Mike is certainly not a selfish man; if you need a part he will be happy to help you out. However, if Mike was to publish an inventory of his karts and engine parts it would be thicker than the old type of telephone books that some will remember.
Mike started karting in 1956 at the age of eight when the sport was in its infancy. His father made him a kart from 3 pieces of inch and a half square tubing, one piece for the front axle and the other two pieces for the main chassis rails. Surprisingly, at that time, Mike’s kart was furnished with a rear live axle. A four cycle motor was used for power. There was a seat as such but not a floor; you placed your feet on the front axle. Steering was achieved using a tiller arrangement. There was no brake, the driver just jumped off the kart and hoped that whatever the kart collided with was not substantial and the coming together was at slow speed!
Mike grew up to be a farmer and later also owned a company that erected grain silos. Mike told a horrendous story about surviving a dust explosion in a silo undergoing alterations. He also used up one of his lives on his local dirt kart circuit located at Cridersville, Ohio, where he broke his neck for the first time and survived. He later broke his neck for a second time in a snowing ploughing accident using a tractor; a basketball pole fell on him. Thankfully Mike made a full recovery on all occasions. However, he would be the first to admit that there was a greater power than Private Andrew Malone, the character in David Ball’s 2001 hit country song, looking out for him. Incidentally, Mike held the lap record for a time at the Cridersville dirt track at just over 11 seconds.
The Lotz karts, engines and associated parts are housed in 3 huge barns adjacent to all the John Deere equipment needed to plant and harvest corn, something Mike no longer does. He now leases his ground and equipment to a much younger gentleman to farm.
Mike always has a kart project underway and once it has been restored it usually finds a place in his sun room/den within his spacious home. At the time of visiting, there were nine racing karts on display, all of which were made in his home state of Ohio, except the Norseman. On one rack there were three Big J sidewinder Lancers from the late sixties early seventies, one of which had been the kart driven by the late Kenny Burden, the 1965 IKF Grand National Champion. Another rack contained a 1962 Lancer, a 1961 Norseman and a scaled down version of a SAE to fit a child. The third rack displayed a 1963 Neal, a 1959 Hancock Lancer and a bare SAE frame.
On a shelf beside the sidewinder Lancers were two BM motors that Mickey Allen used to win the Hong Kong Grand Prix in 1968. On the floor in one corner was a Margay enduro (Laydown) kart from the seventies. A 1962 Neal kart, presently located in the workshop and finished in candy apple maroon, was soon to be resident in the display room alongside a 1963 model from the same manufacturer. Incidentally, Neal karts were made at the start of the 1960’s in Lima, Ohio, a short distance from Mike’s residence.
The dwelling house display also featured trophies from past victories/award presentations. One in particular that was notable was the Ingels-Borelli Award, a New Castle, Indiana, vintage karting event annual class award dedicated to Art Ingels and Lou Borelli, the originators of karting.
Mike’s partner, Patty, is definitely supportive of Mike’s passion for karting allowing the dining table to have a glass viewing panel so that dinner guests could see a beautifully restore SAE fitted with dual West Bend 820s when they looked downwards through the glass panel.
Outside, in the neat farm yard, arrived at by walking down Go Kart Racer Avenue, are the barns which contained everything needed to service vintage karts and engines and I mean everything. There were a collection of old kart shop catalogues from back in the day, lots of McCulloch and West Bend engine blocks, even a couple of McCulloch blocks machined from billet alloy, pistons, rods, heads, flywheels, cranks, bottom stuffer plates, inlet manifolds, carbs, exhaust headers and pipes, clutches and drive sprockets. There were also Power Products motors and parts. Racks were filled with engine mounts, Palmini type alloy fuel tanks, axles, wheels, tires, tubes, steering wheels, Nassau panels, upholstery, chain, hubs and brakes. Mike also has quite a number of the Yamaha KT100 motors. The KT100 took the place of the McCulloch when Bob McCulloch closed down kart engine production. Komet and DAP motors were also evident. There were many Motoplat ignition systems from the late seventies era on a shelf adjacent to the collection of foreign engine spare parts.
