| Ron
Emmick is the most versatile karter alive today. He has
won 40 Duffy's, designed numerous chassis, and trained
and helped legions of karters. A Ron Emmick-built engine
is a very valuable commodity. He is continuously innovating
and designing new products. Ron
specilizes in Yamaha's, but he also builds Comers. Ron
built the engine Jess won the Duffy with in 1999. If your
son or daughter is starting out in Jr. 2 cycle, you need
to call Ron and order one of his Comers. The Peterson's
have learned a lot from karting's walking encyclopedia,
Ron Emmick.
We recently posed a few questions to Ron just to give
you some insight into how he thinks.
What do you do at this time of year?
"I'm up to my ears with engine work. Most people don't
know that my true love is R & D on engines. I spend
most of the day on the dyno testing. Once I find a new
"secret" I pass it on to the other engine builders at
Emmick so everything that comes from us is current.
We have a strong Yamaha program and have made some recent
advances in both 3 hole and 4 hole. Our Comers are very competitive and are as good as any. In the last year or so, we've focused on building good TAG Rotax's and Parilla's. My brother in law, Chris Gwin, has had a lot of success with his 2 sons with our TAG engines.
What would you say to someone who's worried that your
engine staff only builds fast motors for those that
drive Emmick karts?
"We're smarter than that. Our engine division is separate
from chassis development. I participate in both, but
motors are my specialty. There are many good chassis
out there and our engine business is national in scope.
We don't hold anything back and build every single piece
to be as fast as we can, regardless of what chassis
the customer is running. In fact, if someone wins a
race with one of my engines, even though it's on another
chassis, it adds to our credibility. It's just good
business in the long run."
What's been your biggest challenge in the last year?
"Mostly, it's keeping up with the tire changes. Most karters don't realize that tires are the major variable that affects chassis design. All major manufacturers have several types from hard to soft. In addition, they often upgrade each type each year. That's why last year Bridgestone had a yhb that's called a yjb this year. There are always subtle differences between these from year to year. And to make matters more difficult, there are always new manufacturers trying to promote new a new product. Recently, Yokohama has become a force, especially in the classes at Infineon at Sears Pt., Ca. All this leads to differences in durability, hardness and softness among the various brands and types. The chassis manufacturer has to be on top of this, and modify his product for the constant changes in tire compounds, subtle or otherwise. That's why you've seen us develop the Emmick Eagle and Patriot to work with the stickier compounds that have become more and more popular."
Visit
their web site at: www.emmick.com
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