For the most part, I couldn’t agree more: strict enforcement of driving etiquette as well as driver discipline and due care for others should be absolutely paramount.
Happily, we do so far have that discipline. On the one occasion a bad “guest” driver (he borrowed an owner’s kart) took part, he was subsequently banned from the series for good. He was an experienced, front-running racer, but one also with a nasty penchant for very deliberately punting competitors off the track to win at all cost. I insisted he be banned, and all agreed.
While this is perhaps the luxury of an as yet smallish race series, that’s the other thing: we have a driver democracy – something mentioned earlier in this thread, I think. Decisions such as changes to weight limits, types of tyre etc. are based on majority votes.
There’s one area I definitely don’t agree with you, Ian. It seems to me that you are being a bit dismissive of car racing experience, which almost comes across as some sort of karting snobbery. Of course a car race licence alone proves almost nothing, but nor does a kart race licence. But there is to me no reason at all why a good, experienced car racer cannot jump into a fast kart and be both safe and quick – though possibly not as quick as he might expect.
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Anyone else’s thumbs up or down?
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