Night Racing Ideas

First off, a HUGE thanks you to all the KKC members that made the night practice such a huge success, it took a lot of hard work to put the light up, tweak them and take them all down at the end of the night. Also big thank you to the member that donated the lights for the practice and the race, this what a club is all about!

I think we all learned a lot last night and I heard a lot of good ideas about what we can do to make it better and safer for the race. Everyone's adrenaline was pumping so hard some good ideas might get lost. So I thought it would be a good idea to start this thread so we could all list our ideas in one spot.

One problem I had was seeing when a drivers arm was up in the air, if the were entering or exciting the track or just driving slow, often I would not see their arm until I was almost on top of them. I think that glow stick wrist bands would solve this problem.

I also think that maybe we could have moved the lights for the tech a little closer to the cyclone fence to throw more light on the apex of the last corner. What did you learn from the night practice? This race is going to be so COOL!!!

Thanks again to all the members that made this happen! YOur the best!

Hey all,

I hope you all had a safe trip home and had a minute to reflect of all the fun we had. It was a great example of what a club is all about. 11 pm came fast!! A special thank you to Jessie and Rick for taking time out of a long holiday weekend to come down from the cabin (long drive) to make the night happen. Rick, you're an extreme forklift driver...are you thinking of a new class for race day? Thank you for staying so late to put everything back in place.

Yes, there are a lot of good ideas out there and I encourage you to come to our next Board meeting (third Tuesday of the month) to discuss them. Everyone had the safety of the drivers in mind when evaluating the setup and made several excellent observations. Please make sure you jot them down as Dan has suggested.

Rock on Kinsmen Karters , We are the Champions (good name for a song don't you think? )

AmandaLynne

PS Have you guys checked out the pics under the "info" tab on our website? Shawn stayed up late to get them up for us.

I think the number 1 most important thing will be to have a manditory (BIG)glow stick attached to EVERY seat to let the driver behind know the where-abouts of the driver in front of them!

The Glow bracelets is not a bad idea either! I think it should be manditory also.

I will not be at the next meeting, but I think these issues should be adressed! I will be in the hot and humid state of Louisiana.......YUCK!

That was about the funnest time I have had at the track yet! Thomas will not stop talking about how cool it was to run under the lights!

I do agree with Rick, that we will need 5 more light plants for the track!

11pm came way before I was ready. What more can I say?



As far as safety illumination goes I think there ought to be a standard all participants would have to adhere to. Something tested and affordable that gives everybody a basic level of safety.

I think LED devices are the way to do this. Their intensity, battery life and affordability lends them to our needs. There were two karts out there with LEDs and they were instantly visable.


There are plenty of LED bike tail lights that could be used for our purposes, some are quite inexpensive ($3.50)

http://www.amazon.com/Safety-Flasher-Strap-Bicycle-Attachment/dp/B000KPS5IY/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1215337109&sr=8-16


Arm bands should also be required, so it is visable that somebody has their hand up. The color ought to be different from bumper/tail lights so it is instantly decernable that somebody is having a problem.

http://www.safetysmartgear.com/Products-L_E_D_Arm_Bands-.html [Check out the rest of the website they have some other neat stuff]


As for flagging stations, Dan Chase had the idea that we could use halogen work lamps to illumate flags for corner workers. I can't think of a more cost effective or better performing solution.


It might be nice to provide corner illumination markers (entrance, apex, exit). There are products on the market aimed at emergency services to allow them to replace flares with LED lillumination. This might allow us to get away with keeping the same ammount of flood light units we had.

These could also be used to illuminate cones.

http://www.powerflare.com/



One other consideration I had (wasn't really paying attention to this when I was driving) but the light units have got to be placed so that they will not be stuck by a kart if it goes off the track. I am not at all saying that they were, but its a thought that just came to me.


I can hardly wait for the next night event.

Hello All from your distant member up here on the hill,

Due to the cost of diesel this year Garrett and I have only been able to make it down the mountain for the Crossovers. We really wish we can drive/race more at Kinsmen.

Our other club NNKC (much closer to home) is getting ready for our 3rd night race.

Somethings we have learned is no matter where you put the light towers the karts still try to hit them. So stick some straw bails around them.
We also give out glow sticks to zip-tie to the rear bumper for better depth preception. Many drivers found that having light on their hands/arm messes up their vision when their hands are on the wheel.

I recommend any of you that can make it up on Aug. 9th you should. Think of it as research.

Garrett and I look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones in the future.

We enjoyed running the crossover and were proud to do it under the Kinsmen banner, but due to $$$ and being 10th in the points we are opting out of the 3rd and final race. So good luck to all of you!