For most of the karting world, November means winding down the karting season and heading for the internet highway for a little bench racing.  Traffic on these highways beginning to build just after the SuperNats with Rush Hour coming Oh, about December 26th-thirty.  It's already started.

First came the TAG debate.  "Suitcase Bilands" and other such claims posed questionable rules governing among the SKUSA elite.  Then it was on to Stock Motos and the John Kerry style of rules.  "I was for it before I was against it."  I see none of the karting community went out to vote, or else Kerry would have won.  Most of them were too busy Bench  Racing on the internet.  I should know, I was one of them, but I did go vote.  (No, I couldn't get that silly-assed voting machine to select Gurney for President.  The one I used only offered one choice, but hey, I live in Texas.)

One of the great things about bench racing is there are no DUI checkpoints.  Which I've come to believe is the root cause of Silly Season.  It's a time when speculation solidifies into assumption, and we've all heard the breakdown of ass-u-me.  That's OK, in fact without that sort of thing, racers would probably come to their senses and wonder why we spend so much time and money just to sit in some little chair strapped to a pair of skinny rails mounted on dolly tires made of Bubble-Gum only to have our right elbows bruised on a high-pitched popcorn maker.

OK so you & I know the difference, but there are those who don't.   And what really sucks is they outnumber us a thousand to one.   At one time, you may have been one of them.

Round I of the Silly Season Bench Racing Series began with the TAG recent debate was sung to the same tune as last year's SuperNat TAG race.  In fact, a lot of things about last year and this year's SuperNats had some chilling similarities.  Last year it was Chris Freckleton who simply drove the wheels off his Sonic-the-Hedgehog powered machine.  This thing obviously wailed with Mach II revs down the long back straight at the Rio.  Lots of people bitched that SKUSA lacked the tech specs and their new Head-Techie wasn't prepared to properly inspect the motors.   Well, they were half right anyway.

Freckleton was fast.  But more through the turns, then on the straights.  Without a doubt, he put on the best drive of the weekend, at least as far as the video shows.  Those of you smart enough to be a member here have probably seen that for yourself after watching the racing from last year's SuperNats.

Just like last year the motor controversy (this time over the suitcase Bilands) came up.  Were they legal?  Apparently they were.  Keep in mind that race winner Jerry Henderson's fastest race  laps were beaten by a Rok and a Leopard.  If Jerry had an advantage from the suitcase motor, then it wasn't enough to run within 2/10's of the fastest laps.

That raises the second issue over whether the motors were legal being somehow possibly different from the approved-by-SKUSA configuration.  Obviously Marty Casey felt they were.  And in the final analysis, the decision is Marty's to make.

TAG is not, and never was intended to be, a class to replicate the Rotax style of communistic equation of equivalency over motors.

I was about an hour out of Dallas last year on the way to the SuperNats when Bob Paladaciuk called to break the bad news about Tom Argy Jr.  My original vision of TAG was a way to avoid umpteen new classes sprout at various clubs, only to die for a lack of coherent competition.   Tom had a vision to take that a step further in particular with the endurance format.  TAG became the class of choice among those who actually have to work for a living but bored with Yamahas.

TAG was never supposed to get as big as it did.  When it was first proposed in late 2001 there was HUGE opposition, mostly from the Rotax ranks.  Even one of the popular web chat rooms the concept of TAG was boo-hooed in part by the former staffers who felt Rotax was king and always would be.

Like all things karting, those who stood top make a living on selling the motors and parts couldn't be satisfied with just growing the customer base, and SKUSA after taking a beating from Stars turned TAG into a sideshow for the circus.  All good stuff I suppose.  Progress is measured in stages of evolution.  The problem is, evolution in motorsport is expensive.  TAG has now on that great karting escalator  designed to transport the racer's costs to new heights.  Some popcorn-popper eh?

Part of that chilling similarities among the 03 & 04 SuperNats came with the loss of a contributor to our sport.  The loss of Ron Huber is made ever more senseless yet numbing when it comes as a simple accident on a Segway at the event.  Thankfully the nature of the accident itself hasn't been hung like a rag to dry on the chatrooms.  Our condolences to Judy Huber and family.

Round II of the Silly Season Bench Racing Series takes place at the new Stock Moto track, just off SKUSA Blvd in the great state of confusion.  For such a promising class, it's like the phrase "all dressed up with no where to go".  Not a speck of doubt that this class could pick up where TAG left off, if only a few simple things could be resolved.  First off, rules and stability.

Those who have been around the Bench Racing Series probably remember some of the past championship titles;  Programmable Ignition (PI) and the FMX titles.  PI centered around the latest device to escalate cost by $300 - $500 and more if you wanted the keys to the system.  Beyond the box was an hour or three at your favorite local dyno ride.

The FMX title was a half-assed solution to the cost issues hemorrhaging from the nearly Formula Libre style Moto rules.  We all knew it took compression and big fat pipes to get the ponies pulling, and PI to keep them pulling.  ICC was supposed to solve that, but it didn't, they too are time bombs just with a lower economy to scale for the parts that make up the innards.

Some of the same issues identified months before the official SKUSA rules came out, yet there was nothing done about them.  Perhaps that's due to the Akron sized phone book of rules that Marty was busy writing for TAG at that time.   None the less, the rules are still about as solid as the candle on the dashboard above.

Like TAG the issue with Stock Motos is compound, they just haven't finished the Pre-finals yet, and the Finals is really just a qualifier for what will probably be the 2004 Bench Racing Series.

The finals will end up being centered around where to race the new Stock Motos.  There are clubs around the country that have shown interest and with the proposed Shifter Standards, some clubs will be mixing them with 80's next year.  We know that SKUSA will offer this class next year, but frankly don't have a clue where those races will be.  That's all part of the World Finals of bench Racing 2004.

Without getting all bent out of shape over the what-if's, keep this in mind;

A truly stock CR125 with an RLV B4 pipe will produce in the mid 30's range at best with the most perfect tuning you can get. The real power won't come until you've ported it and thrown compression, reeds, reworked head and cases at it.  Even if you have a careful Blueprint assemble done within spec, it's not going to make more then a 1-2/10's difference in lap times.

Driving and chassis tuning will be where the gold is found.  Looking at those who had the dough to race a Stock Moto at the Supernats, the lap time differences of 4/10's between 1st & 2nd were strictly driver, not motor.

We're not sure what the final rules will be from SKUSA, but we know what most clubs will be running.

Whip it good.