UK Karting - Notice Board (General Karting) : Re: moving forward

Notice Board (General Karting)

Re: moving forward
Posted by 'SimonS' on 14 Jan 2013 @ 12:10

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SimonSJoined: December 2004
Total Posts: 4
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" this company will ultimately want to make money and until they come up with the answers to ensure they DO make money, the school playground fighting will continue "

There is a further problem, namely whether the track remains within the MSA stable and whether the track fees remain within the affordable range for MSA karting.

In the past certain tracks have been milked for fees, to an extent aided by the organisers of prestige events, in the belief that since the fees form a small part of the overall cost of karting, they are relatively elastic, that karters will pay increased fees for the privilege of driving in MSA events.

Some of those tracks have been able to maintain their numbers (those who can guarantee a prestige event?) and some have seen those numbers fall off drastically. For example, if driving at Whilton Mill means that I must own a Tag Heuer transponder and that the club does not maintain an adequate stock of rentals at a reasonable price, then I won't be racing at the venue.

The problem for tracks is very simple. They can make far more profit from a single fully booked commercial arrive and drive in 3 hours than they can from the entire two days of an MSA meeting.

When the club, often run by volunteers, is separated from the track, there is an advantage to the track owners in making MSA karting less attractive.

At the same time, the ABKC while nominally there for the good of the clubs, does seem to be somewhat selective in the clubs it favours with prestige events. It is no surprise that certain clubs with officers in the ABKC and within the prestige events system get a regular allocation while other tracks get an occasional visitation.

One might suggest that the opposition to the NKRA in some areas is based on the fact that everyone in the NKRA organisation is an unpaid volunteer, whereas other more expensive competitions pay their staff, and sometimes chosen competitors, to take part. Image and PR are clearly something that some karters are willing to pay hundreds if not thousands of pounds a year for, so why would a track ownere think they would cavil if the entry fees were raised over Ł100 a weekend? For those concerned about costs, well, there's always non-MSA, although the budgets to stay competitive there are rising rapidly as engines and tyre choices diverge from the MSA standard.

And of course they diverge from the MSA standard. If your engine and tyre combination are not legal at other tracks you might visit, or you don't have the MSA documentation, then you are locked in to using the one track or being equally uncompetitive at many. Retained drivers mean that one gets all of their budget, rather than having it spread around a cocktail of different tracks.

However, I predict that very shortly two or three tracks will organise a non-MSA championship, using limited tyre choices and a fiche for engines and they will be back to the situation in the early 1990's before the need for Arks tests was imposed to drive 'Kart school' profitability.

And the cycle will start all over again.

Message Thread:

Whilton update.. Find somewhere else to race by 'Bucky' (09 Jan 2013 @ 22:08)

Re: Whilton update.. Find somewhere else to race by 'michaelg36' (09 Jan 2013 @ 22:40)

Re: Whilton update.. Find somewhere else to race by 'Bucky' (09 Jan 2013 @ 23:18)

Re: Whilton update.. Find somewhere else to race by 'SAS' (10 Jan 2013 @ 6:07)

WOW by 'RSBW' (10 Jan 2013 @ 8:02)

Re: WOW by 'racingjase' (10 Jan 2013 @ 8:31)

Re: WOW by 'richydehav' (10 Jan 2013 @ 9:25)

Re: Whilton update.. Find somewhere else to race by 'Moonshine' (10 Jan 2013 @ 11:00)

Re: Whilton update.. Find somewhere else to race by 'itpro' (10 Jan 2013 @ 14:57)

Re: Whilton update.. Find somewhere else to race by 'WhiltonMill' (10 Jan 2013 @ 10:11)

What was that Bucky? Nt by 'michaelg36' (10 Jan 2013 @ 10:37)

Re: Whilton update.. Find somewhere else to race by 'SammyB' (10 Jan 2013 @ 12:59)

Re: Whilton update.. Find somewhere else to race by 'Mart247' (10 Jan 2013 @ 13:21)

Re: Not that simple!! by 'WhiltonMill' (10 Jan 2013 @ 13:32)

6 and 2x3 by 'Minisueg' (10 Jan 2013 @ 17:57)

Re: 6 and 2x3 by 'Traxtar' (10 Jan 2013 @ 18:15)

Re: 6 and 2x3 by 'BFD' (10 Jan 2013 @ 19:07)

Business v Hobby only one winner.... by 'NealC' (10 Jan 2013 @ 21:25)

The gloves are off.... Latest from wmltd by 'Bucky' (10 Jan 2013 @ 21:45)

Re: The gloves are off.... Latest from wmltd by 'bulldog' (10 Jan 2013 @ 22:26)

Re: The gloves are off.... Latest from wmltd by 'BFD' (11 Jan 2013 @ 7:17)

Re: The gloves are off.... Latest from wmltd by 'Bucky' (11 Jan 2013 @ 7:40)

Re: The gloves are off.... Latest from wmltd by 'VanDiemen' (11 Jan 2013 @ 8:00)

Re: The gloves are off.... Latest from wmltd by 'alasdair' (11 Jan 2013 @ 9:35)

Re: The gloves are off.... Latest from wmltd by 'VanDiemen' (11 Jan 2013 @ 10:49)

Re: The gloves are off.... Latest from wmltd by 'richydehav' (11 Jan 2013 @ 11:32)

Re: The gloves are off.... Latest from wmltd by 'racingjase' (11 Jan 2013 @ 8:03)

Re: The gloves are off.... Latest from wmltd by 'itpro' (11 Jan 2013 @ 10:01)

Re: The gloves are off.... Latest from wmltd by 'BanzaiBoy' (11 Jan 2013 @ 14:43)

Off topic! by 'itpro' (11 Jan 2013 @ 15:15)

Re: The gloves are off.... Latest from wmltd by 'monkeyman' (11 Jan 2013 @ 18:08)

Re: The gloves are off.... Latest from wmltd by 'TiredDad' (11 Jan 2013 @ 18:19)

Re: The gloves are off.... Latest from wmltd by 'itpro' (11 Jan 2013 @ 18:25)

Re: The gloves are off.... Latest from wmltd by 'richydehav' (11 Jan 2013 @ 18:44)

moving forward by 'andrewf' (11 Jan 2013 @ 18:53)

Re: moving forward by 'monkeyman' (11 Jan 2013 @ 19:48)

Re: moving forward by 'itpro' (12 Jan 2013 @ 0:35)

Re: moving forward by 'Venom' (14 Jan 2013 @ 9:15)

Re: moving forward by 'SimonS' << You are here!

Re: moving forward by 'itpro' (14 Jan 2013 @ 12:22)

Re: moving forward by 'Venom' (14 Jan 2013 @ 13:09)

Re: moving forward by 'itpro' (14 Jan 2013 @ 14:14)

monkeyman by 'BanzaiBoy' (14 Jan 2013 @ 11:13)

Re: monkeyman by 'bulldog' (14 Jan 2013 @ 14:17)

Re: monkeyman by 'castree' (23 Jan 2013 @ 18:00)

Re: monkeyman by 'Jimbob40' (23 Jan 2013 @ 18:27)

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