" you can always block down the straight."
No you can't, blocking is illegal. You can place your kart on a line that makes overtaking difficult and you may make an alteration back to a 'cornering' line once, but you cannot block.
Among 'blocking ' moves that I have seen punished was the fairly common one of moving over on a driver once he has started to overtake you. (The ruling was that he had started on a racing line and only moved over to prevent the overtake. If he had started on the line he ended up taking, it would have been legal ).
Another block punished was the driver following another and suddenly becoming of another driver moving outside him. He looked over his shoulder and moved out to block the overtaking driver and ran into the driver in front and removed him from the track.
In both cases, the punished driver was a regular offender who had been warned that he was under observation (and in the latter case was heard to claim it was a 'blocking manoeuvre' by the COC).
The rule says that a driver who is aware of the approach of a temporarily or permanently faster kart has to 'give way'. That doesn't mean he has to tamely pull over and wave the faster driver through, but it does mean that 'blocking' is not legal.
And, yes, it might seem like a nicety, but one should be teaching Juniors that making overtaking difficult by adopting a particular line is legal, while blocking isn't.
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