" to stop the introduction of so many new classes, making gear obsolete, worthless and driving people away from the sport? "
I disagree with you here. Introducing new classes is necessary and inevitable. Back when I started they introduced a new class, the first widely available watercooled TaG system. The standard driver then ridiculed the system since we all drove 100 cc PaGs which required two people to start reliably (yes, one person can start them, but on a dummy grid two was better) and who needed an extra 25cc just to carry all that water, battery and so on?
So Rotax Max would never have been permitted.
Nor is the number of classes much of a hassle. Most adults think that they can make the choice of a car from a much wider selection, so why is picking a kart so difficult?
Like contact driving, the solution seems to be "change the culture" rather than change the rules or the hardware. With choosing a kart, one of the things most often ignored is that there really is no such thing as a 'best' kart or 'best' class.
Most of the non-gear box 'performance' karts require exactly the same levels of skill to drive well. The main differences are not engine power or driver reaction, but simply rubber and power curve, the rest is just advertising.
However, each class may suit an individual better than another for any number of reasons (the supplier at the local track, a driver's personal opinions, often shaped by rumour and advertising though they are, budget, the local grids and so on.)
Additionally, we know Karting is getting larger. There are more people karting now than ever before but less people are taking up the MSA licenced format. They are exerting choice and for many (all?) of the engine suppliers it is the non-MSA karters who are the most important market. Reducing choice has rarely been a recipe for success in any market, unless the market chooses that reduction itself. (This is why you buy an Audi, a Seat, a Bentley, a Porsche, a Bugatti, a Lamborghini or a Skoda instead of a VW, despite the fact that they are all made /owned by
Volkwagen [They own 49.9% of Porsche, 100% of the others])
As has been discussed, as IKR expands, they will need to adopt many of the measures that are used by the MSA, things like licensing drivers. The problem is simply the culture that prevents the MSA from accepting what we might call "karting-lite", karting without the costly additions attached to a more organised sort of karting.
Nor is this necessarily a change of culture for the MSA alone. Elsewhere it has been discussed as to whether one needs a National A licence. National B would do for the vast majority, yet many people hold a National A either through ignorance or as a prestige symbol yet never do a National A event. This can however lead to the cultural idea that most people in MSA racing are looking for the same standards that one might expect at a prestigious National A event because they hold National A licences.
At the same time, there are a lot of people who sign up for SuperOne who realistically don't have the time, budget, skill or experience to take part in a SuperOne event and should be taking part in a club driver championship. (Sorry, "taking part" is probably going to be misunderstood, one always has the right to take part, but if one is going to struggle to get past the C final, should one be taking part in what advertises itself as the 'Premier League' of karting any more than a relegation team from the Sunday League should expect to take part in the Barclays?
However doing "SuperOne" has become a cultural issue, just as complaining that there are 'too many classes' is cultural too, when an alternative might be that there aren't enough people making the step to "National B" racing from IKR.
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Doing your bit for karting by 'SimonS' (20 Apr 2014 @ 18:24)
