"When I started karting as a "mature driver" the research I undertook identified that there were too many classes. "
There are two aspects to the number of classes.
First, drivers' choice.
Second, commercial pressure from traders.
The MSA face a problem, namely that today there is little they can do to stop people who want to race a particular class from doing so. For example, the number racing some classes outside the MSA rules is arguably bigger than the number racing it in the MSA rules.
If the MSA chose to stop that class, then all that would happen is that they would lose MSA licence holders as some drivers chose to go non-MSA rather than face the additional costs of change.
Secondly, the shift towards numerous classes was provoked by the rise in the number of controlled, single source classes. Where traders had been able to find a satisfactory profit from tuning engines, from selling the variety of tyres permitted to each class and from spares, they saw a drop in their margins. If the primary trader was swallowing most of the profit, the only way to survive was to offer and promote one's own class , and /or offer the team services that so many people regret as being the 'death of karting'.
"The MSA must have some of the blame sitting with them."
If you are going to blame the MSA, then you would also have to blame AbKC, whose members dominated the MSA committees, the same members who wanted the increased number of classes so that they could make money.
But you would also have to blame the rise of the non-MSA tracks and the rise of hire/drive for reducing the number of MSA licence holders.
And once you got into blaming the rise of non-MSA tracks, you would have to inquire why MSA karting is so much more expensive. Essentially it boils down to the 'judicial' system, the need to maintain standards and allow drivers to appeal decisions against them. So you are blaming the comparatively small number of drivers willing to contest the local officials decisions, people for whom winning is that important.
In other words, it is a whole network of inter-related factors, not a simple solution like'reducing the number of classes'. Because that would have one immediate and predictable result. The number of traders would fall and the price of karting would rise, and it probably wouldn't be long before people were suggesting that all drivers should belong to a team tent...so that the compliance of all engines could be controlled absolutely.
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