" The MSA steward allows a LITLE 'wriggle room' allowing ONE wheel on the kerb; it is NOT legal to do so but it's TOLERATED! * However, MORE than one wheel REPEATEDLY off the track is simply CHEATING! It's clearly written in EVERY motorracing rule book!! "
No, itpro, it isn't cheating.
The rule says (K 94) "Where a driver consistently drives with a wheel off the track or leaves the track, this may be deemed driving in a manner incompatible with general safety".
So regularly driving with a wheel over the white line is not driving safely, even though the driver may appear to be and claim to be in complete control of the vehicle.
One may deduce that deliberately driving unsafely in order to gain an advantage is cheating, but that isn't what the Blue Book calls it.
The argument that one was inadvertently out of control, perfectly understandable when one is racing on the edge, is weakened when one goes over the white line at the same point on every lap and drives to an inch of the physical edge of the track. At that point K94 says "The driver may be excluded from the race at the discretion of the CoC".
It's that old problem of determining whether the person doing the crime is doing it deliberately and how do you enforce the rule.
And, if a person drives within the lines and is overtaken by someone who has used the kerb, can he rely on the other driver 'giving it back" as he ought to.
We all know that some drivers will happily give back a position won by default (missing a bus-stop for instance) but who regard a pass on the kerb as being the high point of driving, and argue that the kart in front knew he was there, knew he was faster and didn't leave room as required by the rules. (Which don't require any overlap, merely that you know the kart behind is faster, temporarily or permanently).
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