There were all the usual classic karts in demand by collectors in the barn, namely, the SAE, K and P Bugs, a Blackhawk, Lancers, Margays and Emmicks. There was even an Italian Birel plus a very old Californian manufactured Rocket kart circa 1960. Interestingly, what looked like a round tube SAE turned out to be a Ward kart. Ward was first and foremost a constructor of sprint cars but apparently made a few karts for dirt racers along the lines of the square tube SAE.
Sitting on a bench at the back of a store was a frame fabricated from square tubing and using chain and an electric motor to rotate wheel hubs. That particular setup was used to soften tires for dirt racing using a chemical concoction to coat the inside of the tire. The device was geared to turn the tires slowly. Doping was usually carried out the night before the race. (Many dirt racing series permit tire preparations.)
Before the passing of Mike’s brother Dan, SAE and Margay New Breed karts were reproduced by the Lotz brothers. Unfortunately, the tooling and jigs for those karts were no longer available to Mike and the on demand production of those karts ceased. Nevertheless, the workshop stilled contained all the equipment necessary to build karts namely, tube bending equipment, metal folders, lathes, mills and welding equipment.
Now 77 years young and involved with karting for 69 years, Mike no longer drives karts. He still attends the vintage races and thinks nothing of hauling his trailer for days to events as far away as Tucson, Arizona. He now delegates the kart chauffeuring duties at the Vintage Karting Association races to his driver Dean Sauder.
By the way there was a sign at Mike’s premises that said 'Welcome To Mike’s Kart Shop Where Nothing Is For Sale!' That sign was not strictly true, Mike was more than happy to present, free of charge, to the writer a difficult to find item required to complete a kart project.
The writer is indebted to Jim Donovan of Max-Torque, the vintage kart engine clutch manufacturer, located in Naperville, Illinois, for both arranging the visit and providing the transportation to Mike Lotz’s vintage karting emporium.
Mike started karting in 1956 at the age of eight when the sport was in its infancy. His father made him a kart from 3 pieces of inch and a half square tubing, one piece for the front axle and the other two pieces for the main chassis rails. Surprisingly, at that time, Mike’s kart was furnished with a rear live axle. A four cycle motor was used for power. There was a seat as such but not a floor; you placed your feet on the front axle. Steering was achieved using a tiller arrangement. There was no brake, the driver just jumped off the kart and hoped that whatever the kart collided with was not substantial and the coming together was at slow speed!
Mike grew up to be a farmer and later also owned a company that erected grain silos. Mike told a horrendous story about surviving a dust explosion in a silo undergoing alterations. He also used up one of his lives on his local dirt kart circuit located at Cridersville, Ohio, where he broke his neck for the first time and survived. He later broke his neck for a second time in a snowing ploughing accident using a tractor; a basketball pole fell on him. Thankfully Mike made a full recovery on all occasions. However, he would be the first to admit that there was a greater power than Private Andrew Malone, the character in David Ball’s 2001 hit country song, looking out for him. Incidentally, Mike held the lap record for a time at the Cridersville dirt track at just over 11 seconds.
The Lotz karts, engines and associated parts are housed in 3 huge barns adjacent to all the John Deere equipment needed to plant and harvest corn, something Mike no longer does. He now leases his ground and equipment to a much younger gentleman to farm.
Mike always has a kart project underway and once it has been restored it usually finds a place in his sun room/den within his spacious home. At the time of visiting, there were nine racing karts on display, all of which were made in his home state of Ohio, except the Norseman. On one rack there were three Big J sidewinder Lancers from the late sixties early seventies, one of which had been the kart driven by the late Kenny Burden, the 1965 IKF Grand National Champion. Another rack contained a 1962 Lancer, a 1961 Norseman and a scaled down version of a SAE to fit a child. The third rack displayed a 1963 Neal, a 1959 Hancock Lancer and a bare SAE frame.
