Grids are down all over the UK and have been falling well before the current climate kicked in.
We did Larkhall in S1 in 2007 and it was a great track but unless I'm mistaken and unlike say Buckmore which has Bayford, Lydd and even Rye House on its doorstep and vice versa, Larkhall as a club circuit for MSA racing on a regular basis is a bit on its own geographically. It's a bit like those that do Sheny also tend to do Kim or Whilton and vice versa. So their numbers have stayed relatively healthy in recent times.
If you look at the numbers at national S1 level and also Stars, then they are falling. Not so many years ago there would be a B,C,D and even E finals for senior max in S1 - NOT now!
Ok - grids tend to drop off as the season progresses but look at the grids for the last few rounds and there are just about enough drivers to make a full A grid for most classes - forget about b finals!
Even when drivers leave the sport as we did this year there doesn't seem to be as many coming through to take places. So if you are a Rotax fan/driver for example, where are the next crop of senior drivers and how many Junior Max will decide to move up or go to another class like KF which doesn't feature on a regular monthly basis?
The climate is a big factor as are things like driving standards or people deciding to do Europe and spending their budget there.
The fact is like a lot of 'industries' there has been a right-sizing in recent years and let's not pretend karting is immune to that. Making it more afforable is one option but not the silver bullet.
If you look at Lydd then when we started they'd have grids of 12 - 20 in most classes whereas now they're lucky to get 6 in some and run 2 qualifying sessions to give more track time. Well done to them but people are simply not going there and it too was a S1 circuit not so long ago.
Even the much vauled (by some) KF3 in Stars can only get 19 in the last round at Genk and they cancelled KF2 from the series altogehter although that was never a good idea to begin with.
I don't what the overall answer is but hope circuits like Larkhall get grids back up again. Maybe the review that is taking place to look at all aspects of the sport will come up with some ideas/suggestions!
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Larkhall by 'kfk63' (26 Aug 2009 @ 18:52)
