Kart Week October 2018
When you think Karting, you think Lewis Hamilton or Ayrton Senna both racers that started in Karting and went to great heights in Formula One. The Karting world today is mostly dominated by Europeans and CIK-FIK we see on the International stage and this has been growing for many years. In the US however, Karting has been struggling for it’s identity. Organizations like The World Karting Association and International Karting Federation are shadows of their former high water marks of the late 1990’s.
Enter Vintage 4-Cycle Karting mainly in the South Eastern US. Two former World Karting Champions from the 1980’s and 90’s Jamie Russell and Douglas Rink have spawned something called “Official 4-Cycle Karting Association” and using a free group page on Facebook have singlehandedly transformed Karting in the Southeastern US. But many believe their reach is much further than just the Southeastern part of the US.
The first race they promoted was the Vintage Karting Association’s Winter Nationals at Barnesville, GA in early March of this year. With sly marketing and a lot of audaciousness, Rink was able to get past champions off the couch and back into the seat. Russell’s only stipulation was…”It must be a flat head four cycle engine!” to assist Rink with the venture.
We joined the Facebook Page with Rink’s approval and agreed to post a blog on their web site “Vintage Karting Guys” to monitor their progress with their 2019 racing schedule.
The jury is still out if 4-Cycle Vintage will ever get off the ground. Rink assures us here that it will, in his classic optimistic style. We’ll be the judge of that. He and Jamie Russell certainly have the karting industry’s attention but that could be because they both still race and have karting contacts all over North America.
For now when you think of Vintage Karting, you’re going to think of Rink and Russell. You may not like the methods they use to get their racing organized or marketed, but karting in the US is watching what they’re doing.
The last thing Rink said to me was “It’s about butts in seats man, butts in seats…oh and you have to be a good driver…I got that so the rest is easy cause I can back it and Russell…he’s better than me” For now, he might be right.
We are wondering if Vintage 4-cycle karting is just a fad or could it be the next Karting thing.