Join the Fun! IN THIS ISSUE

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1 The Official VKA Newsletter November 2013 Editor Rolf Hill MMXIII No Vintage Karting Association, Inc. All rights reserved. No part may be reproduced, in any form, without explicit, written permission from the Vintage Karting Association. Join the Fun! IN THIS ISSUE JANUARY 2014 EVENTS CUDDEBACKVILLE RESULTS PAUL BOOTH TIMING INVESTIGATION WORDSEARCH EDITOR S COMMENTS THE SEASON IS OVER! What a ride (no pun intended) for me, anyway! I hope everyone had a good season. Not counting the West Coast events, I was at all the VKA events but two; Springfield and Cuddebackville. I even went to the Avon event. Not braggin, just sayin. I tried to cut back, but that just didn t happen. Maybe 2014 will be different. As a matter of fact, I m thinking it will be, which is a subtle way of getting promoters to think about having someone, beside Dick Teal, Jeff Campbell and me to take pictures, and a.) getting them posted on the VKA web site, and b.) getting a picture of the Peoples Choice to me before the VKA FIRSTURN goes to the printer. I m not complaining. I just don t think as many events are going to be on my schedule for 2014, so someone needs to step-up-to-the-plate. If not.. I just might not get as many complements about my job as Editor. (See below.) High points in 2013 for me: I ve met a lot of new, friendly, fun people and continued friendships from the last three years in VKA and I even remember some/most of their names. (Jeff Brown s and Jim Donovan s idea of name tags is a good one, especially in the chow line. No tickie, no laundry. {I guess that s politically incorrect, but no offense meant.} Just be careful in the pits around running engines!) Many comments to me about my job as Editor, have helped make the job even more fun! Thank you. Rolf s True-ism: You ll do a better job at the job you wanna do, rather than the job someone else wants you to do. Another high point was having the experience of many people helping me get beyond my experiences as a teenager with limited resources, to better understand what makes a kart (and a vintage kart) tick and tick faster. I still have most of my hand tools from nearly 50 years ago, like hammer, hacksaw, pliers, electric hand drill, etc. I never graduated to 20 ton presses, micrometers, dynamometers, metal lathes, drill presses, etc., so much of my engineering has been what I knew as a kid. Nevertheless, patience and support with tuning, maintenance, driving, etc. has abounded from my vintage karting friends family. Thank you. The help continued off the track as well. Although I often worried about what I d put in the next issue, somehow it always seemed to work out. Between Member Memories and technical articles, it all seemed to come together. Thanks to those who provided their input. (But don t forget, there are 12 months in 2014, too!) Being part of the telephone, call-in, Board Meetings every month has been interesting and beneficial as the Editor. It has allowed me to get a first-hand perspective of how VKA works, the work that goes into making VKA work, and occasionally, to express my opinion on how it works. Thanks to the Board for that. All-in-all, 2013 was a very good year for me due in great measure to the people like you who make-up Vintage Karting! I m looking forward to I hope you are, too. Rolf #4 VKA Logo Courtesy of Tom Medley -1-

2 SEPTEMBER BOARD MEETING SUMMARY Jim Donovan was officially appointed as a VKA Director, to fill-in as Treasurer after the passing of Bob Lapke and Carl Weakley. Applications for all positions for 2014 need to be solicited. Any proposed Guidelines changes also need to be evaluated in time for Two signees for the VKA Bank of America account are needed. Jim Donovan will provide a Signature Card and Louie Figone will continue as co-signee. The beginning balance for September will be used in the Oct. VKA FIRSTURN the closing balance for August. Current Membership is at 317. The VKA website was down for several days during the transition to the new website hosted by GoDaddy. Support of an feature that will allow HOT LAPS to be sent from the VKA website is continuing. Safety drawings for scatter shields/clutch guards need to be prepared and published in VKA FIRSTURN. Junior drives running with senior drivers was experienced at Quincy and continues to be an issue. Gus Traeder provided a special memorial for Bob and Carl at the Quincy event. The questions of duals in the Historic Class was discussed. It was pointed out that the engines qualify for the Historic Class and the Class should not be a racing class. Adkins Raceway in OH will be visited before being considered as a VKA venue. Additional funds were requested, but not required to be approved for a family friendly centerfold in the Oct. VKA FIRSTURN. Quincy and Delmar Results will be included in the Oct. VKA FIRSTURN. The Board will consider options for applying nearly $800, funds Carl s family collected after his passing, which they felt he would have wanted to be donated to VKA. A box of old minutes was received from Carl s wife, Sally. Twenty boxes of old karting magazines and 17 boxes of Road and Custom Magazines that had been donated to VKA by Carl Billington were turned over to Jack Murray for safe keeping. CHECK for details on location, lodging and other event-specific information. -2-

