There are various threads on the forum along the line of "what sort of karting?" or "what class should I race?"
What series to race depends entirely on your choices made to these two questions.
"What sort of karting?"
the first decision is "Hired" or "Owner Driver"
Fairly obviously Hired karts are owned by the Hirer, it's often also known as Arrive and Drive.
Many clubs run Arrive and Drive championships. Buckmore Park's website gives a typical format where the track has a variety of karts and grades drivers on their suitability to race in certain formats.
You have already been told about Club100 and Daytona DMAX.
The advantage of a Hired kart is that there are no issues of ownership or maintenance, the disadvantage is that you have no control over the kart, you may not win a race because the kart is not as good as the next one and that is beyond your control.
the second disadvantage to a hired kart is location. You cannot take the kart elsewhere, you cannot practice when the track is not open for you to rent the kart. The kart is not easily available to you in your garage.
Owner Driver. As you might suspect, this means you own the kart. There are substantial costs to owning a kart if you want to race seriously, but if you just want to have fun the costs are much reduced. However, any kart engine will require servicing at least every 20 hours or annually.
Owner Drivers can run in non-MSA and MSA events, the difference being that an MSA event controls the specification of the kart, engines and driver personal equipment tightly.
The most common form of non-MSA event is the practice that any new driver needs, even if they intend to take part in an MSA race meeting.
If you do not already have the gear, it is advisable to buy MSA approved Driver Personal protection. A minimum is helmet, race suit,boots and gloves. There are reasons for the MSA standards and getting less than their specified minimum is simply taking a big risk. A SNELL certified helmet, a proper race suit not just an overall, leather gloves and boots that protect the ankles. I've had accidents that have made me grateful for wearing each one. If you want to race MSA, the helmet must be kart certified, not just a motorbike helmet. (there are subtle differences mostly to do with the different positions of the driver and their comfort, they are tested to the same impact standards)
The advantage of racing MSA is that you can arrive at any MSA registered track anywhere in teh country for a race and know that the karts all meet the same nominal standard and are wearing the same tyres, while some non-MSA tracks permit mixtures of karts , engines and tyres and the formula is based at that track alone, so you may find 100 cc karts and 125cc karts in teh same race and all sorts of tyres from very sticky, replace after each race, to tyres designed for a longer life.
Also in non-MSA racing (independent racingas some call it), the decision making process is likely to be more arbitrary. The track owner will make a decision about driving standards for example and there is no argument.
See your local track to see what rules they run and whether you wish to follow that formula.
As stated, MSA racing is predictable, you read the Blue Book and the Gold Book which defines the rules of racing, the engines and tyres for the karts and the fact that you can use these standards at any MSA race meeting.
There's also a system of arbitration that goes all the way up to a national court, so if you have reason to feel that you have been treated unfairly the system of justice is the same everywhere.
However there is a cost. You will need to have a racing licence and acquiring that will cost you up to £300 and typically racing at an MSA meeting is around £20 more to enter than at the same track for a non-MSA meeting.
All MSA clubs run a club championship by classes, normally one meeting per month and always on the same weekend. ie Clay Pigeon is always on the second weekend of the month, Dunkeswell on the last weekend of the month and so on.
If you want to run over a selection of tracks, then you should enter the NKRA Championship, (see www.planetkarting.co.uk) designed for club racers and the cheapest national series on the calendar at £75 per weekend including Saturday practice. It's also the only national Champs that's available for novice drivers.
if you are running TKM, then I think there's a 3-club championship running at Shennington, Whilton Mill and Kimbolton and if your budget will stretch to long distances (like Scotland) there's the NKF.
Hope that helps.
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2-stroke race series for new driver? by 'RobS' (29 Dec 2012 @ 12:41)
