Pit Board 2010-01-19

WKA's Pit Board - 01.19.2010

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KartFest 2010 is Jan. 29, 30 in Greenville, S.C.

01.19.2010 -- WKA's annual consumer trade show, KartFest 2010, is now only days away. The event will go off next weekend, Jan. 29 and 30, at the Carolina First Center in Greenville, South Carolina. This will mark the first time KartFest has been held at the state-of-the-art Carolina First Center after years of being held in Hickory, N.C.

This year's show will again feature numerous exhibitors from every side of the industry. KartFest attendees will find kart shops, chassis manufacturers, engine builders, safety equipment dealers, media sources, pit equipment and racing series. Other highlights of the show will be the annual WKA / SFI 4-Cycle Tech Seminar beginning at 10:30 a.m. Saturday and Town Hall meetings for the Gold Cup, Speedway Dirt and Speedway Pavement series. Click each link to read more about the Tech Seminar and the Town Hall meetings.

As always, awards banquets for WKA's three 4-cycle touring series will be held at KartFest. Friday night, Jan. 29, will see the top winners from the 2009 Briggs & Stratton Speedway Dirt Series accept their awards. This will include Triple Crown Champion Dee Paschal, who collected five national championships on the Dirt tour last season.

Saturday night will feature a dual banquet with racers and teams from both the Bully Clutches Gold Cup Series and Rage Karts Speedway Pavement Series accepting their awards. The night will include three Triple Crown champions taking the stage, all of them from the Gold Cup Series. Junior driver Dakota Bell and senior competitors Brett Farmer and Gary Lawson will be awarded their Triple Crown. This will mark the second straight year Bell and Lawson have won the prestigious award.

Trade show hours are 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The trade show season is in full swing and this is sure to be another great one for all in attendance. Exhibit space is still available. To view floor plans, a map to the Carolina First Center and read other information related to KartFest 2010 go to www.worldkarting.com/pg/events/kartfest/kartfest.html.

Make your plans today to be in Greenville next weekend for KartFest 2010. If you're interested in exhibiting, contact Marie Borsuk at 704-455-1606 Ext. 16 or e-mail marie@worldkarting.com.

Tech Seminar Link: www.worldkarting.com/pg/news/2010-01/seminartimechange.html

Town Hall Link: www.worldkarting.com/pg/news/2010-01/townhallmeetings.html

Town Hall Link: www.worldkarting.com/pg/news/2010-01/townhallmeetings.html

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Unlimited 2-Cycles to run as national points class on Speedway Dirt

01.19.2010 -- Following a most successful return to Daytona KartWeek as part of the famed Dirt World Championships, World Karting officials are proud to announce the transition of the Unlimited 2-Cycles from a local option class to a national points class for the balance of the 2010 racing season on the Briggs & Stratton Speedway Dirt Series, beginning with the Bordeaux Dyno Cams Nationals April 9-11 at Hurricane Raceway in Alma, Georgia.

Long time dirt sponsor Tommy's Karts-N-Parts, the sponsor of the class at Daytona, will continue as the class sponsor for the balance of the season.

As a result of the change, combined with the understanding that Race No. 1 was listed as local option, in all fairness to competitors wishing to run the balance of events this year, the points season will begin with Race No. 2 at Hurricane. No points will be carried over from Daytona. Since the Unlimiteds only run one time during the weekend, they will also be inserted into the first day's activities.

Also, in an effort to maintain the consistency of running the proper weight as per engine cc, drivers will be required to adhere to the following formula.

105cc - 300lbs
120cc - 340lbs
140cc - 380lbs
160cc - 420lbs

Wedge Bodies are also allowed.

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LO 206 classes added to Gold Cup race order in 2010

01.19.2010 -- On the heels of the recent announcement of the addition of four Clone Classes to the Gold Cup Series, World Karting officials have announced a further addition of the LO 206 class as a local option class, beginning with the series season opener March 12-14 at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, South Carolina.

A Senior LO 206 Medium and Heavy class will be made available, with the classes being integrated with the Senior Clone classes each day. The two groups will run much in the same fashion the Super Stock and World Formula classes were run in 2009, with both groups being separated on the track for their heats and main events.