3 CUDDEBACKVILLE BY DAVE LUCIANI Cuddebackville is in the books and done. We had a great weekend with spectacular weather. Attendance was about thirty drivers with about the same in spectators. A whole lot of the PA drivers stayed home since the weather report was rain til just hours before we opened. In PA, there was well over 6" of rain..many of the PA drivers were unaware that we were totally dry. A funny thing, in the valley where the New York track is located, the weather can be dry when everywhere else is rain. We had many repeat drivers with a few new faces. A new addition this year was minibikes. Minibike attendance was OK for a first year event. A total of 5 drivers. We are promised that will change by next year. We'll see. There was a representative of the Long Island Minibike riders who claims there are thirty more owners waiting to see how minibikes were received. I personally had fun watching them race, and they all had a blast. On Friday, we had practice and everyone was out there for hours tuning and prepping. We went right to the last minute and most guys were tired. Saturday dawned clear and cool; perfect weather for running two strokes. The demonstrations were pretty intense. There were several grids that were crowded and close fast driving was the norm. We had ZERO contact incidents which to us is job number one. The drivers were warned ahead of time we'd Black Flag and they were exceptionally careful. There was some track Karnage; not unexpected with fifty year old equipment. Several MC101's ran their last race. One MC101 piston turned into gravel; a new one on everyone who saw it. The East Coast guys are extremely connected to the sport and many are driving karts they've owned forever. Al Postiglione has an example of every kart he every raced. With him, it's a family affair with both his son and daughter driving Vintage. We got the whole thing done on Saturday [and as a result] the Schedule got messed up so we weren't able to get pictures of the kart show as it was too dark. Besides, we were too busy cooking/eating and telling whoopers about how fast we were!! Somehow we managed to get the kart show together and do some judging. The Show trophies were well received and there were plenty of winners. As usual everyone had a blast. Sunday dawned on a smaller field we decided rather than any racing we'd just kick back and do track time. Overall, we had a blast. I truly believe nobody had a bad time or bad weekend. I wasn't exactly planning on being a Vintage Race Promoter; it seems it's more fun than I'd thought. A few hours of my time and we all got a great weekend. Dave Luciani, Promoter -3-

4 CUDDEBACKVILLE RACE RESULTS CLASS 1 ST 2 ND 3 RD S/W 100 CC Al Pontiglone Curt Gruber Bob Potts S/W YAMAHA Kent Wintam Matthew Klunk Lyle Reider DUAL (OPEN) Frederico Rotel Bob Anderson REAR 6.1 Carl Haydt Al Peckenpaugh Frederico Rotela REAR (AMERICAN) 8.2 Curt Gubar Anthony Pires Steve Pires HISTORIC David Luciani (DQ himself) Kristen Detlart MINI BIKE OPEN Ed Grim Zack Cambell Kristen Detlart S/W YAMAHA Kent Wintam Matthew Klunk Lyle Reider WORDSEARCH Below is a list of 2013 Vintage Karting venues. The challenge is to find them in the box of letters. They may be listed right-to-left, left-to-right, top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top, or diagonal. (Answer on p. 10.) E W G E I I F L A A I A G A I S W H I T E L A N D R I S E P I R A M L E D E A U I U C R B N R E L C V T Y M C E E I B T T I I K T C C E L G A N E L B I V E N I N L A A T G E B A R N E S V I L L E W F R D R H O U R V U L N U A I K L M C S D E S Q D E N T E S A E A K L H Q I T V L E L L I V K C A B E D D U C R D N S A R A S R A A E E A Q H M B I L J O I H O D I M N E W C A S T L E A I C L E 2013 VINTAGE KARTING VENUES Atwater Jacksonville Barnesville MidOhio Brodhead MIS Camden NewCastle Circleville Quincy Cuddebackville Riverside Delmar Springfield Graten Whiteland Join the Fun! -4-

