Hmmmm, I wonder?
You see, I am a cynic and I notice the same names keep appearing, pushing 'their' version of karting, and I look for who benefits.
There is a very limited scope for running a race meeting more cheaply than an MSA meeting, while maintaining the same standards of safety.
So what sort of costs are we talking about?
Well for an event:
There's £210 for the MSA Steward (say 2.10 capita for 100 drivers. Then per capita expenses National B permit - 2.65 insurance - 5.55
Total £10.30 per competitor per meeting.
Now, I agree that this may represent a 25% decrease in an entry fee but then I also suspect that even in IKR event insurance for public liability would be a wise precaution. Would it be much less that £5 a head to organise £30 million insurance?
Of course, the big and frequently quoted benefit is driver's licences, the need to spend around £500 before you can put your kart on the track. (Even some members of the ARKS community themselves think it too expensive and an active deterrent)
But I am not sure that licencing can be done away with entirely. At the moment it is the responsibility of the track operator to licence the drivers on his track. Most of them do that by observing the driver during a test session before letting them race.
Since as many as half of the drivers in an MSA event are visitors from other tracks, what would an IKR operator do on discovering that half his meeting are visitors?
One option would be to insist that each of those unknown drivers took a test for which there would be a fee. Visit several tracks and that's a lot of licence expenditure. One only has to see the speed differential at, say, Forest Edge when visiting but experienced "non-MSA licence holders" mix it with the "pre-Arks novices" to see the opportunity for mayhem if everyone is entitled to drive, where personal judgement is the only criteria.
So I wonder how many of those keen to push IKR do so "for the good of karting" and how many have other aims in mind, including forms of remuneration.
You see, it seems clear that there is a very simple point at which IKR drivers should be pointed at the MSA National B events (say when they get the urge to be part of a multi-track championship) but I have a suspicion that there will be those who advise "IKR championships, which we just happen to organise" rather than thinking about the benefit of karting as a whole.
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