On a shelf beside the sidewinder Lancers were two BM motors that Mickey Allen used to win the Hong Kong Grand Prix in 1968. On the floor in one corner was a Margay enduro (Laydown) kart from the seventies. A 1962 Neal kart, presently located in the workshop and finished in candy apple maroon, was soon to be resident in the display room alongside a 1963 model from the same manufacturer. Incidentally, Neal karts were made at the start of the 1960’s in Lima, Ohio, a short distance from Mike’s residence.
The dwelling house display also featured trophies from past victories/award presentations. One in particular that was notable was the Ingels-Borelli Award, a New Castle, Indiana, vintage karting event annual class award dedicated to Art Ingels and Lou Borelli, the originators of karting.
Mike’s partner, Patty, is definitely supportive of Mike’s passion for karting allowing the dining table to have a glass viewing panel so that dinner guests could see a beautifully restore SAE fitted with dual West Bend 820s when they looked downwards through the glass panel.
Outside, in the neat farm yard, arrived at by walking down Go Kart Racer Avenue, are the barns which contained everything needed to service vintage karts and engines and I mean everything. There were a collection of old kart shop catalogues from back in the day, lots of McCulloch and West Bend engine blocks, even a couple of McCulloch blocks machined from billet alloy, pistons, rods, heads, flywheels, cranks, bottom stuffer plates, inlet manifolds, carbs, exhaust headers and pipes, clutches and drive sprockets. There were also Power Products motors and parts. Racks were filled with engine mounts, Palmini type alloy fuel tanks, axles, wheels, tires, tubes, steering wheels, Nassau panels, upholstery, chain, hubs and brakes. Mike also has quite a number of the Yamaha KT100 motors. The KT100 took the place of the McCulloch when Bob McCulloch closed down kart engine production. Komet and DAP motors were also evident. There were many Motoplat ignition systems from the late seventies era on a shelf adjacent to the collection of foreign engine spare parts.
There were all the usual classic karts in demand by collectors in the barn, namely, the SAE, K and P Bugs, a Blackhawk, Lancers, Margays and Emmicks. There was even an Italian Birel plus a very old Californian manufactured Rocket kart circa 1960. Interestingly, what looked like a round tube SAE turned out to be a Ward kart. Ward was first and foremost a constructor of sprint cars but apparently made a few karts for dirt racers along the lines of the square tube SAE.
Sitting on a bench at the back of a store was a frame fabricated from square tubing and using chain and an electric motor to rotate wheel hubs. That particular setup was used to soften tires for dirt racing using a chemical concoction to coat the inside of the tire. The device was geared to turn the tires slowly. Doping was usually carried out the night before the race. (Many dirt racing series permit tire preparations.)
Before the passing of Mike’s brother Dan, SAE and Margay New Breed karts were reproduced by the Lotz brothers. Unfortunately, the tooling and jigs for those karts were no longer available to Mike and the on demand production of those karts ceased. Nevertheless, the workshop stilled contained all the equipment necessary to build karts namely, tube bending equipment, metal folders, lathes, mills and welding equipment.
Now 77 years young and involved with karting for 69 years, Mike no longer drives karts. He still attends the vintage races and thinks nothing of hauling his trailer for days to events as far away as Tucson, Arizona. He now delegates the kart chauffeuring duties at the Vintage Karting Association races to his driver Dean Sauder.
By the way there was a sign at Mike’s premises that said 'Welcome To Mike’s Kart Shop Where Nothing Is For Sale!' That sign was not strictly true, Mike was more than happy to present, free of charge, to the writer a difficult to find item required to complete a kart project.
The writer is indebted to Jim Donovan of Max-Torque, the vintage kart engine clutch manufacturer, located in Naperville, Illinois, for both arranging the visit and providing the transportation to Mike Lotz’s vintage karting emporium.
