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2006 REGIONAL RACE SCHEDULES |
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Kart racing has three major geographic
divisions across the country along with 3 major organizations that
predominately occupy each of them. Click on the map above to open
the entire Regional Racing schedules within that given Division. The list of Regional Race Schedules are listed in the order of magnitude based on 2005 participation factors. At the top left are the Sanctioning Bodies, with the Series Name in the center. In the case where the Sanction is "IND" that means the promoters have gone independent and are not Sanctioned through any of the major Organizations. All Series that have official websites are linked which is shown with an underline in the Series name. Why 3 Divisions? Regional Kart Racing involves travel and tracks within a regional series are often hundreds of miles apart. The geography of the US provides a couple of natural barriers that tend to limit travel - less today then 20 years ago but kart tracks and organizations aren't built overnight. To the west where karting was born is the IKF. While California has an abundance of tracks and racers just to the east the density of kart tracks drops. Few karters from the west coast care to journey past the Rocky Mountain range, few east of the Rockies care to travel west of the Rockies. That has more to do with the highway infrastructure and distances between karting density centers then anything else. The same logic applies across the Mississippi River to a lesser extent. In 1972 WKA was formed as the eastern karting community felt a good bit left out by the IKF. In the 1970's anything west of the Mississippi was considered "the west". As WKA grew and eventually moved to Charlotte from Ohio, they developed a strong following primarily east of the Mississippi River. That left IKF as the "guardian of karting" for the area west of the Mississippi River. As karting continued the slow growth of new tracks and racers through the 70's and 80's, the central region was no longer being served at the level that was felt adequate, and KART was formed. The "Big 3" - While there is some crossover of organizations, each of the 3 main organizations predominately service each of the Divisions for sprint and road racing;
The reason why there are three divisions is because that's what best fits the market needs of the karting community. We like to race against a lot of others, but we don't want to spend more then a day's drive to get to the track we're racing at. Other Karting Organizations TAGUSA has the largest presence from the position of competitors although they run fewer races among the organizations. Most organizations use the TAGUSA rules. Rotax leveraged other organizations to build their Rotax Max Challenge Series qualifiers at the regional level until 2006 where they are planning a totally new format. This will be a 4 race local series to qualify for one of two Grand Regionals East/West, then followed with the National Championship. Stars of Karting (considered by many to be the top level National Series) runs a separate Eastern and Western Divisional series with two Nationals in the Central Division and one National in the Eastern Division. SKUSA once the top level organization focusing on shifter karts went through some ownership changes in late 2005. Independent series have grown among the promoters who find their racers don't feel the need coupled to a Divisional Organization. That trend has grown over the last few years.
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