Yesterday I ran in the vintage class at the Clyde Ohio Fair Grand Prix. I have never run a street race. This their 27th year for this event and the first year they added a vintage class. I was able to walk the course before 10:00am, event was well organized and ran smoothly. We ran practice, a 8 Lap race and a 14 lap feature. After the loud speaker announcer named the drivers name, home town and race number the Start was from a parked position with starters fireing motors in the last 20 seconds before green flag. 3000 hay bales along the course and many corner flaggers. The amount of people lining the orange fencing was great. There where 5 vintage karts this year. I had many people see my kart, stop say wow, and tell me stories of the karts and races they ran back in the day. There where over 20 food trucks by corner 1, and a car show on the street next to us that day. I would like to see more vintage karters at this event. I bet some dual karts would be crowd favorites as well as some historic karts. I ran 10/64 gearing. Yes any type of lapping or racing can be dangerous. But I had great FUN, I overheard someone walking in the crowd say that the guy with the old yellow motor kart was really powerslliding through the corners. I will never run Monaco or Long Beach, but this was pretty cool for a local race. Attached Map made by Scott Elkes.
(09-24-2018, 05:06 PM)Romero Llamas Wrote: [ -> ]Yesterday I ran in the vintage class at the Clyde Ohio Fair Grand Prix. I have never run a street race. This their 27th year for this event and the first year they added a vintage class. I was able to walk the course before 10:00am, event was well organized and ran smoothly. We ran practice, a 8 Lap race and a 14 lap feature. After the loud speaker announcer named the drivers name, home town and race number the Start was from a parked position with starters fireing motors in the last 20 seconds before green flag. 3000 hay bales along the course and many corner flaggers. The amount of people lining the orange fencing was great. There where 5 vintage karts this year. I had many people see my kart, stop say wow, and tell me stories of the karts and races they ran back in the day. There where over 20 food trucks by corner 1, and a car show on the street next to us that day. I would like to see more vintage karters at this event. I bet some dual karts would be crowd favorites as well as some historic karts. I ran 10/64 gearing. Yes any type of lapping or racing can be dangerous. But I had great FUN, I overheard someone walking in the crowd say that the guy with the old yellow motor kart was really powerslliding through the corners. I will never run Monaco or Long Beach, but this was pretty cool for a local race. Attached Map made by Scott Elkes.
Glad you had great time,,,,I was tied up doing clean up duty from the clambake,,,,looked like a different course than in the past.......
maybe we should try and get 20-25 there next year????
gw
Wow, Romero! Near and dear to my spirit! Back in the late seventies and the eighties, I ran mostly street races in the old Florida Series. My ex wife was my total pit crew. We ran B-Limited for a long time in conjunction with B Reed, then switched to 100cc Open. It's truly my favorite racing of my life. Here I am doing a bit of maintenance on the Black Widow/Open Atlas at Ft. Myers, Florida. I had just switched to the Tripp axle clutch from the modified Hegar, and it ran terrible all weekend! Never DID get that Tripp to work. My pal, Charlie Craibe was there that weekend and now owns the kart and engine. Ted
love street races.
i'll go next year if my season gets to happen.
dave l
Before it was "modern" vs vintage, in 1973 I ran my new Starduster with twin b-bombs at that race. They didn't have a wall of hay bales and a number of the turns were spooky as a result. Weiner outran everyone with his b-open sidewinder but I did manage to outrun the Mac and West Bend c machines. They had a money race after the regular races for the twin engine karts. I didn't run because there was no question who would win and I wasn't wild about smacking a fire hydrant or other hard obstacle.
I have friends who go to the race every year and give me a report on the festivities. It would be helpful if you report on when the races are held and if they are going to let "vintage" karts run again next year.