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| Rob Howden's 'The Bottom Line' - New Year's Resolutions |
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The following column was penned by SKI/EKN publisher Rob Howden and was printed in the January issue of Super Kart Illustrated. The call for an influx of positive enthusiasm into our sport was met with considerable support from the SKI readership and the feedback was very encouraging. In response to many requests, we have elected to post Rob’s editorial as today’s Top Story.
I was standing in a good friend’s kitchen on the evening of December 31, sipping a nice glass of vintage port in between bites of a homemade pizza when the age-old topic of New Year’s resolutions reared its ugly head. We all offered up the standard fare of eating better, living better, working less and vacationing more. My pal’s resolution was more succinct and rather honest, heading in the exact opposite direction: “I want to get fatter!” We all enjoyed a good laugh but there was something real to be found in his comment - it’s time to enjoy life and what we do.
Our party continued on through what would be a fun night out. Sitting in a booth at a trendy establishment late in the evening, my mind wandered as I ran the remains of an ice cube around the bottom of a now empty glass, thinking about my friend’s humorous resolution. What do I really want my New Year’s resolution to be this year? I know that I need to get back on the racetrack more than ever. I am also certain that I want to spend more time with my wife, whether at our home or on the road together attending an event. At this point in the night, however, I was thinking about the big picture…I was pondering a more significant resolution, one that might actually change how I approach every day.
There is something about turning the corner on a new year that affects me in a very positive way. Despite the fact that it’s really just another month, directly attached to the previously one with no monumental introduction, I get a renewed level of positive energy when we roll into January. The new calendar year brings with it the opportunity for a renewal of expectations, a chance to put all the negativity of the previous year behind you. It’s a fresh start.
That night at the bar, celebrating and truly relaxing in the company of great friends and the ‘good times’ atmosphere of this particular venue, it dawned on me. I found clarity in my essential goal for 2005 - get back to being positive. And in this moment of simplicity, it was this desire to return to my once-trademark positive outlook that has spurned me to write this month’s column. In the past, I was always the guy who was perennially happy. More recently, I have become less cheerful having been occasionally overcome with the negativity that abounds in our sport. Whether it’s the constant phone calls to the SKI office from people bitching about SKUSA, Stars or the WKA or the daily barrage of discontent on the Internet, I have become battle-scarred and tired. I had the occasional epiphany this past year (road racing and Rock Island) but it wasn’t anything that I was able to sustain for more than a week or two. It’s now time to make wholesale changes.
 | | Rob Howden |
I think the genesis of this basic concept comes from the fact that I have had it with the negative tone our sport has taken over the past few years. I see, hear and read it everywhere. There is just an underlying theme of disgruntlement in our sport and I find it to be extremely damaging.
When it comes to sanctioning bodies and racing organizations, it seems that people think that there is always something wrong. It appears that racers simply cannot be satisfied. SKUSA answered the prayers of national level racers in 1999 with a compact list of just four classes, bucket loads of track time and a professional show of the quality not seen in our sport. We proceeded to critique the program to death, calling it to task on any error, always wanting more, never being satisfied. At its peak, it was probably all that we will ever need. Stars entered the scene and has now taken over, complete with a prize package for aspiring pros that is unrivaled. They have matched SKUSA’s competence in regards to race operations and they put on a brilliant show whenever they unload the series trailer. Still, they are consistently barraged with damaging criticism, even from this publication.
Is this realism or just an underlying negative approach? You decide. I know I have.
My company recently acquired our sport’s premier website – Ekartingnews.com – and one of my goals with the site will be to inject a feeling of positive excitement into our community. Over the past two years, an attitude has developed on the site’s forum which has become quite disturbing from our position on the sidelines. A negative tone of discontent and pettiness has crept into this online venue, which was once a place for constructive communication and positive banter. Gone was the quick offer of assistance to a new karter with a question, replaced by the constant barrage of warring words and a regular stream of gripes about which organization sucked and how they screwed up or were ‘taking it to the racers’. Blaney and I have commented on several occasions that a new karter with a tech query will be left ignored for days while a thread on how much SKUSA or Stars sucks will run rampant for weeks with a steady stream of posts.
That’s just sad. And it needs to be fixed.
One of the regular threads of negative opinion that I hear and read is that industry people are getting rich ‘off the backs of the karters’. First off, no one is getting rich in this sport, and second, a bunch of people should be. If you could just peel back the layers of the sport and put the personalities to the sidelines, it is a business just like any other. The guys who are dedicating their lives to providing an industry for karting should be making money, and I would hope a great deal of it. No one complains that a McDonalds owner is banking big dollars but if a karting promoter tries to make cash, he’s the devil. Again, this is part of the negative thread that has infected our sport. There’s no real support for the people who are actually making it happen. For every event you attend, there’s a man or woman or team of them behind the scenes who are putting in the extra hours to make it happen.
The bottom line here is that I would love to see the people who are involved in our sport begin to actually enjoy it. Instead of getting up in the morning with an unconscious objective to be critical of what is happening in karting, why don’t we just enjoy it for what it is and do what we can to support it? This is not to say that there isn’t a place for constructive criticism or suggestions, but the manner of delivery is crucial to obtaining the desired response.
There are so many things that we can do to make small steps to inject a stream of positive energy into karting. Here’s an example: if you have purchased a product either online, over the phone or at a shop, and you haven’t received the goods at the time expected, how about picking up the phone to check on the shipping and arrival times. On how many occasions have you read a forum post or overheard a conversation where someone is slamming one of the sport’s companies without having even called the business personally to make an inquiry. It boggles my mind. We get it here at the SKI offices all the time. If we could just stop those negatives and unnecessary comments from circulating, that would be a great start. But there’s so much more.
There are so many ways that you yourself can help turn our sport back in a completely positive direction. The absolute first step would be to have fun at your next race. Whether you’re running a club event, the next big road race or heading to the opening round of the Stars of Karting national series, actually ‘plan’ to have a great time. When you get to the track, be patient with registration, chat it up with the tech guy, enjoy the competition and have a BBQ at the end of the day with a few cold ones. And then remember that there are a load of people out there that either can’t afford to participate or just don’t know about our great sport. I like to think I’m lucky to be at any racetrack.
Personally, I know that I am going to consciously try to approach every aspect of my business in a more positive manner. Karting has so much going for it right now and it all comes down to the fact that it’s a cool sport full of great people. I understand that this entire may be akin to slipping those rose-colored glasses back on, but I know that for sure, I had more fun back then. And glasses or not, I’d like it to be that way again. And I’d like you all to join me.
Race safe,
RH - SKI |
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