Talking to people in our village, the big problem is the growth of helicopter parents, in particular mums.
They take the children to arrive and drive tracks and are horrified at the speeds and the crashes. The thought of putting their darlings at risk in the much faster karts that exist in the owner driver sector is too much for them.
Mind you, it has always seemed odd to me that parents will throw the girl onto the back of a horse, 12 times more dangerous than kart racing according to the accident stats, but prevent the son from driving a kart in case they get hurt.
A second problem is that even when you do get the children out to do a trial in an O/D kart, they discover that you do actually need to be fit, fitter than is needed for Xbox karting anyway. So when they complain of aches and pains the next day, it is assumed that this is the result of karting and imminent injury, not simply the lack of fitness.
Third is the problem of instant gratification. They want to get out and win and simply do not believe you when you say that the usual child will spend 6 months or so at a painfully slow speed (to an onlooker and that's often a disappointed dad.)
So before you get children into a kart, they have to have parents who have been in the habit of letting the children take risks, children who thrive on risk and children who are competitive and are prepared to like speed.
You also have to have parents who are prepared to commit to the sport. Many parents say that they cannot allow one child to do motorsport because doing so means that the other children don't get equal support in their chosen activity.
So with the alternatives of relatively cheap, relatively exciting, relatively safe arrive and drive, addictive and effortless(physically) computer games and the regular bad mouthing of structured, national class racing on this and other forums,it is no surprise that we simply are not seeing the numbers of drivers coming forward to take up a 'race licence', especially when that involves cost, effort and exams.
And that is the point. Although karting generally is more popular than it has ever been, the number wishing to take up a formal race licence is falling. This should not be much of a surprise because although there are 20 million cars on the road and 30 million car drivers, there are only 10,000 who want to get their race licences, despite the huge advertising for car racing on TV. (More time for one Grand Prix for example this weekend on one channel than all the karting on all the channels for the entire year).
Nor is it a matter of 'content' either. This is a world where watching a cake bake, an activity second only to watching paint dry, attracts millions of people every day.
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MSA 2015 competition licence fee freeze by 'IamSpartacus' (21 Nov 2014 @ 14:02)
