"If it really is quicker to approach billies as you describe then people will already be doing it at MSA meetings."
Some of the drivers are doing it already.It does appear counter-intuitive, and as you are aware when approached at speed that mound looks enormous, but there is a way over it that is quicker and provided you plant the landing....
Get it wrong and you can become very unstable, very quickly. So it does need a bit of practice or someone to show you the route. I learned about it because the driver I was chasing was able to stay ahead by using it, and I admit that I simply wasn't brave enough to try it for the first time in a race.
It might not be used in MSA racing because the marshal's post is right there, and under MSA rules the move is illegal. Using it is blatant or relies on the marshal, the starting crew, the race supervisor in his box right there on the corner all not taking any action.
"Yes we will be sensible and yes everyone will enjoy fair racing and generally have a good time."
Well, it is to fervently wished that you do, but as we have seen from the contact threads, when people want to win badly enough, sensible is a disposable quantity.
Once the precedent has been established, then it is a much harder job to change it.
"Racers can and will use the kerbs, just as they always have."
You are perhaps missing the point. You have made a rule and also identified that the rule will not be enforced, by implication people will be allowed to be all four wheels off the track at the pit bend turn because that is what racers are used to and will want to do and there is an advantage in doing so.
Yet one of the points about creating IKR racing has been that 'the rules' in MSA have not been enforced or enforced unevenly. Starting off by making rules that are meaningless or not intended to be enforced and relying on drivers being sensible and doing what you hope they will do just puts you on the path to the same problems.
And after all, if you don't intend to enforce the rules on kerbs, why would you enforce the rules on contact? As I understand it, it is deliberate contact you are trying to avoid, while accepting that you may have drivers who are either totally inexperienced or years out of touch and no way of telling who these drivers are. (Number plate colours are at drivers whim, so no 'black plate warning' either).
We all know that in racing one places a great deal of reliance on the other driver doing something similar to yourself, one cannot follow under two kart lengths if they are unpredictable. Encouraging experienced drivers to mix it with inexperienced drivers is difficult enough on a practice day, and I know Ian has separated out novices and experienced drivers before now on weekday practices, and of course, pre-race practices. Fair enforcement of the contact rules is going to be difficult, especially when other rules aren't enforced because it isn't convenient, fun or expected.
Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to be against IKR racing, but if you make rules, then you ought to intend to enforce them. And to follow your 'no contact' example, disqualification of the first six drivers in heat 1 for leaving the track more than twice on the kerb would send the message and everyone will be more careful, wouldn't it?
And if it wouldn't, then I don't see how the 'No Contact' rule will.
The other question is: Am I allowed to buy Duro tyres to practise on, or am I going to find myself on an unknown quantity, heading down into Billys for the first time in a race? If so, that should provide for some exciting moments.
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Clay Pigeon IKR Regs and Registration by 'christkm' (09 May 2014 @ 10:25)
