Liam
I too am a massive fan of TKM and like you it offers great value for money for the home mechanic.
I think the reason why indi is so popular at hooton is it allows you to turn up and race without the initial cost of an arks test and an MSA license. To my mind the standard of driving has been very good without these two things apart from a few do or die dans who think the front bumper is a legitimate tool to overtake.
I think the issue is for someone who is getting into karting at hooton they will look at the grid sizes and think why would i pay a fair bit of money up front to race against two people when i can buy an older kart, do some practices and race against a lot more people and at least be racing with a group which i think anyone would admit is more fun than trundling round on your own.
The downside of the open racing formula is as its got more competitive there has been an element of gaining an advantage by equipment rather than driving skill but I dont think that is happening in the senior dd class, I could be wrong but it appears the playing field is still level in that class.
Where it does fall down is that for example in the junior class blues and TKM'S are lumped together and most of the blues are running without restrictors that makes them a senior engine so in the dry on a junior TKM its pretty hard to compete with a senior blue. The wet is different and a good pilot can still do the business. In that instance the whole cost effective thing goes out the window as you then would have to spend money chasing horsepower.
I still believe tho that the indikart is a great series and I still believe TKM is a fantastic class. Sadly Liam a lot of people buy into fashion and top speed so TKM even with CIK chassis and fancy plastics doesn't cut it for most.
We are going MSA next year as we want to travel and do different tracks and maybe do NKF the year after as I can see the benifit of being on equal equipment.
Long live TKM.
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MSA TKM Extreme at Hooton Park by 'Liam' (25 Jun 2013 @ 21:40)