5 THE DOG LOVER, THE MCCULLOCH DEALER AND THE VINTAGE KART COLLECTION BY FRANK WEIR I had the pleasure of chatting with a gentleman at the Vintage Karting Association event held in early September 2013 at TNT Kartways in West Quincy, Missouri. I was curious to find out about the unusual number K9 on his pristine 1962 Fox Mak Kart powered by a MC45. And, as I suspected, K9 was an abbreviation for canine; yes, he was a dog lover and the gentleman s name was Paul Booth. Paul started karting in Talking to Paul about the early days of the sport in Illinois was fascinating. He was the first winner at the new track constructed at Macomb, Illinois in 1960 onboard a Missile Kart powered by a MC10. Paul was also the first winner at the new Jacksonville, Illinois track also constructed in 1960, driving a Fox Kart powered by an MC6. Back then, Paul would run three times a week during the season; Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Paul was a regular competitor at Bushnell, Macomb, Mount Stirling, Rushville, Springfield, and Virden all in Illinois. He also regularly travelled out of state to race at Boschertown and TNT Kartways in Missouri. At that time it seems that nearly every town had a kart track; how times have sadly changed. In 1962, Paul purchased a McCulloch chainsaw dealership located in Beardstown, Illinois. Paul and his wife together with a couple of employees ran the dealership for 38 years. At that time, the business was located close to the centre of Beardstown. Good fortune or astute business acumen, Paul had the foresight to purchase a block of real estate in a new sub-division just out of town. Here he constructed new premises for his own business. At the same time he found tenants for other parts of his new development. Paul s business prospered and soon he qualified for Top Dealer status awarded by McCulloch. The prize associated with the Top Dealer award was an all-expense paid trip for Paul and his wife to Los Angles and Lake Havasu City to meet Robert McCulloch. Mr. McCulloch laid on lavish hospitality for all his dealers that achieved Top Dealer status as a way of thanking them for their efforts on his behalf. On the occasion, when Paul and his wife were members of the dealer group entertained by Mr. McCulloch, a Hollywood movie was shown as part of the event. Apparently, McCulloch money helped to produce the said film. Paul recalls that Lorne Greene, the star of the 1960 s TV show Bonanza, was the after dinner speaker on that occasion, and that Mr. Greene s address was very disappointing, especially the adjectives that he used in mixed company. Paul suspected that too much liquid refreshment had been consumed by the movie star causing him to transgress from the official script. Paul, however, spoke highly of Robert McCulloch and related that 70 per cent of the Los Angeles workforce moved to Lake Havasu City with Mr. McCulloch when the plant relocated to Arizona. -5-

6 Now, 77 years young and 13 years into retirement, Paul holds on to his past karting exploits by collecting chassis, engines and memorabilia from the early days of the sport. At the last count, there are 25 karts in Paul s display. He has at least one, if not more, examples of the following: Go Kart, Hoffco, Rathmann, Percival, Fox Mak, Hornet, McCulloch, Simplex, left-hand Bug Stinger of which less than 20 were made, left-hand Caretta Laydown, Dart GP, Bug Wasp, Bug Sprint, Margay New Breed, Margay Expert, Margay Concept, Margay Cheetah and Blackhawk. And the successful business that Paul worked so conscientiously at all those years still continues, but is now under the control of his son-inlaw. McCulloch sadly is no longer one of their product lines. The walls of Paul s display area are adorned with various classic aftermarket pieces such as intake manifolds, exhaust headers, pedals, wheels and clutches. Engines that were used when the sport was in its infancy, such as the Clinton and West Bend, have been lovingly restored to look like new. The various McCulloch marques take pride of place and look better than new original stock. Paul is very proud of the fact that he is close to having a complete collection of the McCulloch line of kart engines; only the MC1, MC2, MC40, MC70, MC75 and MC100 are needed to complete his McCulloch collection. It s no surprise to find that Paul is also involved with the promotion of vintage kart racing. It was Paul s initiative that developed the Vintage Karting Association s Stock Appearing class in the last couple of years. Every Memorial Day weekend he and his family, along with the Mid-State Kart Club of Springfield Illinois, host the Land of Lincoln Vintage Kart Races. The next time I m anywhere near Beardstown, Illinois, I will be making a stop to view the newest acquisitions to Paul s karting museum. Incidentally, a nice end to the story would have been finding that the location of Beardstown in the map atlas was listed [in grid] K9, unfortunately it s actually [grid] K5. Frank Weir JOIN THE FUN! -6-

