It’s been a tough stretch for karting in recent weeks. The sad death of KJ McKinster at an event in Washington, the passing of SoCal icon and champion of the 80cc shifter cause, Rick Blood, and the loss of Ayrton, almost certainly the most well-known canine in American karting. Others have chosen to eulogize them in various ways, but the bottom line is that we shall miss these three valued members of our community. Each of them contributed to our sport and helped make it the unique pastime that we all enjoy.
The fatal accident involving KJ McKinster is of course the most serious matter. To add insult to what’s already a heart-wrenching occurrence, any time a tragedy befalls us in today’s society, the Blame Game starts just moments after the tears have dried up, especially when the one we’ve lost is just 12 years old. We need a scapegoat, damnit, and soon. Should kids be allowed to race? Should the track have been “safer”? Should there be better protective equipment? Was the chassis poorly prepared?
I am not directly referencing the KJ incident, but certain post-accident remarks within our community have in turn made me think about it in a certain way. Time and again, I have listened to fathers complain to me that, “This track is really goddamn unsafe!” or heard a mother claim, “This race director isn’t doing his goddamn job, kids are bashing into each other, and someone is going to get hurt out there!!!!”
I’ll pretend to dig some dirt out of my contact lens before quietly asking them…
“If it’s so unsafe, then why don’t you withdraw your child and go home?”
Cue the blank stare and the stuttering. “Uh, we’re in a championship battle, we need the track time, it was costly to get here, Johnny would be heartbroken if he didn’t get to race…” I’ve been covering kart racing for eight years now, and I have lost count of the number of times I’ve had that exact discussion with parents. It’s a war zone out there, so they tell me, but better to throw the kid into the blender than risk losing the points battle.
It usually gets ugly, then, when I respond with, “Let me get this straight. That championship is worth more than your kid’s safety?” And people wonder why so many junior parents hate me.
Let me be really clear. It’s up to us as a community to do all we can to make our sport (an inherently dangerous one) as safe as we can, and we should strive to improve all facets of it. But it’s ultimately the parents’ responsibility to decide if their child should participate in karting, motocross, football, Guitar Hero, or any given activity. Stop blaming the officials, the track owners, the promoter, the safety apparel companies, the other drivers, or the current phase of the moon. It’s your choice to let your child participate. It’s your responsibility to walk the track ahead of time to identify potentially unsafe scenarios. It’s your responsibility to decide if, in your opinion, the officials are incompetent or if the other drivers are too reckless. The responsibility is yours, and it’s no more complex than that.
Moving right along… Rick Blood was a guy who completely loved the sport of karting, and his forthright style won him no shortage of fans on the internet, most of whom had never met him or even knew what he actually did. He was a vocal name on a message board for many. At the end of the day, the guy loved the sport, he helped many people when he was at the track, that was always enough for me. Though, I often chuckled at how Rick viewed the world, and how he felt the world viewed him. I don’t know that people were paying as close attention to what he said, or did, as he thought they were. But then, I suspect that none of us are as important as we think we are.
I didn’t know KJ personally, I rarely saw Rick after the demise of SKUSA Version 1, but I sure was attached to Ayrton. It’s true that some people feel the loss of an animal friend about as acutely as the loss of a human one, and this happens to be one of those spaces. This dog was most famous for having adopted (and tolerated) G1 maestro/ace tuner Shayne Shipley. There’s just no denying that most people liked Ayrton more than they like Shayne, which is pretty remarkable, given that pretty much everyone (myself included) has little but good things to say about Mr. Shipley.
Anyway, the attached photo is one of the first shots I took upon starting up the mag; it appeared in Issue 3, April 2003. Shayne and Ayrton take in the late day sun at an IKF Region 7 event at Willow Springs.
- Jeff Franz
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