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To anyone who is a student and enthusiast of contemporary motorsports, Ezra Dyer’s article ‘A La Kart’ is as puzzling and disappointing as it is snide and offensive.   Readers hoping for a rare peek into an esoteric and highly specialized corner of motorsports, were subjected instead to a flip and dismissive account of Dyer’s foray into an indoor kart facility.
What a disservice to ‘Automobile’ readers.  In countries where road racing matters and has a substantial fan base, karting is universally acknowledged as the requisite training ground for anyone with serious racing ambitions.  
For the benefit of your readers who, unlike Dyer, are unprejudiced toward unfamiliar facets of the motorsports world, are genuinely interested in tuning their racing or driving skills, and emotionally secure enough to experiment beyond what is or isn’t sufficiently macho automotively speaking, I offer the following observations:

• It is no longer possible to ascend to the top echelons of road racing (and for the most part, oval racing) anywhere in the world without a substantial grounding and internship in karting.     The grids of F1, IRL, Nascar, ALMs, are largely comprised of ex-karters, while the best feeder series (Skip Barber, Star Mazda, FBMW, F2000, euro/Canadian Formula Ford, Formula Renault, etc etc) are virtually 100% drawn from the ranks of international kart racers.   It’s not just the Tiger Woods-child-prodigy-syndrome of early muscle memory and sensory training; it is also the sheer dense accumulation of raw experience.  By the time Lewis Hamilton stepped into his first open wheel car, he had thousands of wheel-to-wheel races under his belt, tens of thousands of laps in every weather condition, having seen every possible variation of racing vicissitude and fortunes.   The Schumacher brothers grew up karting on the track their family owned, famously on cold or rainy days when the paying customers stayed away.  
• These thousands of hours of raw experience are possible because karting is relatively inexpensive.  Dyer disparages karting for being cheap; Huh?  News flash: Racing at every level is really expensive.  Every sanctioning body on the planet from time immemorial has battled with cost control in managing its series.   Dyer’s challenge to those serious about improving their car control, (buy an Exige, rent an airport) is frivolous enough before one considers it isn’t even true: you’d need that airport for six months of weekends without getting the track time and racing experience you’d get with a season of kart racing at half the purchase price of the Lotus.   (A bitter irony of Dyer’s comments is that serious karting is, in absolute terms, far from inexpensive.  Anyone racing a full schedule of sprint karting at the national level in the US is spending ~$35K per race-series per year. )
• Finally, and to me, most frustratingly: Dyer is apparently unaware that he still hasn’t sampled anything remotely resembling competitive karting.  Indoor kart tracks are fine for what they are, but have more in common with their amusement park brethren than they do with true sprint kart racing.  Does Dyer really not know that 125cc 2 stroke sprint karts have power-to-weight ratios and G Loads only experienced by the most elite ranks of open wheel racecars?  He is clearly oblivious to the thousands of karters worldwide who develop expertise in tire compounds, chassis tuning, engine and drivetrain mechanics, racecraft, not to mention the dietary, fitness and life-disciplines necessary for a professional career in motorsports, all before they are old enough for a driver’s license.

There just isn’t any excuse for an article like this in a car enthusiast journal. Although karting is a small sport in the U.S. relative to population and other powersports, it isn’t that difficult to research an article on authentic kart racing.   (hint: try wikipedia)  The World Karting Association 2009 season opening event after Christmas at Daytona will have, as usual, ~600 or so entries, and the subsequent events in their ‘Manufacturers’ Cup’ national series will feature similar numbers.   The premier off-season kart event, “The Florida Winter tour,” will have similar entry numbers with competitors from Canada, Europe, Asia and South America.   The ‘Stars of Karting’ series uses European FIA spec rules and has a similar international makeup.   As a footnote, it is worth mentioning that ‘4-strokes’ the uniquely American branch of karting, practiced on dirt and asphalt ovals around the country, outnumber (2-stroke) sprint kart racing by at least 10:1.  

Do your readers a favor and offset this snotty and juvenile article with a serious look at kart racing.  I’ll bet even the ones who can afford the Lotus and airport will thank you.  

Mr Dyer,
On behalf of the thousands of karting enthusiasts across the United States and globally, I must say that your January piece was just that – a piece. It is understandable when the mainstream media dismisses karting through barbs about lawn-mower engines, Stuart Little space saver spares, fezzes, and ukuleles, but not from someone who should know better about the affordable performance modern day karts provide. I would offer you a ride in my 125 shifter kart, but I am afraid that since your writing indicates that you have trouble controlling an indoor rental kart, I doubt you could handle the acceleration and cornering of a real kart without hurting yourself, someone else or the machinery.

