2010 Vintage Karting Event At Batavia NY

[Terry Armstrong]

Scott,

Raced there 1 time in the mid 80's when I lived in Upstate NY. A great kart track! Now that I'm 800 miles away in the Southeast, most of the vintage events are in the West or Mid-West.

I would love to come to Batavia for a Vintage event preferably between June and the end of August. That way I can convince my family it's time for a Northern vacation and we can bring the boys '63 Bug Wasp and my Margay Panther X along!

Hope you can pull it off, keep me posted!

Terry

[Jeff Campbell]

Here are some links to the last big vintage event that was held at Batavia (the last vintage event was held in 2006, but the turnout was very low).





Jeff

[Jim Pelletterie]

I am the president of the Batavia kart Club and to be honest this is the first I heard about this. If we see enough interest we will schedule an event to be held for everyones convenence. We have a meeting in mid january and I would like to find out what days and how much interest. We race on Sundays but we had a few vintage karts here a few years ago but everyone left on Saturday. If I can have someone contact me at mremgee@roadrunner.com I can get the ball rolling. I have three vintage karts myself so I'm excited. Jim Pelletterie bataviakartclub.com

[Doug Tenney]

My son and I will be there, barring any unforseen catastrophe. Almost 6 hrs from Valley Forge PA. The track layout looks really cool! Man, just thinking about it...waxin' down my surfboard, can't wait for June... you know what I mean!

[david a luciani]

looking good here.
i am definitly planning on attending.

details i'd like to see some info on the set up though i don't presume to know much about these things.

1. will the original vka rules ala skinny hard tires pre 1975 karts be used?
to me they're the best rules but if you are doing something else by all means keep it simple.

2. is there camping/available hotel rooms or anything like that available or being arranged?

3. how much to attend , is there space for swap meet sort of activity, will swap/sell be allowed ?

4. will we run with modern 1/2 - 1/2 or be on our own?
in some ways i like splitting the track with modern because it exposes new people to vintage karting.

5. will grids be run or a setup more along the lines of TBO where they have types of karts running together at given times?

6. aaaand how many days just one or two?


dave

[Scott Kneisel]

Wow Dave,
Good questions and good input.
This is the kind of input that would be welcomed for planning the event.

It still is a bit early, we don't even have a date yet but I am suggesting the last weekend in July which is 2 weeks away from any other vintage event on the schedule. We'll have to see how that fits into the track schedule, the first kart club meeting will be in January and the date will be talked about then.

There are hotels close, I don't know if camping on the track grounds will be allowed. There is a lot of open space around there so swap meet might be OK but that needs to be discussed.

We have not even discussed the format for the event as yet. I have my ideas, we will talk about it.

Basically EVERYTHING needs to be discussed and a consensus obtained with the club before anything can be decided but all input is welcome.

My idea: I would like a 2 day all vintage event and maybe a vintage demonstration on the third day in between the modern races on Sunday. Jim would like the modern guys to see where their roots came from. That all needs to be worked out also.

Thats all I have for now but will update this post as things progress.
Thanks for the input, anyone else?

[Hal Kolding]

A three day (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) event sounds great, and I would definitely attend. After a date/format has been determined, getting the word out to vintage AND non-vintage kart enthusiasts is important. It will bring in 'new blood' such as modern karters, or non-karters, who would enjoy seeing 'the early stuff', as well as 'old-timers' who just might drag their stuff out of the barn-shed-garage-basement.......and you know how we would love to see that stuff show up! I have been involved in the antique motorcycle hobby for a long time, and I know that advertising events is what brings the people through the gates. This sounds like a great idea........keep us all posted on how we can help it happen. Hal in CT

[Hal Kolding]

As a note to some previous postings about attendance...... at the antique cycle meets I have been attending for years, folks used to stay all weekend and leave for home on Sunday. There were always good crowds of walk-ins and vendors and exhibitors. As the years went by (And ebay showed up), the guys and vendors who were in it just for the opportunity to score good machines and parts cheap, used to show up earlier, sweep the meet, and then leave Saturday morning or afternoon. The results of this were several. Working guys who could not show up on Friday started to feel that all the good deals were gone by Friday night, so they stopped coming on Saturdays. The spectators began to notice that the displays of machines were getting thinner, so they stopped coming in on Saturdays, and by Sunday, only the die-hard enthusiasts were left at the meet. A few East Coast antique cycle meets have died out due to this phenomenon. So, we now have a reason to make it a solid two or three day event! Survival of the hobby and the value of our 'investments'! Our wives can't complain about that. So now we all have an excuse for a weekend at the track! Hal

[Rod Hytonen]

How long is that track?

I'm guessing sprint, NG for laydowns....

Rod

[Scott Kneisel]

Hi Rod,
It is a half mile sprint track.
We had a play day there this fall and Mike S. did take his dual K99 Mean Machine out for a blast and could negotiate the track pretty well but it isn't really good for laydowns and really ment for sprints.