Will the karts upstage the MGP bikes at LS?

http://venus.13x.com/roadracingworld/

[Lawson] set the Super Kart lap record at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in
2003 - 1:23.875, an average speed of 100.864 mph. (As a point of reference,
Troy Bayliss turned the fastest lap on a motorcycle at Laguna Seca when he
road his Ducati around the circuit in 1:24.833 during the 2002 World
Superbike Championship event.)

 

No because karts/cars/trucks/bath tubs are boring to watch. They don't
move or have english like the bikes do.

A few years back we did a track day with the karts (split sessions) and
I have to admit those little things ZIP around the corners at amazing
speeds but after lap 4 it was old hat. Folks stuck around to watch the
bikes though. Maybe they were looking for carnage but at least they
watched.

 

It's not news that karts are deadly fast. When Westwood raceway still
existed, I believe for some years karts held the outright lap record, it
being a relatively short track with no F1s running about .

 

Yup. F1 cars go stinky fast around MotoGP tracks and stomp them on overall
lap times, but I don't watch F1 either. It is simply not interesting.

The karts will make for great spectacle, watching the little cars with their
tiny wheels and the shiny helmet headed drivers. But there is no fluid
motion in 4 wheel racing. It is very inorganic. Watching the ribbon of bikes
banking and diving and transitioning through the Corkscrew is a wonderful
sight. Watching the bikes come off of the outside of the front straight at
Fontana and seeing them dive into turn one, particularly last year with
Erics booming Ducati resonating off the walls, brings visions of the
maneuvers and passion during dogfights in the Battle of Britain and nothing
so mundane as car racing.

Car racing is the daily commute at twice the speed. Slot cars scaled up.
Boxes trying to crowd out other boxes. Motorcycles move different, better, I
think. They have more room to do things. You can see a determined rider, as
a spectator you can see how their mood changes throughout the race, like a
fighter in the ring. The fact that cars have people in them is a minor
detail. It's the car that matters there. Motorcycle racing in a more human
endeavor than mechanial.

Regards,

Will Hartung
()

 

In this respect, it must be intersting to see karts (without
suspensions, of course) negotiating the Corkscrew, with its
"unflat" surface. Their chassis must bend and twist and flex!


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I think you're overestimating how much slope change there is at any one
place on the track.

Firstly, note that while karts are suspensionless, they still have a
squishy component that flexes with ease and would have no problems
taking up small bumps and pavement irregularities: pneumatic tires.

Second, yeah, the chassis probably does flex, but I think you're
imagining _changes_ in slope and camber that are more dramatic than
reality. When you are encountering those slope and camber changes at 100
mph, it sure feels dramatic, but at any instant the kart is only
subtending a few feet of track.

What probably does cause the chassis to flex is major g-force loads,
which would probably be most dramatic at the bottom of the corkscrew.