"ROCK" On!!

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. - High-speed racing excitement will return to the streets of Rock Island, Ill. for the 15th year this Labor Day Weekend, but organizers have announced some changes in the previously-announced program.

At a meeting Tuesday, the organizing committee of the Rock Island Grand Prix, the world’s largest karting street race, considered a wide range of options to try and address lagging pre-entries and try to shore up the event’s finances. In the end, the group continued its historic reluctance to make mid-year program changes and put the success of the event back in the hands of the racers.

“Since we announced in June that we were considered suspending the event for a year due to lagging entries, we have had a lot of people step up to try and help in a number of ways,” said RIGP president Roger Ruthhart. Entries have almost doubled in the past several weeks and more than 60 additional racers have indicated plans to race at “The Rock” but have not yet entered.

“We continue to work on several revenue/sponsorship opportunities, but the real bottom line is that in order to succeed we need to at least meet the level of entries we had last year – our lowest in the event’s 15 year history,” said Ruthhart. That target is a minimum of 250 entries and they have 116 today.

In pursuit of that goal, several program changes were made.

1) In a split decision, the organization voted to add a Junior Sportsman Can class and a TAG Junior class to the 2009 race lineup. The junior class (specifically the Jr. 3-hole Can) had previously been dropped by organizers who were disappointed by the actions of race teams both on and off the track the past several years.

“I think we made our point. The juniors are an important part of our program and can provide additional entries,” said Ruthhart. Reinstatement comes with some planned changes. There will be a separate mandatory Junior driver/mechanic’s meeting to be held after the general drivers’s meeting on Saturday morning to review procedures and rules. There will be tougher on-course officiating beginning with the first practice session with drivers who ignore yellow flags or drive unsafely being penalized time or position, or being disqualified. Drivers may also be DQ’s for the actions of their team members.

“Our plan is to lay out the expectations at the driver’s meeting and expect them to meet those standards. We also realize that some responsibility for what happens on the track lies with our race officials. We hope the result will be great turnouts and safe racing for these two junior classes,” said Ruthhart. Starting procedures are also being reviewed and it is possible that a LeMans or rolling start may replace the standard F1 start in an effort to help racers get through the first lap with fewer racing incidents. More will be announced at a later date.

No purse will be paid to the two Junior classes but ‘Rocks’ will be awarded.

The addition of the two junior classes brings the total race program to 14 classes, the same as last year. However it means that there is no possibility that classes like Spec Honda or Rotax Sr./Rotax Masters can be split. Current entry levels have not supported that option anyway.

Rules governing the newly-approved junior classes are as follows:

JUNIOR CLASSES
Along with their registration forms, participants in both junior classes are required to submit a racing resume. Resume should include your racing background and the names and phone numbers for race directors for series or tracks in which you have raced. If you enter online, this can be emailed separately to grandprix@qconline.com. If you have been previously approved for a class you do not have to submit a resume for that class. Race Officials will use this resume in certifying your participation in the event.

All Junior drivers, parents and mechanics will be asked to attend a mandatory Junior Driver Meeting immediately following the general Driver’s Meeting on Saturday morning. Attendance will be taken. Rules, flagging and conduct will be reviewed and questions encouraged that drivers may not have wanted to ask in the larger group. We are a major national event and race in front of thousands of spectators and media. Professional conduct of all team members will be stressed. Drivers may be penalized up to and including disqualification for the action of any member of their team. We want this event to be safe and fun for all. Both classes will run 12-lap races.

Juniors will NOT run a prefinal this year. After Finals, top 5 finishers will be impounded. Teams should be prepared for teardown and have a crew member ready with tools to assist. TAG Junior will run TAG USA rules and approved TAG tire compounds; Tom Argy Jr. Sportsman (3-hole can) will run open tire compounds. All classes qualify and race on the same tires.

The top 10 finishers in the TAG Junior class will qualify for the TAG World Finals. If you intend to use this race to qualify for the World Finals, you must hold a TAG U.S.A. license prior to competing. TAG International rules as they exist on August 1 will be applied at Rock Island.
Please be sure to review the remainder of our Supplemental Rules posted on the Web site.

2) The Rock Island Grand Prix also adopted the following rules language: “The Rock Island Grand Prix reserves the right to eliminate or adjust the cash payouts for all classes if 250 entries are not reached by race day. Rocks will still be awarded.”

“Basically, we cannot continue to justify paying out more than $20,000 if we have a declining entry base,” said Ruthhart. “This is a very difficult action for us because we know a lot of racers come here to race for the checks as well as the Rocks. But we see it as the best short-term option to deal with dire economic times. If not paying out one dime is needed to help the event survive, we are prepared to do that. In the end, we hope that the racers will support our program and the cuts or purse elimination won’t have to happen. If it does happen, the racing community has only itself to blame.”

“In the meantime, this provides us with a $20,000 cushion if entries and sponsorship we are working on don’t come through,” he said. “We would rather make one-time cut here, which we hope the racing community would understand, than in cutting in other areas such as safety and amenities which have made the Rock Island Grand Prix one of the greatest events in the world of karting.”

Ruthhart said that many other additional options were discussed at great length, but the organizing committee believed that these would provide the best options for success with the least amount of mid-stream disruption to the event.

Dates for this year’s Rock Island Grand Prix are 4-6 September. Additional information can be found, and entries made, at rockislandgrandprix.com . Look for the Website to be updated shortly to reflect these changes.