Open email to the MSA / FKS / S1 / UK Karting Noticeboard / Scottish Karting Forum
I write concerning the legality and apparent safety issues of the current Zip Storm Nosecone.
Can I also state that nothing I write hasn't been written, said or alluded to by numerous others before (a quick search of UK Karting Noticeboard will confirm this).
To my understanding the Zip Storm nosecone does not conform to the written standards yet, for some reason, this irregularity had been waived. Flat faced nosecones may or may not have been tested on the Zip Storm(?), BUT they have been tested AND conform to regulations.
Although I don't have statistics to back up my following observation / hypothesis, there would appear to be a one to one correlation with the advent of the zip nosecone and the number of karts flipping. When we started karting I never saw - or heard of - a kart flipping. With the introduction of the Zip Storm bodywork and progressively more Cadets using the Storm or fitting the bodywork, I have seen increasingly more airborne karts. Infact I am shocked to say that the meetings we have attended this year where a kart does not flip are in the minority - YET NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE?! This is no-way driver error - I have seen some of the best Cadets in the country flip.
In my opinion it is not coincidence that the Zip Nosecone has been labelled 'the shovel' and/or 'take off ramp'. My son has flipped due to the shovel effect - the kart in front spinning sideways on to my son's kart, his nosecone getting under the spun Karts pods, resulting in his momentum causing him (with kart attached) to somersault over the spun kart, landing on his head and travelling a good 10m. Incredibly and luckily he wasn't hurt - and, as an aside, can I note that the paramedics opinion was that it was his neckbrace which prevented a serious injury. Last weekend at FKS PFI another Cadet flipped, this time as a result of the 'take off ramp' effect (the nosecone of a spun kart infront providing a launch pad for his Kart). I understand he sustained a broken collar bone. (Tom, our thoughts are with you, we hope you make a speedy recovery and that we are racing against you again soon). I also believe the Cadet concerned was wearing a neckbrace. Although this mailing is re. Nosecones and NOT neckbraces (and I can see both 'sides' of the debate there) - it is my opinion that the bodies with influence should give clear guidance / research on neckbraces too. Anyway...
If my memory serves me correctly, this year one Cadet was flipped on two occaisions at the same National meeting at Rowrah.
This cannot be allowed to continue.
Cadet + Kart landing on Cadets head...... ....airborne Cadet and Kart (99Kg+ travelling at speed) using another Cadets head as a buffer before landing (correlations with a recent motor-racing tragedy immediately spring to mind)......... Why CAN'T people / bodies/ manufacturers with influence see that a paralysis and - it scares me witless to type this - a death is all to possible.
Don't fob me off with - 'well don't race then' or 'new homologation next year' etc. etc. We are talking ALL our Cadets here. We have a good 5 months of racing left this year. We live in an increasingly litigeous society, would the current situation have gone unaltered elsewhere? Does karting really need potentially negative media exposure. I wonder if things would have been different last Sunday had the incident involved one of FKS's American guests??
Could making the Honda nosecone (or similar) mandatory address this situation NOW. I have never seen a Kart flip in a Honda race.
If the MSA wont act / do not see the probelm I (and many others) do - why not the Series of influence, i.e. FKS and S1, make flat front nosecones mandatory. Add them to the fuel / tyre order list. For mechanically inept parents such as myself, have someone to fit / check fitting for us - goodness knows, FKS provided a seamstress for those unable to fathon out the mechanical complexities of a needle and thread!
Please THINK.
Forget losing a second or two per lap, toadying up to other bodies/ manufactureres etc etc. AND if, hand on heart, you (secretly) agree with me WHOEVER YOU ARE for the health, safety and possibly lives of all our Cadets PLEASE DO SOMETHING NOW
Anne Moss
Comer Cadet Mum / Mechanic
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