Bringing the Brand to Karting - Honda Performance Development Officially Recognizes Performance Karting

By Ray Verhelst, KIC Executive Director

It's been eleven years since the performance karting community had a new 2 cycle engine from Honda. During that time, the company has not participated in performance karting, nor has there been any new replacement for the venerable CR125.

During that time, engine re-builders have been forced to create new motors from parts purchased from within Honda's consumer products network. However, in mid-November Honda Performance Development, Inc. (HPD) officially recognized performance karting as a business segment.

To comprehend the significance of the HPD decision, one must first understand its overarching corporate model. Honda's presence in the US is actually a conglomerate of as many as twenty individual corporations. These organizations are semi-autonomous, and drive discrete business goals, ranging from commercial and consumer lawn care, to the Honda and Acura car lines. This entity manages all domestic operations from branding, to the financing of consumer purchases.

In addition to its consumer manufacturing interests, the name Honda also encompasses a long motorsports legacy. This includes participation as a long time engine provider for the IndyCar series, as well as the holder of numerous domestic championships in prototype sports car racing. Coinciding with the commitment to North American racing American Honda Motor Co. also launched Honda Performance Development in 1993. According to the company's mission HPD specializes in the design and development of race engines, chassis and performance parts and provides technical/race support.

To put this division's size in perspective, HPD resides in a 123,000 square foot building in Santa Clarita, California. The two-story facility houses comprehensive motorsports research & development operations, including design, development engineering, prototype and production parts manufacturing, race-engine preparation and rebuilding areas, material analysis laboratory, quality-control inspection areas, engine dynamometer test cells, machine shop, electronics laboratory, parts center, multiple meeting/conference rooms and administrative offices.

In terms of the new commitment to support and advance Honda's re-energized involvement in performance karting, it is important to note that HPD will be taking over the reins and moving the program forward. From the renewed support for the CR125 motor to the future development of new power plants, HPD will be the primary point of contact.

Following their official announcement we sat with Mr. Marc Sours, General Manager & Chief Engineer for the Honda Performance Development division during the SKUSA SuperNational at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas.

In our conversation with Marc, he indicated Honda's interest in including performance karting under its expanding grassroots program had been part of the plan for some time but that because of the lack of a central information resource, it was hard to determine the actual size and opportunity for Honda to step officially into the ring. According to Marc, "We looked for resources within the karting community to give us definitive market information but nothing existed. This resulted in our team having to put together bits and pieces of information off the web and forced us to rely on secondhand resources to build our business plans." Marc indicated this prolonged their return and took almost a year to present the right business case.

Even with the data being sporadic, there was enough information to support the decision to move forward with the program. Marc added, "With the re-launch of the Kart Industry Council, we hope that the organization can help to provide us with the independent data we need to continue to expand our involvement."

Honda motorIn the official press release dated November 4, 2010, "’Spec Honda' class competitors will be able to purchase a CR125 engine ‘kit’, containing all of the required parts to assemble a complete engine. The engine kit will include a six-speed transmission for the appropriate engine model, with ‘top end’ parts available for 1999-2002 engines, the most popular for karting applications. All parts will be SKUSA, Spec Honda-compliant. HPD will begin taking kit and part orders commencing with the start of the 2011 season."

From an operational standpoint, engine builders and kart shops can continue to purchase their parts through existing dealer sources. Alternately, if you don’t have a supporting parts outlet, you can register through the HPD website to be a member and purchase your parts through the Honda Racing Line. There are some prerequisites to receive your membership such as you must be able to prove your membership in a nationally recognized sanctioning body; demonstrate you are an active racer with proof of race results in the last 12 months; and be a US resident. The website: http://racing.honda.com/hpd/

Parts pricing and availability will be available at the beginning of 2011.

The Bigger Picture

According to Marc, Honda gets it. They understand that grassroots motorsports leads to brand loyalty, recognition and an expanded customer base throughout many of their product lines. With the largest age group in performance karting being between 9 and 15, the company knows that young impressionable competitors are being groomed to drive above the age of sixteen and that Honda’s association can lead to more vehicle sales opportunities. But it doesn’t take much time to look around the pits to see Honda generators, Honda scooters and even Honda utility vehicles being used on the track. This is a brand with depth in the marketplace and is known for very high quality.