The addition of the LO 206 classes brings the weekend total to 24, as the number of national / local option classes that will be running this year on the Gold Cup Series. Adding to that total will be the Kid Karts, which will also adopt the LO 206 version of their motor, as well as the current Comer C50 and C51 engines. Tech updates will be online shortly, providing specs for the LO 206 class, as well as Kid Karts.

Visit www.WorldKarting.com to view tech updates.

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Industry educational seminars build depth into PKE2010

01.19.2010 (LAS VEGAS) -- PKE2010 February 5-7, 2010 is adding a number of important seminars and industry discussions to the schedule for the weekend.

The Indoor Performance Karting Market, A Discussion On Improved Costs, Management & Marketing --February 6th 2010- This Saturday morning panel session will be presented by Michael L. Davis, CEO of Michael L Davis Insurance (the insurance provider for the World Karting Association), Peter O'Doherty, president and CEO of Inis Motorsport Ltd., Jim Granger, sales & marketing, Go Racing Magazine, Ken Faught, president, Pole Position Raceway and Tom Godfrey, founder of the Indoor Kart Racing League.

The focus of this 90 minute program will be to look at opportunities to improve the bottom line through the use of volume buying power, improved technology in customer management and safety, new advertising tools and the value of competition programs. Each panel member will present an expert point of view and/or case study followed by a Q&A session.

An additional focus will be on the expanding role that the indoor community has as one of the leading growth resources for the outdoor karting community and how these two segments can support each other.

RaceFanRadio will broadcast this session live over the Internet from the South Point Event Center. Visit RaceFanRadio.com for their complete broadcast schedule.

Sponsorship Coaching Workshop with Townsend Bell --February 6th 2010 - This multi-discipline driver has competed at Indy, in Cart and IRL events and Formula 3000. He has been aligned with teams such as Patrick Racing, Panther Racing, Vision Racing and KV Racing Technology. For 2010, Townsend will be driving at Indy for Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

For drivers of all levels and ages, Townsend's straight forward approach to self marketing and sponsorships has allowed him to create a compelling presentation that will help individual competitors as well as families find the right tools to build sponsorship value for their own racing programs. This 60 minute session scheduled for Saturday afternoon February 6th 2010 is free to all PKE2010 attendees and will be open to the first 75 people to RSVP. A session reservation form has been added to the PKE2010. A link can be found on the main page.

Bondurant SuperKart Introductory Driving School -- Alan Rudolph, one of karting's "Top Guns" will be offering up an introductory lesson to performance kart driving. Both indoor and outdoor competitors can truly benefit from Alan's in depth knowledge of what it takes to be competitive on a course. The Bondurant SuperKart School is located in Phoenix and has a full menu of extensive programs and driving experiences for every level of racer. This will be a combined classroom and track demonstration held on Saturday, February 6, 2010. The session is free to all PKE2010 attendees but will be limited to the classroom size.

Aim Sport Mychron 4 Training Seminar - Scheduled for Friday afternoon, February 5, 2010, this hands-on session will teach owners as well as prospective owners about the technology behind the Mychron4 digital gauge and data logger system. Aim Sport is a world leader in motor sports and race data acquisition technology. The session will explain how to integrate data results into your driving techniques as well as introduce new technology coming from the company. This will be a combined classroom and track demonstration. The session is free to all PKE2010 attendees but will be limited to the classroom size.

PKE2010 presented by the Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup -- Is the largest performance karting exposition in North America. This is the only karting event to include live arena indoor competitions, live outdoor demonstrations and karting test track, a 24,000 sq.ft. kart swap, education and hundreds of leading brands on display in more than 30,000 square feet of exhibit space and all under one roof. Hosted by the Event Center inside the beautiful South Point Hotel & Casino on the south end of Las Vegas Blvd., this event is open to the general public on February 5-7, 2010. For more information, visit www.pke2010.com.

International Motorsports Marketing, LLC is the management company for PKE2010 and a leading event management and marketing organization behind motorsports marketing and branding with a specific emphasis on performance karting in North America. The company is involved with publishing, digital media marketing, event management and competitive race series programs. The company's management team has more than 40 years in successful motorsports sales and marketing, matched with the production of hundreds of successful events and major exhibitions around the world.

-source: wka