Blackhawk Poison Arrow

[Scott Elkes]

Blackhawk Poison Arrow. Karter News June 1972 ad. And, similar looking Blackhawk at the Vintage Kart Association's 2019 New Castle Motorsports Park event. A Blackhawk presented in the show. Front bumper may have been added on per rules to protect feet or manufactured that way? Newer than 72/73?

Ad...

  PW KN 197206 08 Blackhawk Kart ad.jpg (Size: 1.34 MB / Downloads: 31)

2019 VKA New Castle images...

  IMG_4813.jpg (Size: 2.39 MB / Downloads: 29)


  IMG_4811.jpg (Size: 2.46 MB / Downloads: 26)

[Joe Drabicki]

Hey Scott!

The Florida Blackhawk guru is here. I have eight Blackhawks and over half of them have the "European" style front bumper because the rulebook was headed that way in the mid 1970s. Blackhawks came with a single tube front bumper from 1957 to about 1972. The double tube front bumpers came as a factory option in the early 70s because the European karts came imported with double bumpers, but then all Blackhawks got built that way after the WKA and IKF rulebooks enforced it in the mid 70s.

Blackhawk use to publish their newsletter called Down the Straight. It had kart ads, new models, options listed with prices and of coarse, some text, hence the newsletter. One of the Blackhawk gurus up in Minnesota, Mike Karels, published a collection of these newsletters in a spiral book form, which he sold for about $20 a copy. I have one and it explains the bumper situation we have just covered. I don't think he has anymore for sale. The book is in all black and white, including the text and photos. It covers most of the different varieties and options for the Chief and Poison Arrow Blackhawks, but does not have the more modern Exterminator. The Exterminator came with an engine mount on both sides of the seat so you could run it as a single or dual engine kart, in either a sit-up sprint model or a lay-down enduro. As I understand it, as told to me by the Blackhawk builder's son Marshall Fairman, the Exterminators were built by Don Fairman from about 1984 to 1994, when Don passed away. RIP original Blackhawk guru.

The Blackhawk shown in the photos at the 2019 New Castle event was built sometime between 1976 to 1984 because of the rear bumper style and the pyramid gas tank. They stopped putting the padded headrest on the seat frames around 1975.

Kind Regards,

Joe Drabicki

[Scott Elkes]

Hey Scott!

The Florida Blackhawk guru is here. I have eight Blackhawks and over half of them have the "European" style front bumper because the rulebook was headed that way in the mid 1970s. Blackhawks came with a single tube front bumper from 1957 to about 1972. The double tube front bumpers came as a factory option in the early 70s because the European karts came imported with double bumpers, but then all Blackhawks got built that way after the WKA and IKF rulebooks enforced it in the mid 70s.

Blackhawk use to publish their newsletter called Down the Straight. It had kart ads, new models, options listed with prices and of coarse, some text, hence the newsletter. One of the Blackhawk gurus up in Minnesota, Mike Karels, published a collection of these newsletters in a spiral book form, which he sold for about $20 a copy. I have one and it explains the bumper situation we have just covered. I don't think he has anymore for sale. The book is in all black and white, including the text and photos. It covers most of the different varieties and options for the Chief and Poison Arrow Blackhawks, but does not have the more modern Exterminator. The Exterminator came with an engine mount on both sides of the seat so you could run it as a single or dual engine kart, in either a sit-up sprint model or a lay-down enduro. As I understand it, as told to me by the Blackhawk builder's son Marshall Fairman, the Exterminators were built by Don Fairman from about 1984 to 1994, when Don passed away. RIP original Blackhawk guru.

The Blackhawk shown in the photos at the 2019 New Castle event was built sometime between 1976 to 1984 because of the rear bumper style and the pyramid gas tank. They stopped putting the padded headrest on the seat frames around 1975.

Kind Regards,

Joe Drabicki

Great information and for introducing yourself, thank you Joe. 

I need to revisit this topic "Down the Straight." Near the end of 2017, Pat Willey's daughter Trisha brought over the first SUV load of her father's periodical collection. Fifty some years of karting magazines that included the "Down the Straight" newsletters. I scanned and posted two of them on Facebook. 

Don Fairman was a promotoer/track owner (Sugar River Raceway, Brodhead, Wisconsin), chassis manufacturer (Blackhawk) and publisher (Down the Straight) and approached all his business activities in a methodical, principled way to promoter karting to the beginner to the veteran racer. Usually an independent mind and if I remember correctly, Don was invited on the WKA Board in late 1976. I believe (suspect) was to fill the opening of the late Jim L. Vail from Toledo, Ohio.
(These are in magazine, pdf files, format which currently unable to save in this forum).