of where the best is. It had to start somewhere. It always was fairly strong, but lately it’s just gained that much more strength. What made it gain that much more, I’m not sure. A lot of people just it’s where the best run. If you want to measure yourself against anyone as to how you are maturing and how you are developing in your career, you race in the Manufacturers’ Cup Series.
EKN: Since you are at other WKA events, such as the Gold Cup and Oval programs, what has stood out in those programs thus far?
BL: With the Gold Cup series, we’ve add a few 2-cycle classes. This goes back to the day of, before I was even here, when 2 & 4-cycle sprint racing was unit before they developed into two programs outside of each other. The economy really knocked down the Gold Cup series really good and now it’s building itself back up. I think the variety that we have now, with not only the Briggs & Stratton classes but now the Clone classes and also the 2-Cycle classes, affords them an option to race in many different types of categories. As such, that series has been on the rise.
Our Pavement program, we’ve really had to get back to grass-roots racing. The national program dipped below the 200 entry mark and really, that’s pretty much on life support when it comes to breaking even at a national event with the amount of staff you need to bring there in order to make it professional and successful. We’ve gone back to our divisional programs now, where we had one division program last year we now have six. And what we’ve developed is each one will have a ‘Super Regional’. And there, drivers will not only run for double points, the winners in each class will get a guaranteed starting spot in the one and only major event we have for the Pavement program, which is up in Buffalo, NY at Chapel Hill Raceway (August 10-12). What this does is eliminate the four-race national program, and with gas prices threatening to go up, saves a lot of racers in travel costs. They now only have to travel once. And for the most part, if they have a divisional close to their own back-yard, they can run for the bulk of their season for a national championship and only travel one time. We hope it will develop more local talent to get back to the grass-roots level again through the divisional and give them that one shot at going to Chapel Hill Raceway and one victory away from the national championship. We think that is something that will be well received.
 | The TaG division hosts some of the top drivers in the country
(Photo: Sean Buur - Go Racing Magazine) |
EKN: Is that something WKA has done with the Dirt program as well?
BL: We have, but it’s a little bit different. We have created some ‘Super Regional’ events for tracks that wanted to participate. Of course, not only are these ‘Super Regional’ winners guaranteed starting spots, but also the divisional champions as well. We are still fighting an up-hill battle with regards to the Dirt as there is such a strong inception of money races throughout the south. We’ve always been about the prestige of winning the national championship. I think there are a lot of people that still would like to go that route. Not everybody likes money races. It’s an element that brings out the best in some and the not so best in others. There is only going to be a select handful that is going to be successful at what they are doing at the money while the rest of them aren’t going to be as fortunate.
I think as we go to Daytona this year, and we are going to be releasing our format in the month of June for our Dirt World Championships, you will see the insertion of some money events that should bring kart counts back. If you can get one camp, whether it’s an Ultramax, a Phantom, the group from High Tech Racing and Millennium chassis, if you can get one of those groups coming the others will follow. I think if we can have some fairly decent purses at some of theses races, combined with the prestige of going to Daytona for the Dirt World Championships, we are on the right path to the ability of having solid numbers. It will never get back to 2000. If it can get halfway there, or between 700 and 1000, I’d be pretty darn happy.
EKN: Getting back to the Man. Cup Series, what are some things that have been improved regarding the operations of the events over the past few years?
BL: For ourselves, I think just a better knowledge each year of what we face and the game plan of what we have when we go to an event. I think just a better working knowledge of making events better, fine-tuning it, figuring out where our flaws are, and making things more efficient from an operational standpoint. For me, my two major events are Daytona and Kershaw as we promote those directly. What is key for me, and I’m the driving force, is parking. You get them in, you keep them happy, and you hand them off to the race staff to keep them happy. When we go to those facilities, even though we have set times for parking, if there is ever any way to advance those times, I’ll do it. That gets them in earlier, that gets them parked, that gets them unloaded earlier, and that gets them more time to roam the paddock and see fellow racers. It creates a very good harmonious atmosphere so that when they hit that track on Friday for practice, everybody is in a good mood. It’s these customer service things that we are always trying to do and try to stay ahead. Whether it’s the most minuet detail or not, but just continuing to fine-tune what we already have in place.
EKN: Aside from parking, are there things from your point of view that need to be improved on in order to provide the WKA racers with a better experience at the Manufacturers Cup Series events?
BL: I think there is always room for improvement. What those could be, I’m not sure off the top of my head. When we go to Michiana Raceway Park, one of the things I like is the cookout that Target Distributing has done for many years. I think that is a wonderful deal. When you go to some of these tracks, you get so overloaded when you have multiple events, it’s very difficult to do that. Anytime you can have a function that brings your crowd, your racers, your families together prior to or in the evening of an event, I think that can only help. I think that makes the sport that much stronger.
EKN: You get to see probably all the many different type of racers under the World Karting Association banner. You’ve seen a number of young drivers climb up the racing ladder in the past few years. Do you think you can pin-point maybe one or two drivers from any division that we may be hearing from in the future, be it NASCAR, IndyCar, or in Sports Car divisions?
