A short history of Vintage karting by Bob Denozi

[David Luciani]

This article i imported from the website vintagekarts.com
many have never been over there looking around. there is alot of neat stuff that we'd love you to read.
Dave

"2006 represents a major milestone in the history of karting - 50 years since Art Ingels zoomed around in his motorized kart (now famous and referred to as "Kart #1"), grabbing the attention of other southern Californians and leading to the launch of a tremendous sport and multi-billion dollar industry. The rest is the proverbial history - as detailed elsewhere on this website (see "Kart #1" and "History" articles). Karting Industry Council (KIC) and the entire karting industry celebrate this industry milestone.

2006 will also mark 10 years that this web site has been in existence. It was mid-1996 when I first launched the site then called "Klassic Karts". It started life as a self-teaching exercise in web page design. I needed a sample topic and vintage karting was a natural for me to write about due to my long-term interest in those early karts. The site began as a simple adjunct to my personal "home page" and was in part an experiment to gauge whether there were others out there with a similar interest in vintage karting. It seemed a natural area of interest given the level of participation in the sport in the early days and the incredible amount of character those early karts had-   certainly there had to be lots of folks who'd be interested today in vintage karts. The other question mark had to do with how many old karts were likely to be found in old barns and whatnot and not butchered to dewath in transformation to yard karts (or simply disposed of). In those early dats of "Klassic Karts", I believed vintage karting to be a' sleeping giant'  (I think I was correct on that call). The level of interest I encountered exceeded any expectations I had early on and in November of 1997 I decided to launch a "real" web site - domain name and all-  and decided to call it Vintage Karts. Although I am sure the existence and popularity of the sport of vintage karting was inevitable, I like to think that I played some part in helping its launch.

In those early days I collaborated a lot with Carl Billington who already had established the Vintage Kart Racing Association (predecessor to VKA). Carl had organized a vintage race at Sugar Hill Speedway (Weare NH) as early as 1996. He was also instrumental in getting me started in actual participation in karting. (Read "Bob's Bio").

So what's up for 2006 on this site? Well - one of my goals all along has been to open the site up to more participation by others. Time to move past being a vehicle for what Bob has to say about this or that and become more about communication among vintage karting's participants. Also time to revisit site design (which hasn't really changed much over the years) and also try to form a tighter integration with VKA. Changes are in the works and details have not yet been worked out, but rest assured the site will remain for the benefit of the sport.

Bob's Bio

I have finally relented to many requests to talk about about how the Vintage Karts web site came to be. OK - so what's up with this guy who started the Vintage Karts web site anyway?!  I have already told part of the story in the lead-in article Karting Turns 50 , but here's the rest of the story.

bobgk.jpg (55350 bytes)
I have loved those early karts since the first time I saw an ad for a Go Kart (400) kit for $129.95. It was maybe 1958 - I was 10. I didn't have $129.95, but I did have 25 cents and sent in for the catalog.  I did also avidly read car magazines back then and totally devoured any articles or ads having to do with karts. Early Bugs were very appealing to me. I even coaxed my dad to drive me cross town to New England Speed Equipment in early 1960 and savored the thrill of actually sitting on a real kart.  (Something about a metallic blue Bug with a bright yellow MC5 still grabs me to this day.) I did know every kart, every engine, and by 1961, pretty much knew how 2 strokes worked - at least in principle, through magazine articles though I never had actually worked on one. I rememeber that in 9th grade (1961-62) I sketched designs for karts during all my classes (but still managed to ace Algebra). I do think this interest in karts - and cars - had a lot to do with my eventual career direction (Mechanical Engineering). Still, no hands-on involvement with karts.

To make a long story short, the early karting "craze" sort of came and went (with the kart glut of late 1962). In fact, I would come to own a real car (a 1957 ford, purchased in 1964 at age 16) long before I'd ever own a kart.

Over the decades I remained interested in karting, though at some distance, never quite participating. In the early 70's for example I visited a kart shop in Massachusetts and took note of the design evolution that had already taken place. Circumstances were not right for me at that time of my life, however, to get involved with the sport.  In 1976, while living in Brazil, I attended a few local kart races (in Caxias do Sul, RS, for those of you familiar with Brazil) and visited a local shop that sold Mini and Parilla brand stuff  if I remember right. Still didnt jump into the game though. In the 80's I bought a few books on karting and took keen interest in the design evolution still proceeding. In fact, Bug was at that time selling, as a fun kart, a model   that very much resembled early 60's racing Wasps. In my heart, that was the kind of kart I really wanted to race, but buying one would be no ticket to racing. And the modern stuff, while impressive, didnt grab me in the same way.

One day in 1994, my wife Carlene and I ventured up to Loudon to watch some kart races and walk around the pit areas and we had a chance to talk to a lot of folks. I was very impressed by the level of design sophistication of the modern machinery to say the least. And the participants with truck, trailers, etc., virtual machine shops - to support their racing. Very impressive technically, but perhaps, more than ever, a sport I was not likely to jump into. I was also impressed during that visit by the friendliness of particpants and their willlingness to talk about their karts, explain the classes of racing, and so forth. One family even invited me up on top of their trailer for better viewing of the races. This was a great bunch of people. Still, the sport wasn't quite for me.

It was common for me around that time (early-mid 90's) to doodle drawings of kart designs on restaurant napkins, though these karts generally took the form of vintage karts (or in some cases cartoonish V-8 powered vintage karts and crazy stuff like that). So, in 1996, when I ventured into the brave new world of the internet and sought to teach myself web design, there was no question as to what topic I would first write about. I found that my early keenness and avid reading about karts as a kid provided a fairly vivid historical perspective and that, with a little research to supplement, I indeed came to be somewhat of an expert on the historical aspect of karting. I had not, however, up to that time, ever actually owned or even driven a kart except for the amusement park stuff. It wouldn't be until 1998, in fact, when I would own my first kart - a Rupp Grand Prix/MC91 that I found via a referal from (the now late) Don Boberick. It took a little bit to get the kart up and running and Carl Billington came over to help with that. We actually have video tape somewhere in the house of carl doing donuts with that kart in my backyard.

  rupp01.jpg (26817 bytes)   bob2.jpg (10701 bytes)
                    1965 Rupp purchased in 1998; R1 at Cuddy, 2001.

My first race would not be until 2001, at Cuddebackville, in an R1 (MC6 powered that first year) that Carl, Neil Goguen and Paul Bronnes built up for me. (The low power of the MC6, understeering nature of the R1, and my relartive inexperience teamed up to make for a less than impressive appearance to say the least, but it was a thrill actually be racing an early 60's kart on a track!!!

During these past almost-10 years since I started writing about vintage karts, I have made lots of friends - many just via email whom I never even met in person - others at the track, or those who have helped me immensely setting up my karts (like Gary Emilio), letting me practice or race on theirs (like Chris Sahagian). And while it is nice to read the various thank yous that people post in message boards or in emails, indeed it is I who owes LOTS of thanks to all those who helped get me involved in the sport and all of you who have supported the web site, participated in the sport and have helped make it grow.
      

Bob DiNozzi"

[Randy Dacus]

Dave here's the link to click on :

http://www.vintagekarts.com/


I keep checking the old Forum link too, but still broken