A Honda relationship with karting has the potential to go further than any other automotive brand simply because through this division they can supply the strategic parts for an existing karting class. From the spec motors in the 2 cycle market, to the thousands of potential 4 cycle competitors who have been living with a single major brand for years, there is ample room for Honda to tap into a solid portion of that market, although it is fair to say there would be some significant barriers to entry.

In our conversation with Marc, we pointed out the association’s growing performance indoor karting data and that Honda engines are currently being used as the default power plant for more than 80% of the country’s indoor facilities who run gas powered karts.

In researching for this article, we spoke to the 4 cycle department at Comet Kart Sales, one of the country’s largest karting supply houses who carry the Honda line. According to them while the Honda engine has been strong in the ¼ midget programs, they have not seen Honda as a brand in the traditional 4 cycle dirt market.

Touching on the potential for the elusive ladder system, Honda has introduced their 1.5 Liter Honda Fit engine created for racers planning to run in the SCCA Formula F competition series.

As we alluded to in the beginning, American Honda Motor Corp offers a structure that is unique when compared to other car companies who have supported karting through sponsorship. While there might be twenty different manufacturing and product organizations in North America, they all reside under the marketing umbrella of this parent corporation. This provides a dotted line relationship between products and sales outlets. While the HPD subdivision handles race engineering and related product development, they work hand-in-hand with the national sales network.

For the karting community, this relationship means that performance karting events that make good consumer marketing sense can actually make a case to the corporate powers that would bring a greater depth of Honda consumer brands into the picture. In my conversation with Marc, I suggested that with a better understanding of the attendee demographics for a particular event or series, a case could be made for Honda cars & trucks, bikes, ATVs, generators, and other specialty products to be on display. Or the event could act as a backdrop for a regional dealer incentive or enthusiast club gathering.

Marc agreed but quickly pointed out that HPD’s current commitment is to start simply by supporting the venerable CR125 and that any further cross marketing opportunities would come after an initial evaluation period and some more supporting data.

In a time when karting and motorsports in general have suffered from the economic landscape, to have a mega conglomerate such as Honda step into the arena is a very positive sign. In particular, the stock Honda shifter classes in numerous series like the ProKart Challenge and one-off events like the Rock Island Grand Prix.

Speaking on behalf of our membership, we are excited to be working with such an important brand like Honda and we hope they find success in the performance karting community.

US Kart Industry Learns Battery Market From Inside Out

Back in October, the KIC was invited to attend the South China Lithium-ion Top Forum in Shenzhen, an amazing city located 40 minutes onto the mainland from Hong Kong.

Sitting amongst the more than 2000 industry members and VIP guests, we learned about the technology behind the kingpin of portable energy, the Lithium-ion battery. From the actual production aspects of creating everything from miniature cells to massive storage batteries, we learned about the challenges of environmental conditions and the advancements in safety and increased storage capacity.

Two of these organizations manufacturer more than 15 million units per month and both have production facilities in excess of 500,000 square feet. One company produces a majority of the batteries used in smart phones and the leading tablet computing devices, while the other is concentrating on electric vehicles.

During the conference, we were able to present engineers leading the R&D departments of a few of the top lithium battery producers with the challenges of the indoor performance karting market currently using wet cell battery technology to drive their fleets.

Through our research we have learned a great deal about the power requirements, the current length of operation per charge and the lifespan of a cell. We presented this detailed report to the engineers along with a wish list of what would be acceptable improvements to help the marketplace grow.

A sampling of the objectives included reducing the weight of the cells by 50%, increasing the operational capacity by 200% and increasing the cell lifespan by 150%.

This week we received some very encouraging news this week that the engineers believe they can deliver a solution that not only meets our objectives but could very well exceed these goals. We have been told to anticipate some live testing here in the states during January 2011.

Stay tuned to our next report as we hope to publish the results of these tests. In the meantime, we would like to thank the forum organizing body for allowing us to attend and participate in the latest education forum which could ultimately provide renewable energy driven karts in all segments of competition.