Hi,
I would really like to clarify a few things here.
First of all when I first set up the British Schools Karting Championship, I did so purely because I knew how much I would have wanted to race karts when I was younger. I think that NatSka is great and as you say it has been going for 40 years. However when I was at school I had no idea about it. Even if I had known about it back then, and this is the MAJOR point here, schools have to invest a huge amount of resources to get involved not only in terms of money but also in terms of time. They have to buy / build a kart / get given a kart, then they have to store it somewhere, maintain and repair it, transport it to the races, pay the entry fees etc. It costs a lot of money. The point is that even I had known about NatSka when I was at school, it is 99.9% certain that the school would not have had the resources in terms of time, money and commitment to allow me to go racing for my school. NatSka is just simply very difficult for schools to get involved in. This is the main point! It has been going over 40 years and yet there are only 25 schools / youth groups taking part.
NatSka is fantastic for what it does though. I truly agree here. It does a lot more than what the BSKC can do in terms of education and the karts are much more fun to drive too. However it is simply very inaccessible because of the points mentioned above. Many NatSka drivers have gone on to university and then raced in the British Universities Karting Championship so I have a lot of respect for NatSka. I would have loved to have had the opportunity to race in the NatSka when I was young.
The BSKC is very different to NatSka, it is fundamentally about accessibility; giving the opportunity for schools to race against each other in the most accessible form of karting possible. It does not require a big commitment in either time or money. Schools take part in the BSKC because it is easy to take part in. It gives pupils opportunity. I know of quite a few drivers from the BSKC who have gone on to MSA racing purely because they started karting in the BSKC. Give the championship time to get firmly established in every school and you will see hundreds if not thousands of teenage school pupils move on to MSA racing because of the BSKC. That is my vision and it is the vision that the MSA shares too.
A few other points.
1) I don't understand where on earth I have ever suggested anywhere that the BSKC is the only championship for school children to get involved in karting. I have never, ever done this. Neither have I asserted anywhere that the MSA endorses the BSKC as the ONLY way for school children to get into karting. Further to that, over the last 3 years, I forwarded every email from schools asking about buying and racing their own karts on to Andy Porter from NatSka (not sure if he's still there now).
2) I don't have friends in high places. The relationship I have with the MSA is because I approached them just over 2 years ago in response to the tender which they put out for ideas for a "kart development programme" (see http://www.karting.co.uk/2007newsarchive.html#N2049). It is purely through hard work (myself and the MSA) that we have got to this stage. No "friends in high places".
3) The money wasn't just given to the MSA by Sport England for them to choose what to do with it. This just doesn't happen. You have to apply for the funding saying exactly what you're going to spend the money on, how you are going to measure it, that the project is financially sustainable, accessible and will deliver tangible results etc etc. It was solely an application for funding to help widen participation in the BSKC. The application had every chance of success because of all the points I've mentioned above already. It is a hugely significant moment for motor sport. Hopefully it will be beginning of a much more long term relationship with Sport England. Who knows? I certainly hope so.
4) QuickOldTimer -> The money is finite (and tiny), there is no bottomless pit. Applications that are successful will be awarded on a "first come first serve basis". I appreciate the wording is slightly ambiguous and needs changing and I will change it but there's no need to get offensive.
5) It would be nice if the BSKC made a profit to make it worth my while but it hasn't done so to date and it will be a while before it does. Not that you would care but I've spent the last three years of my life living on a shoe string to get this going.
6) The NKA championship was not a failure by any means. We had 1235 people compete in the championship and 2 of the 3 champions are going to receive their first MSA race license. There were teething issues of course but it was a mammoth task organised in a very short space of time. I was only asked to organise the championship by the NKA less than a month before it was due to start. A lot has been learnt - we won't have any problems next year. Given that it was the first year that the championship has been organised properly and on such a large scale, the championship has been very successful.
I don't think you could find anyone more passionate than I am about making karting accessible. I have no bone against NatSka at all and neither do the MSA. If NatSka ticked all the boxes required by Sport England I am sure a funding could have been granted to them instead.
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schools karting by 'rotaxvet' (04 Dec 2009 @ 18:25)
