Let’s try to understand the international and domestic development direction of go karts and surpass the “interference” of coronavirus.
With the advent of a new year and the change of seasons – in the sense of horse racing – it’s normal to think about the future of our world, go karts. More or less in the near future: in addition to the “disruption” caused by the recent covid-19 pandemic and all its global impacts, can we try to understand which direction we will go in general? As for the international championships, everything seems to be moving in the direction of confirming the status quo. In fact, it seems that it is difficult to consider any possible changes, and there is no need at present Think about the changes. Apart from the main concern of overcoming the problems caused by coronavirus, it should be added that there is no reason to change the current classification technically. On the one hand, the 125 stage transmission has performed quite well, thanks to its stability and performance. It is in the region, according to the economic availability (there is still a certain difference in the purchase price), we will certainly be happy without the piston constantly changing, but since these KZ engines and gearboxes are implemented with fixed ratio and 30 mm carburetors, the reliability and sport / technology balance have reached such a level that we can’t complain too much. We think that we can definitely not worry about denying that it has tried to build itself internationally. Due to the beauty and fact of technology choice, all these problems weaken the former class, namely KF and lack. These current vehicles guarantee good performance without too many problems, especially okjs have a considerable degree of reliability and control of “mechanical” costs. It’s a pity that these two categories are really trying to spread across the country, but we can’t be too surprised: from this point of view, in fact, the fruits of the infamous era are still reaping (so to speak), a category whose continuous changes and inherent complexity have led to the departure of many small car drivers.
The local choice is a single brand
In fact, those national drivers who resist and stay in the environment have turned to single product trophies, launching higher performance engines every six months, and only a few competitors will. So it’s natural that these “brand” categories continue to achieve unparalleled success at the national level, as well as being able to present interesting international events, such as the Rotax final to be held at Portimao at the end of the month. In any case, it’s hard to imagine that a karting driver who has been repeatedly “burned” in economy and sports can change his escape route and run from KF to join a single team. It’s also because it’s a classic “snake bites its own tail”: why spend money today to change their competition equipment to a category that currently does not include “normal” national competitions? From this point of view, “OK” is technically successful, but it doesn’t make any difference.
However, it is clear that for the above reasons, there will be no competitions other than those above WSK. In any case, therefore, in the future, it is also confirmed that national events will rely on brand trophies for a long time, although they are not the best of all viewpoints (in this respect, I will dedicate one of my next reflections), however, more elements are better than them. In fact, they keep the entire go kart activity commercial and operational in many countries, including drivers and mechanics / tuning. Indeed, the latter may have resisted the introduction of OK in the national context, but one can’t simplify everything to this aspect, as I have written.
What can be improved?
So, everything is good now, and can it continue in the same way in the future? Of course, in many ways, the current situation is good enough, or at least good enough, without urgent change. For example, from the tire’s point of view – although it’s still one of the biggest spending items – things don’t stand out. In the view of international and national competitions, a good compromise was found between durability and performance, with the compound FIA titled race no longer working too hard, thus allowing the development of high performance “top class” as well as not lowering too many laps. At the same time, even in the lower level of competition, the use time of tires seems to have reached an acceptable balance, so there is also a balance in terms of cost – it is understandable that those who always want to drive with new tires will continue to spend more money; it is inevitable. But at least other countries can participate with minimal willingness and at a more acceptable cost. However, this does not mean that there is no possibility of improvement in some aspects. We can find this possibility in “retractable” nose cones, that is, in the event of a collision, these nose cones will retreat and cause you to be subject to regulatory penalties in terms of time (obviously, resulting in a relative loss of position). We are very clear about how the overall situation not long ago reached a “high level” in terms of drivers’ behavior on the track, that is, they can not tolerate unethical behaviors and intolerable collisions. For this reason, the International Federation launched the device (which was just confirmed in the next three years), which provides managers with an objective tool to punish the driver by determining the whereabouts of the nose in a rear end collision. Well, we believe that the goal has been achieved, so we do not condemn the system. But time has come to move forward. Further look, the most important thing is to note that if more than half of the drivers in some races are “released” by the arrival of recognition, because of the nose cone, so we can safely say that the final result of the distorted race must be, in fact, wrong. This can be attributed to two assumptions, which are inevitable: either the drivers are still fouling and continue to collide with each other, so the system is useless (but we don’t believe it is true); or too many drivers find themselves punished without real fault, even though they are innocent (this is what actually happens). Don’t go to extremes like those who brake suddenly when they return to the weighbridge after the race – in any case, this situation should also be properly considered, given the regulatory conditions of small cars when they have to effectively cross the finish line – often happen, the penalty is just that the driver finds himself in a difficult situation, looking at their nose cone “released” or scattered, Slight contact or in any case without any real fault. Not to mention those who hit the roadside badly. In short, “innocent” drivers are punished without violating sportsmanship, which is not very sportsmanship. And in any case it is still important that may be the only way to solve the problem: return to Butler and law enforcement officers the importance and credit, especially those on the track, who must be able to grasp and assess what is happening in the driver’s race. We often have the impression that the nose cone retraction system is an “easy” solution to hold the crew responsible, but we can’t go on like this because the current solution is worse than the original problem. Let’s be clear: we should not abandon the current nose cone completely, but regulation must return to providing subjective intervention.
Article created in collaboration with Vroom Karting Magazine.
Post time: Jan-18-2021