By the way, my engine (SGM) is manufactured in Ferrari’s Maranello plant. I guess they think karting is worthy of manufacturing engines for the sport. Speaking of Ferrari, a little known racer by the name of Michael Schumacher not only began his racing career in karts, but he continued to practice in karts through out his career to keep his skills sharp. He is far from the exception. He is the rule. Karting “graduates” can be found at the front of the grid in every top level of four wheel racing.

So, the next time your friend Dave calls to take you to a real enduro (the modern term is road race), take him up on it. You will find that the machinery is far from the rental you crashed and capable of lap times that would embarrass cars with tire bills costing more than a complete kart. If you’re lucky, and someone hasn’t read and been offended by your “piece”, maybe you’ll get to make a few laps in a real modern race kart. At that point, I am sure you will have an epiphany and understand the value of the driving skills that karting teaches. Certainly, that would be an experience worthy of an informed and apologetic article.

Sincerely,

Mike Kellum

PS: While I feel justified in defending my chosen sport by throwing a few jabs your way, I am also man enough let bygones be bygones. With that in mind, I would like invite you to attend any Southwest Roadracing Association (SWRA) or Mid-America Road Racing Series (MARRS) race, if you are ever in our area (Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri) at the time of a race.  

A common thread here seems to be "all the great racing drivers started out in karting." Just to cut-and-paste:  "He is clearly oblivious to the thousands of karters worldwide who develop expertise in tire compounds, chassis tuning, engine and drivetrain mechanics, racecraft, not to mention the dietary, fitness and life-disciplines necessary for a professional career in motorsports, all before they are old enough for a driver’s license."
You're arguing karting as a means to an end. So if you're a 16-year-old Brazilian prodigy, more power to you. And if enjoy karting simply because it's fun, then that's great, too. It's a niche corner of motorsports, and just as valid as any other specialized form of competition (rallycross, ice racing, trials bikes or what have you).
What I find perplexing is the adults who throw out the "karting is the path to F1" argument. That's like going to the coin-op batting cages and saying, "This is how Manny Ramirez warms up before every game!" Well, that's true. But why are you there? If it's just because you think it's fun and you enjoy the challenge, what's wrong with saying so?
And if you're running shifter carts with Italian race engines, I would question the assertion that you're spending less money than the guy with a spec Miata or a well-sorted rally car. Especially given that either of those could also serve double-duty as actual transportation.
If you're into shifter karts, then the proper explanation is either A) I am the aforementioned racing prodigy, or B) I am someone who enjoys competition and hurtling my body though space at ludicrous speeds. Why people who belong to camp B feel the need to defend their hobby with tales of people from camp A makes no sense to me. The guys racing their 1982 Ford Escorts in the Screamin' Demons race at your local oval track aren't climbing out of their cars and defensively saying that this is how Tony Stewart got started. Rallycross people with old Audi 4000s don't sniff that their sport is the training ground for the next Sebastian Loeb. If you have the cojones to drive a shifter kart, then you're a braver soul than I. But leave Michael Schumacher out of it.  

I am pretty sure we wouldn’t feel the need to explain the virtues of karting if unenlightened automotive journalists wouldn’t dump all over it when they can’t master it in a single indoor rental kart session.  

EVERYONE understands the importants of karting as feeder and training program within motorsports. What I found so humorous in Ezra's article, and have personally observed, is the seriousness with which grown men take low-level karting.

Most of those guys aren't moving on to shifter karts or any other form of serious motorsports. They're driving karts that are too slow for some children's series.

It's like little league. It's great as a feeder program for kids. But if you're 47 years old and still in little league, you probably shouldn't be so touchy.  

Ezra,
Point taken on the 'means to an end' analogy, which rages perennially within the karting community itself.   At least half the sport is populated by aspiring young racers who won't stay in it once they are ready for cars.  
But the remaining half of karting is populated by over-21 aged drivers.  They have discovered that karting offers incredible competition, offers a lifetime of learning and improving the craft both in relative and absolute terms.   Jamie McMurray is active on the TAG kart circuit not just because it helps keep him sharp for driving Nextel Cup, but because he loves the competition and challenge karting offers.   Guys like Scott Speed, Dan Wheldon, and Vitor Meira take time out to compete in one-off events like the All-Stars karting classic because it is understood in racing circles that having the right stuff means being fast in karts, regardless of the laurels you may have won in your respective racecar series.  

In my travels as an amateur racer and crew chief, I encounter constant curiosity from auto-enthusiasts about karting.  Rather than address that un-met interest that exists, this article was dismissive, uninformed and misleading, hence my charge that it is a disservice to readers.  

