" I have spoken with CoC's from Clay, Buckmore, Ellough, Bayford and Whilton, all of whom confirmed that the rule means the use of kerbs is permitted, up to the outer limit of the kerb, which is defined by them"
The trouble is that their understanding doesn't seem to be backed up by the words of the rules. Simply, there is no definition of a kerb that stands up to any examination.
Now, it is presumed that the position and area of the kerbs is described in the track licence, but I cannot remember ever seeing a track map that highlights which part of the track is 'kerb' and which part is 'not kerb'. Mostly we assume that if it is painted it is 'kerb' but this is an assumption.
One would hope that there was some logic to the existence and placement of kerbs. Mostly they seem to exist either to mark the inside or outside of corners, essentially areas where the passage of karts digs holes in the grass and be dangerous.
If this is so, there doesn't seem to be any reason to allow one to drive on them as extensions to the track, except the pragmatic one that so many karts would be excluded for going over the white line accidentally that most racing would stop.
But then there doesn't seem to be any reason to allow karts to deliberately drive off the circuit at that point. Notice the difference between deliberate intent to use the kerb and the arrival there by accident.
The rules for counting the number of times one leaves a circuit or takes a kerb 'dangerously' would seem to indicate that deliberate use is to be deterred as 'gaining and advantage'.
Certainly the way some people take kerbs is only acceptable because one relies on their particular skills. But any driver would be understandably annoyed if, after following another driver closely for several laps, the clerk was to determine that the leader was skilled enough to take that kerb, but the follower was dangerous.
Simply the system is too full of anomalies to be relied upon, and it is the anomalies that make the system overly complex.
Nor is it really good enough to say that we race over the kerbs because it is more exciting, because that takes us back to not having safety features in F1 because spectators liked to see the crashes as being really dangerous.
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