Karting is an intensely marketed arena.
When the Max came along there were a number of drivers who decided to go that route, and I remember that if one approached a Max grid at the time the almost universal reason was "I've got a bad back" (particularly if you were asking for a hand pushing) or 'My dad / pusher has a bad back".
So clearly for a lot of people it was the fact that you didn't to organise a pusher to be certain of getting out of the grid.
Following on from that was the scale of Rotax's operation. They were, and still are, able to offer traders a bigger discount on their gear than other classes, with the result that the traders push Rotax, which means more karts on the track than their competitors.
Then there is the whole 'prestige' operation. Rotax have sewn that up nicely, with people regarding other classes as 'inferior' based on little more than the fact that the other class may be cheaper (or their drivers have smaller tents).
And lastly there is the 'speed' factor. The Max won its reputation for speed because it was faster (at 125cc) than the 100cc karts that surrounded it. And somehow, for a sizable part of the market, particularly the young who aren't aware of 'driving', speed has become single biggest issue (well that and pretty colours) even though the different driving characteristics mean that all the classes actually take the same amount of skill to drive and the speed difference isn't really noticeable.
But the real reason today for Rotax dominance is "traders". They can make more money from pushing that class than any other, so they do.
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