BL: Well, there are a lot I think you can mention but it all comes down to economics. I don’t know what drivers today will have the money to carry them that much further. The most recent one that we’ve had in karting is Trevor Bayne. He ran our dirt and pavement oval programs and his family was pretty good financially which afforded him the opportunity to get into the right circles where he is today. And Trevor backed it up with a victory in the Daytona 500 and other successes. It depresses me as the economics of the progression ladder takes away a lot of talented drivers because today you have to bring money to run a truck or a car. One of the talents that stood out and has done well all season long is Mason Chelootz. He was very impressive at the Pittsburgh International Race Complex event last month. Just watching how he was, just not out front but how he handled himself if he was back in third, fourth or fifth and made his way back up - while dealing with some of the best of the best that have been around for a few years. He would be one I’d like to see how far he can go. But there are many like him in all our programs.
 | Mason Chelootz is on par to become the next member of the prestigious Triple Crown club
(Photo: Sean Buur - Go Racing Magazine) |
EKN: When not working with WKA, you provide your voice for a number of different radio broadcasts throughout the season. Tell us what you do when not at the kart track or WKA office?
BL: I work as a turn announcer for MRN Radio. I have worked there for the same period of time that I’ve been with WKA. When I came here in 2001, I had just begun working as a turn announcer for MRN, which is also located here in Concord. I basically auditioned at the All-Star race many years ago, back when it was known as the Winston, and was afforded the opportunity to work with them. I do quite I bit of the stand-alone events for the Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck Series, when they are not running with the Sprint Cup Series. Within the last few years, the Grand-American Sports Car Series has fallen under the NASCAR flag, and MRN has picked up their events. While their still struggling to get the same amount of listenership or stations, it’s become very enjoyable to do. With the economy the way it is recently, you look at tracks like Nashville, Memphis, Milwaukee, Mansfield, Lucas Oil Raceway Park in Indy, these are all tracks that have gone off the schedule that have hosted Nationwide and Truck events that I’ve lost. I’m thankful for the Grand-Am series, because if it wasn’t for that program, I’d have just 8-9 events to broadcast from. Even though it’s not the oval racing that I’m a custom to, and I wasn’t a huge fan of sports car racing, I really have embraced the series between the Prototype and GT cars. It’s really fun to do and I enjoy it very much.
EKN: How did you get your start working as an announcer?
BL: I began as a local track announcer in Budds Creek, Maryland at Potomac Speedway. It’s border by an NHRA dragstrip facility and also one of the main sites for the show ‘Pinks’. The other side is a national motorcross facility that hosts one AMA event every year. Around 13 or 14, when my dad took me up there, I fell in love with racing. Next thing you know, I just began writing articles for a local paper because nobody was giving it any press. To be honest, I can’t tell you how it transferred from writing to broadcast. I can’t put my finger on what prompted me to go from writing to the broadcast booth. A local radio station DJ was doing the track announcing, and he really didn’t know much about the track, flirting with the girls outside his window, doing this and that. It was comical. One weekend he couldn’t make it. I’ll never forget one Sunday I was sitting home eating breakfast and I got a call from the promoter saying he can’t make it, you are up in the booth. I went and did a short track race that day and later that week the promoter fired that announcer and I was thrown in there at the age of 15. I didn’t even have a license to drive to a race track. After that, it went from one extreme to another with a variety of dirt tracks in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia. Little by little, I kinda tied into some karting events. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time when I was at Richmond International Raceway, a good friend of the president of MRN at the time asked about me and what I was up to. Asking why I had not sent in a resume or tape to MRN. One week later I was doing an audition and after that they took the chance and all has been good. This year they are more into internet radio shows, as I’m doing a weekly Modified show (Modified Madness on MRN) with a fellow by the name of Kyle Rickey. I enjoy that as well.
EKN: What was the last kart race that you did play-by-play for?
BL: I believe it was last August. We were up in Selinsgrove Raceway Park in Pennsylvania for the Speedway Dirt Series. It was a combined event with the Pennsylvania Dirt Karting Series and we were trying to save money. We knew our numbers were a little low but we still wanted as many of our officials as we could to make it work. I know I was going up as the rep, so I said I would announce. I had an absolute ball. I hadn’t done it for two to three years for a full weekend. People were just ecstatic for me to be back and doing it. I haven’t been a good caretaker of the pipes, so to speak, with an occasional cigar here or there along with some soda pop. Needless to say, the longevity of the pipes isn’t there like it used to be (laughing). When it comes to an MRN event, it’s not to hard for 2 or 3 hours in a corner, but when it comes to 2 or 3 days in a row of doing a karting event, it kinda wears me down.
EKN: It’s great to speak with you Buddy and we look forward to seeing you at the track soon.
BL: I look forward to it. And I thank eKartingNews.com for everything you’ve done and I hope we can keep this momentum rolling for some time. |
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