Can’t wait to see who wins the EKN battle.  I got money on Howden!

I’m so bummed that i had to pull out this year. First time not racing the rock in years. I’m still driving up to catch the action on Sunday. Good luck to all!!

David

Were here made a stop at Steve’s bar every thing looks good to go.

Eric,Val, and Denny

The Karting Zone

Thank you Roger and all of the volunteers that make this event the best street race in America.   You dedication and hard work shows the minute you arrive.   Anyone who don’t come to your event is missing the most fun they could ever have in a go kart!  The town embraces the racers!  If this is not on your “Racing Bucket List”  you better throw your old one away and start with this!   Thanks again for your year long work that you put into this fantastic event!

The Grand Prix doesn’t actually end for us until probably around Thursday when all the fence, barrels, crash pillows and other equipment are stored away for another year. Thanks to all the volunteers and racing staff who help make this happen. You are the best. And thanks especially to all of the amazing racers, staff and families who come to Rock Island. You help make this event really special.

I have lots of great racing memories from this event, but that Yamaha SuperCan race was something special. Pretty sure there were about 7 different leaders!

Why no Pro Open results ?

I had an exhausting trip to come see the Rock but it was worth it, even if it was just to watch other people have all the fun.
Looking forward to ’14…

Here is my little critique on the 2013 RIGP (making it up as I type) :)

– For the first time in years I was on the other side of the fence. Although I still had a great time watching, it sucked not being out there where I felt I belong. Outside circumstances stopped me from competing this year.

– For the first time in years, I joined the spectators on the inside of the track and outside turns (didn’t even enter the pits). I’m very impressed on how passionate locals are about this race. You can tell the group(s) of spectators that have been coming year after year. The Popup tents, coolers and household names. Hearing the names of Musser, Lawson, Dittmer, etc from people not even directly involved in karting is pretty cool.

– Shout out to Gary Lawson for adding four more wins to his cv over the weekend. What’s even more impressive is what I witnessed on turn six after one of his victories. On the inside of the track (spectating as my goal was to watch this year from the outside looking in) Gary walked over with one of his victory flags and gave it to one of the kids that had been watching all day long. All I heard was the kid talk about the flag to everyone that walked up. Made the kids day.

–  Track times seemed faster than normal this year. I thought the inside barriers were much closer to the inside curves than previous years. Was this true?

– Roger and crew has done a terrific job building the 4 cycle and Yamaha classes back up to the level they should be. On the flip side, the shifter and TAG classes were dropping off. Is this due to payout, prestige, fear, cost, logistics? I have no clue. Both divisions had minimal entries but stellar drivers entered. If you haven’t yet, please give this event a try!

– It is very impressive to see “industry people” such as Howden and Cole compete in this race and have a blast doing so. If this event can pull these guys out, it speaks for itself. Anyone in the Midwest with a kart and a little experience should be at this race.

– Yamaha proved once again that is the backbone of karting with some of the best races of the day. If you missed it, check out Todd Bolton’s onboard of the Medium race.

I could go on and on, but I will take a break for now!

Still not seeing Pro Open results… am I missing something.

We had some interesting stuff this year — Lynn again set the bar high, but there were some other good efforts including Travis Porter’s twin Yamaha and Clayton Snow had a tweaked Leopard. Still happy to hear from anyone with ideas how we can create more interest in this class.

I don’t know what more you can do with pro-open Roger. The UAS rules are tried and tested, what gives?

You could allow shifters I guess, so that someone could run a CR250 or something, but really we are talking about bringing in another couple of entries there at most.

Lack of shifters is really interesting. They are out there, there were 47 at Blackhawk in August. I know for our group/team the key issue with the RIGP is the lack of track time. That’s the nature of the beast I though, I mean who doesn’t want more track time?

One person said to me that perhaps things have gotten a bit predictable with the event? That somewhat struck a chord with me. Is it time to shakeup the layout in some way? I know this is a big task… but maybe it’s time? I do feel that the buzz for the event needs to be recreated in some way.  I say this with reservation because it is still an AWESOME event.

TAG and shifter counts are an interesting thing.  I feel bad for not supporting the event this year but I’ve been to the Rock many times.   Back in 2000-02 this was our big event of the year.  Everything ramped up to the RIGP.   Shifter classes where big and very much national level.    Last 5-6 years its been mainly to go because it was one of the few places to run a masters shifter.     

James might be onto something.   Honestly there is a bit of a been there done that affect for me and I’m kind of getting done with sprinting and more moving towards roadracing where the grids are big.   I think maybe some changes are in order but then is it really Rock Island?  maybe not.   Maybe its just a phase of Briggs and Yamaha’s again for awhile.

I can see TAG numbers going down.   USPKS, WKA, SKUSA,   there is a lot of competition now for TAG entries.    King of the Steets stock moto at 10 entries?   Thats not good at all.   The midwest shifter kart scene is a bit of a head scratcher though.

I think there is an element of the event becoming a little stagnent.  Hopefully I’m not offending too many people there, but my gut does say it might be time for some sort of a shake up.  I don’t think changing things would affect its idenity as the RIGP.  If it’s an awesome race and spectacle in Rock Island, then it’s the RIGP.

As for shifters, in retrospect I should have pounded pavement at Blackhawk and talked to those 47 drivers and found out a little about what it might take to get them to rock island, even just to watch at first. Some might say thats a conflict of interest between series/orgs/events or whatever, but I think due to the fact that its a street race we need to view this as a promotional tool for the sport.

I still feel there are too many events in a compressed timeframe in the midwest. Needs to be more co-operation and co-ordination between tracks, drivers, orgs and series. I’m working on a platform to hopefully facilitate that. Whether it gets used is another thing!

Sure nice of the USPKS to schedule right on top of the RIGP for 2014 — maybe they will do it right down the road in Quincy — real good for the sport

Holly crap I didn’t see that they scheduled the same weekend is RIGP.  Bush league move.   And these orgs wonder why no one comes

In fairness though I don’t that explains the reduced amount of shifters, or pro-opens…