As a bonus feature, a few more observations:

The word "Kart" sounds hokey and from a branding standpoint, unfortunate as many in the sport have observed.  However, the word's origins have interesting historical roots.  Art Ingels, karting's inventor, was, in 1956, a pioneer in the west coast hot-rod, road-racing culture (kulture?) working for the innovative start up racecar company known as, wait for it... Kurtis Kraft.  Chalk it up to the slang of the beatnik era, but we are stuck with it.  

In Italy, surely a cradle of motorsports, kart racing is regarded as a peer of other motorsports.  Teams have professional sponsorship, tracks are finished to a higher level than many US road courses, drivers are paid, and events are televised.  No one regards it as kid stuff or a ladder to anything; it is a complement to other forms of road racing.  

As I observed in my initial post, karting is only cheap in relative terms.  No the guys doing a full national program in sprint karts are not saving any money vs a season of national SCCA racing.   (the major exception is crash damage)   But in terms of getting the maximum amount of high quality seat time for the minimum amount of money, nothing beats a regional/local kart track.  

Thanks to the tone and content of this article, fewer people will bother to make that discovery.  

I may be a little late on this, but I actually just read the article "World of Competitive Karting" online while going through some of your older articles. To start off, I will say that I am a fan of most of your work, and in fact much of the article cannot be disputed. The big caveat however is that it is applicable to the karting you experienced -- the problem with it is that you presented it as "The World of Competitive Karting". Far from it.

In your reply to the other posters, you stated "A common thread here seems to be 'all the great racing drivers started out in karting'." Then you proceeded to take your literary magic and voodoo and twist the topic so that the other posters were on the defensive by pointing out how they "argue that karting is a means to an end" and that they defend their hobby by pointing out the success of those who also used to kart. It was a great diversion, and well played, but it leaves out the fact that this is not what the disagreement is about.

There were a couple of statements in your article that probably incited the responses from the other posters, as they got my attention also. The thing you mentioned about karting teaching car control, Lotus Exige, airstrip, blah blah blah, was one of them. The other, and more significant one was "But I still don't buy the idea that karting teaches you how to drive-karting teaches you how to kart, which is to say you learn how to maximize momentum in a vehicle that has no power to spare".

The last statement is hugely flawed. While it may apply to indoor karting, it has no semblance of truth when it comes to actual competitive karting. I gather that you are not a true "driver" Mr. Dyer, as very few journalists are. Driving is driving. Someone who is fast in a kart has great sensitivity when it comes to balancing a vehicle at its limits, they have a great perception as to what the tires are doing underneath them, and they can feed a vehicle the exact inputs that it requires. Someone who is fast in a kart will be better in a car than someone who is not fast in a kart.  

This is why (real) karting can be such a valuable tool for anyone who call themselves an enthusiast driver. I don't need to point to the top race drivers that step into karts to stay sharp. Anyone can take advantage of proper karting to make themselves a better driver. A guy who does track days in his Exige or GT3 can benefit from karting, as can a guy who races Koni Challange or a driver who just enjoys windy roads.

Firstly, for the raw rookie, it teaches fundamental cornering techniques and proper use of the eyes, the feel of exceeding the limits, etc. For the more advanced driver, it allows them to get truly analytical about their technique as well as work on consistency, and for that matter eeking out that last tenth of a second that will only benefit them in their car. Beyond that, barring the top tiers of auto racing, there are few things you can drive that are as physically demanding as a racing kart, so it's a great way to stay in "race shape". All this can be done often because, yes, it is relatively cheap.

Again the point is that karting is a much more relevant sport to teach driving than you asserted in your article. To lump it in with other forms of road racing, I'll make the bold statement that anyone who is fast in a kart and can truly maximize it will have no problem adapting and being fast in anything else, but someone who is fast in say a Spec Miata, may not have the same ultimate speed.

I challenge you to try out proper karting. Better yet, maybe we could stage a competition between someone who is a fast karter, but not a car driver, and yourself, in cars only or both cars and karts, to see if karting, in fact, does teach a thing or two. You might argue that the fast karter might have more natural talent than you if you get beat, but again that would prove my point that a fast kart racer has to be a fast driver, period, whether natural or learned.  

dudes you guys take this way to seriously.  mr dyer may have been some what demeaning.  but seriously, who cares.  when it comes right down to it real cart racing is cheaper thn cars and actually more exciting. modern car races are too insulated, redundant or even snobby.  see the f1 drama.  for me it is just good honest fun, chill out.  so what if the jounalist cant drive (see their crash rates testing new cars (whoa!)