7 MCCULLOCH IGNITION TIMING INVESTIGATION BY SCOTT KNEISEL I have always been interested in what is actually happening in the ignition of these little high performance engines. I also have been curious about how the little transistorized ignition modules work, as well as all the mystery around Maverick spark. So I decided to build a rig that will help me demonstrate and understand these things in the comfort of my own shop. The rig is basically an Mc91 block, crank, and complete magneto which is connected to an electric motor capable of turning the crank at a relatively high RPM. (Figures 1, 2 and 3) Fig. 1 Fig. 2 As can be seen by the photos, the rig has a standard flywheel that has been marked off in increments of 10 degrees before and after TDC. In addition, there is a tach, a spark plug for visual feedback and a switch to eliminate the points or module for Maverick spark effect. I then use a self-powered inductive timing light (Fig. 4) to monitor the firing position on the calibrated flywheel. Fig. 3 Fig. 4 The following are the results I have obtained so far with the rig: 1) Conventional Points/Capacitor operation: With the points set to open at 25 degrees BTDC (Fig. 5), when the switch is thrown to eliminate the points from the circuit the coil begins to fire by the magnetic induction of the coil caused from the flywheel magnets passing by the coil laminations at a sufficient speed to produce a spark. The firing point then moves up to 28-29degrees BTDC (Fig. 6). This is the maverick spark effect, a 3 degree increase in advance. A larger advance would be obtained with a 5 degree flywheel up to degrees -7-

8 BTDC. In addition, the coil begins to maverick fire consistently at 2000RPM, but I expect it would be a considerably higher speed when the spark is under compression. I can t duplicate that with this rig. TDC Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Looking at the coil primary winding at 2000RPM with an oscilloscope (kindly loaned for the project by Dick Teal), the voltage spike is about 30V for a very short duration as seen below (Fig. 7). Fig. 7 coil may be too much for the module electronics. This past week I took the Mc-100 out again with the module mounted away from the coil, down on the side cover and it worked OK. I had no problems. So I guess that if you are gonna try one of these little wonders, you need to have a back-up set of points onboard in case of module failure. I didn t in either case above so I was dead in the water that day at the track. A drawback of using these modules is that to produce maverick spark you need to use a remote switch to disconnect the module and then you will get a couple degrees of advance, whereas if using points, maverick spark can be obtained automatically, by lowering the tension on the points spring to make them float at a desired RPM. 2. Ignition Module Operation Using the transistorized ignition module purchased on ebay for about $18, the spark is reliable and occurs at 28degrees BTDC (when connected in the correct polarity), and fires at 5degrees ATDC when connected in the opposite polarity, so you need to be careful to get it set up correctly or the engine will not run or will run very badly. I have been track-testing these modules for the past couple years with mixed results. The first was on a stroked Mc-10, which really cranked the RPMs and it worked perfectly. The module was then mounted in the remote points box on the Mc-10. Recently I ran one on my grandsons Mc- 49 and mounted it right next to the coil on one of the mounting screws. It worked well, but then failed. The switching transistor blew, making the module useless. I also did the same mounting on my Mc-100 and ended up with the same result.blown module. I suspect that the electrical interference from the Anyway, that is what I have learned so far, but if you have any questions or want me to run some specific tests with this rig, just contact me and I ll see what I can do. Scott Kneisel -8-

