[Ross Karlsson]

The rain was the main dampner on the event this year, one day might not have been to bad but three days of it made for longer days, plus standing around in the rain watching even for the dedicated starts to wear thin. The rain did help mix up the fields and watching the drivers that were used to wet weather racing carve their way thru the traffic was good (Ben Cooper in DD2 was great to watch in the wet), then on Super Sunday those that managed to make the finals that maybe in the dry would of been starting further forward were able to show their ability as they worked forward thru the feilds.

Streaming live on the net like the Rotax worlds does would be great for those that can’t attend who want to watch from elsewhere in the world.

As for media coverage Karting is still a minority sport so will always struggle to attrack the major media outlets but having top stars from other divisions will help as does a good result. With Matt Hamilton’s win in S4 it got a full page in the Automotive section of the major Daily in NZ plus mention of the rest of the team that had gone up and made it to the finals.

DD2 drew good numbers due to the fact there was a ticket to next years world finals at stake.

[Ross Karlsson]

If you look at the numbers the worst case called for 1350 sets just for the one event and that didn’t cover the case of still having stock if need for events elsewhere the following couple of weeks, even going on the figures I used there still should have been another 500 sets at the point of manufacture.  Going on a low pre order level of 35 yes they had enough for about 300 sets yet the event was attracking 550 entries which means they were never going to meet total demand. This is in effect the showcase event of the season any promotor that had come to see how MG handled it, that was in the market for a new tyre supplier would be talking with another manufacter now.

Mojo the other manufacter at the event had no problems considering they came off a big event the previous week that had chewed thru their wet tyre stock.

Remember this is an international showcase so buy screwing up MG could effect their case for supplying tyres elsewhere in the world.

[Ross Karlsson]

Okay so the dumbass’s didn’t read the fine print correctly that tyres need to be prte ordered.

But if you look at it from a business point of view, MG’s  job is to manufacture and sell tyres to there customers and going into the event excluding those that would use Mojo tyres lets say that 550 drivers would be running on MG’s. So if you say 2.5 sets could be used at this meeting plus extras for defects and being cut down then they would require at least 1350 sets to have been manufactured. With a cutoff of 1 November for pre orders that would give an idea of how many had to be taken to the event for start of practice. So lets say that 300 drivers pre ordered 1.5 sets meaning 450 sets if you add another 100 sets to cover for damage and those that might wish to buy on day one once they saw the weather forcast so at the start they should of brought 550 sets max. Of the 250 drivers that didn’t preorder if they then need to get tyres then going on the 1.5 average for those that already had ordered another 300 sets might be required, which could have been stored in a warehouse close enough to truck or fly in overnight.

So from a business point of view it reflects poorly on MG in the fact that they were unable to meet demand from the stocks held in the USA, Mexico & Canada. For ones coming from countries were the MG SKUSA spec tyre is not in use and the history of the event is no rain they would not be going to the expense of ordering tyres that they may never use and would expect the manufacture to have in place contingencies to be able to cover demand.

[Ross Karlsson]

There were several issues regarding the tyres.

A/ It was the desert and not supposed to rain

B/ International teams were under the impression that tyres would be available on site so didn’t pre order.

C/ MG as tyre supplier should of had sufficent WETs available, if not on site then at least able to be flown in overnight.

Once it was obvious that there was an issue, we scrambled around the teams seeing what deals could be done. One of the MG agents informed us that every wet tyre in USA  had been sold out unless you could find a shop somewhere that was sitting on some. The Mexican’s said everything from Mexico was being shipped to SKUSA but nobody seem to know who had control of the shipment. We did a deal with the Canadains at just over $300 a set which included a surcharge of $25 from the Casino. As ones became more desparate it was a case of supply v’s demand which pushed the price up.  

SKUSA could have done some lateral thinking by reducing the sets allowed down from 2 to 1 to try an ensure atleast every team had a chance to get a set.

[Ross Karlsson]

With the shifter mount and front axle beam for front brakes it could be a Zip GP circa 1978/79

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