This article appeared in the Fall 2011 American Muscle Kart, Volume 4 Number 3. It examined the status of the UAS after the conclusion of the 2011 Grand National, discusses what might happen if the Grand National were to be reined out and explains why an AMK subscription is not included with UAS membership.

So where Do We Go From Here?

by Mark Bergfelt, UAS Executive Director

The 2011 Unlimited All-Stars Muscle Kart Grand Nationals is now history.  The next issue of American Muscle Kart will be fully devoted to extensive coverage of that event, it will contain the 2012 UAS Rule book and of course the featured driver will be the 2011 National Champion, John Decker. 

Although the weather was frightening Thursday and Friday before the Grand Nationals, 44 drivers made the trip and got to see how they stack up against the best of the best in open class speedway racing.  Last year there were 45 entries and although there was a serious rain delay in the middle of race day, the weather leading up to the event looked good and did not scare too many away.  This year was different.  The weather forecast was not nearly as promising but the turn-out was still very good.  I’d really like to know how many more were seriously planning on coming but stayed home when they looked at the weather forecast.  I may never know the answer to that, but I need to find an answer to the question, How do we determine the national champion if the race day and the rain date both get washed out?   I will be contacting the administrators for their input to answer that question.

At the time of this writing I am in the middle of the search for the site of the 2012 UAS Muscle Kart Grand Nationals.  I can tell you that the site will be more toward the middle of the country, considerably further West than it has been in the past.  This is the logical next step in growing the UAS into a truly national organization.  Lately there is more and more interest coming from racers in the Western and Central states.  There is active regional activity in those places but it is very reasonable that racers from those states have not officially become national members since the Grand National location is simply too far east.  For the growth of the UAS it is important to choose a location for the Grand Nationals that makes it feasible for racers in the West to attend without getting so far a way that is discourages those who have been supportive from the East.  At the present time I am waiting for several suitable tracks that I have contacted to respond to a packet that I mailed them that include an application to host the Grand Nationals.  I know there are tracks that UAS racers would love to go to but one of the essential ingredients in making this event a success is the eagerness, flexibility and ease of communication with the hosting promoter.
Although I have not gone through the American Muscle Kart records for an exact count I do know that almost half of the subscribers to AMK are not UAS members and are from the Central and Western States.  This is one indicator that there are people interested in participating in the UAS national program if it were more accessible to them.

During the rule review for the 2012 season, I made a proposal that a subscription to American Muscle Kart be added to the UAS national membership.  As you know, AMK subscriptions and UAS memberships are a completely separate deal.  The majority of administrators did indeed vote to do that, with an appropriate dues increase, to include the AMK subscription with the membership.  As the publisher of AMK, I have decided to decline that policy at this point in time.  I am doing so because the vote was not unanimous.  I do not want ANYONE in the UAS to get the impression that I would exploit UAS members for my personal gain.