9 SAFETY TIPS & HELPFUL HINTS BY ERNIE SHORES Winter Storage Put these little gems away properly for the winter; drain any fluids. If you are not doing a complete engine overhaul, ensure engines are properly lubed for storage. Properly dispose of any leftover fuel and oil in the proper manner in accordance with local hazardous waste procedures. Start early next year; properly prepare the engines and karts for the 2014 season, conforming to any new VKA guidelines. RESOURCES FOR VINTAGE KARTERS Bill McCornack McCulloch Engine building, Big Volume Pipes, Reed Cages - V-12 s, Tillotson Carburetors, Mc49 Pistons, Rev Grip Springs, Electronic Ignition Modules Tele: ; bill.mccornack@comcast.net Terry Ives - McCulloch engine repair, pistons, rings & gaskets. Azusa and Hortsman Tele; ; tii@surewest.net Ed Sahagian - Line boring, blueprinting, head surfacing, helicoiling & prototyping Tele; David Nance - Clinton NOS engine parts. Tele; ; gnome1967@netzero.com Greg Gouveia - Reproduction Chilton, Palmini & Azusa tanks Tele; Samantha (Weakley) Price - Early 70 s Margay Cheetah reproduction seats Tele; ; SpeedyChic@aol.com Thomas Thorin - Simplex decals, brake linings & 5 inch cast wheels Tele; ; tthorin@socal.rr.com Charles Groeteke - Vintage frame repair & parts, chrome stripping and re-plating Tele; ; slkcharlie@sbcglobal.net K&P Manufacturing - Bug chassis, parts and repair GEM-Style Pipes Blendzall Dist., Bridgestone Vintage Slicks, N.O.S. Parts & Burco Clutch Nuts Tele; Robron Incorporated - Dart chassis, parts and repair Tele; ; robroninc@bellsouth.net GL Doemelt Incorporated - King Kart chassis and parts Tele; ; gldoemelt@yahoo.com Nils Gustafson - Reproduction vintage tires Tele; Brian & Dotty Thomas Custom Kart Covers & Power Products base gaskets Tele; ; wrenchhead944@hotmail.com Jim Donovan - Max-Torque Ltd. Clutches for most engines Tele;

10 Lake Speed B Bomb Engines Parts Buy Sell Service & Repair Tele; ; lcspeed@aol.com Dick Teal Reproduction Fox pedals Swing Mounts throttle arms etc. Tele; ; teal@charter.net Howard Kapland DXL N.O.S. High temp, semi metallic friction discs Nippondenso W34EN Alky racing plugs for most foreign & Yamaha Tele; , howardkaplan@comcast.net Jeff Brown- Engine rebuilding & modifications for all types since 1967; BM 130 parts available rotary valves for B Bombs & BM 130 s Tele: after 5pm EST invaderjb@gmail.com Jack Murray Collector of Early and Mid 60's Karts, Engines, and Rare NOS Parts. NOS GEM Pyramid Reed Cages, NOS Margay Dual Engine Gear Boxes and Parts, New Tourek Type Ball Joints, Tele; Richie Engel Relining of Clutch & Brake Shoes, McCulloch Engine Repair Tele; , rtengel55@hotmail.com Tim Hinson Dealer for Azusa, RVL Tuned Exhaust, USMP West Bend; 510, 580, 700 NOS & used parts; restoration/rebuild of karts and WB & PP. Tele: , CatKart@gmail.com; E W G E I I F L A A I A G A I S W H I T E L A N D R I S E P I R A M L E D E A U I U C R B N R E L C V T Y M C E E I B T T I I K T C C E L G A N E L B I V E N I N L A A T G E B A R N E S V I L L E W F R D R H O U R V U L N U A I K L M C S D E S Q D E N NOTICE MEMBERSHIP T E S A E A K L H Q I T V L E L L I V K C A B E D D U C CHANGE R D N S A R A S R A A E E A Q H M B I L J O I H O D I M N E W C A S T L E A I C L E MEMBERSHIP REMINDER New VKA Memberships are now issued for a 12 month period. Current members should receive a reminder along with your VKA FIRSTURN Magazine two months before your membership expires. Annual dues until 1/1/14 are: Full Membership = $30; Associate Membership = $10. Foreign Membership = $40 STARTING JANUARY 1, 2014, ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS WILL INCREASE: FULL MEMBERSHIP WILL BE $35; FOREIGN MEMBERSHIP WILL BE $45. ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP WILL REMAIN AT $10. ONLY MEMBERS RECEIVE ALL THE VKA FIRSTURN MAGAZINES AND NEWSLETTERS. Checks should be made payable to: Vintage Karting Association and mailed to: Mary Jo McCornack, 7N057 Weybridge Drive, Campton Hills, IL