ONE on ONE with Pitts
Behind the Scenes at Pitts Performance
Photos: Go Racing
Go Racing: Explain to me the origin of the name Pitts?
Pitts: Came from Chucks’s last name.
Go Racing: When?
Pitts: 1959 – Delta Pit Stop – That’s where the original name came from.
Go Racing: And then you bought it in what year?
Pitts: ’98.
Go Racing: And you guys have owned it for a couple of months now?
Pitts: Yep. September 15th.
Go Racing: What can we expect as far as anything new with product lines or services being offered or business as usual?
Pitts: No we are going to do the trophy kart, we are adding the trophy kart to our repertoire and other than that the product line is staying the same.
Go Racing: What are a couple of the famous drivers that have come through Pitts?
Pitts: Famous drivers – we had all of them. They all came through here. Remy, Speed, Elliott, Chris Carmendy, Sandeen, Flrming, all of those kids came through here. Who else - Boz, Sophio.
Go Racing: Back to the product line are you guys going to continue maintaining the same product line – what is the you know?
Pitts: We are going to carry CRG and Top Kart primarily and then we are going to carry Emmick as a kid kart, we are going to get one of our own cadets, we’re going to have that one, we’re trying to get a cadet kart made for ourselves. We aren’t saying we are going to get one, we’re going to try – it’s in the works. We’re staying with the Twister, Go-Pad, all of our stuff is staying the same. We’re carrying all of the same products. We’re talking to Oakley, we’ve always carried No Fear. Bridgestone, Mojo, MG, we carry all of the tires. The helmets – we carry all of Simpson, we carry Bell, we stock all the TRP, AIM – we have all AIM stuff. Momo is out of business but we have some of the stuff left over. We have Ribtect, Prospeed, Longeeker, we carry a little bit of everything. Yamahas, HPVs. Talking about maybe working on the TAG program a little harder. The Rotax has always been big for us.
Go Racing: You have the Rotax Service Center?
Pitts: Yeah, Rotax Service Center. I’m certified and he’s going to get certified for Rotax.
Go Racing: You need to say he as in who?
Pitts: Ron is going to get certified but I’m already certified so we can already do all of the motor work and sign off on. We’re working the PRD. It’s like a lower line, a cheaper model, and an entry-level model.
Go Racing: Cost effective – not cheaper?
Pitts: Cost effective – yeah. A cost effective bitchy little go kart. We may even look into the world formula if something happens with it. If it starts getting any momentum – there’s talk of it but we don’t know where it is going to go.
Go Racing: How is your internet sales versus walk in sales versus the catalog sales?
Pitts: Online and the walk in is still big. We get a lot. Walk in 90%, internet 10%.
Go Racing: What are some of the shop services that you offer for those 90% walk in people.
Pitts: We offer full line go kart care, full line of front kart care, motor service, **** sort of chassis, Go Racing service.
Go Racing: Arrive and race?
Pitts: We don’t do arrive and race yet. But we’re actually working on that. We do kart storage, all kind of dyno, and every kind of trackside service. We’re a full service shop.
Go Racing: What series do you plan on campaigning for next year?
Pitts: We’re going to campaign IKF Region 7 absolutely for sure. We’re going to do ProKart Challenge, LAKC, we’re going to do Stars and then the local clubs. We’ll be at LAKC, we’ll be at Tri-C, we’ll be at Willow, all those.
Go Racing: What sets you guys apart from other shops?
Pitts: The customer service. The fact that we have so much inventory and I think the fact that I know you can walk in and see this much product on the floor and I think on the racing site we can do way more than the other guys in terms of specializing in every category.
Go Racing: Somebody might have built a better Comer but they don’t build a better Comer, HPV, Yamaha and a TAG motor like you guys got.
Pitts: Yeah, exactly. Nobody is like Jurca, Comer, IHPV, kid kart – you know the top to bottom competitiveness and we’ll put you on the right chassis, put you on the right motor, everything can get you set up top to bottom. There are very few people who can get you a top of the line Rotax chassis, a top of the line cadet chassis, a top of the line kid kart chassis and get you the right thing for what you need to do versus just throwing you on their product. I think that is one of the biggest things we’re doing is we’re getting people on the product that is best for them not the product that we “carry”. We decide okay we got the Emmick kid kart line because we think that is the best kid kart. We’re working on a cadet kart because we think that’s a market that needs to be hit harder. We have this for Rotax, we have top of the line Rotax, bottom of the line Rotax, TAG, everything but we’re not prejudice at all.
Go Racing: Highlight a couple of your driver line ups for ’08.
Pitts: Jake Craig might be big in cadet, he’s going to win a lot of races. And then for kid karts we’ve got Jake Drew and Sebastian Elizondo, those guys are going to be really fast in kid kart. And then Nic Johnson will be doing like a lot of our stuff, **** Maroney and we’re trying to get Masters to do TAG with us. We’ll have Maroney and Jacob, we’re trying to get Bastilles to do JICA with us. That’s the basic gist of them.
