Yep, April Fools Day was essentially cancelled for 2020. This meme that popped up on Facebook pretty much sums it up:
So, in light of that, here’s the first in a series of April Fools look-backs on KartSportNews.
This is from 2009 and is one of our favourites – and one that kart shops reported customers coming in bitching and moaning about “dumb things the f@c&!%# AKA were doing” – before they were reminded of the date…
2009 – Passing Tax
The Australian Karting Association has abolished traditional race entry fees and replaced them with a new “passing tax” system.
The principle of the new system is that drivers will be charged $1 for each and every kart they pass in any AKA sanctioned race. The flip side is that drivers will earn 50 cents every time a competitor passes them. The difference between what the fast people pay and what the slow people earn goes to the promoting club in lieu of a race entry fee.
“We’ve done the budgets, we’ve done the feasibility study. It’s a good thing” an AKA representative informed KartSportNews.
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”The fact a driver can win a motor race means they have spare cash” the AKA rep added. “We want to take some of that cash and give it to the Tail End Charlies to help make them more competitive. This system makes perfect sense.”
The scheme is linked in with the new Smartcard licensing system. The AKA licence fees will be hiked by a few hundred dollars so that drivers have a bank of credit in their account should they start winning races. The money the ‘losing’ drivers earn will be credited back to their account. “Hey, the really bad drivers might even get to race for a net spend of zero dollars” the AKA rep enthused.
The AKA simply decided to make the new rule as of today. An addendum is expected to be issued within hours to make the new system official. This means all race meetings this weekend will be run under the new rules. Competitors who have already paid an entry fee will have this credited to their licence account.
As an example of what this means to karters, if you start out of grid 11 and come through to win the race, you’ll be charged $10 for the 10 karts you passed. Similarly, if you started off pole but slipped back to 11th, you would earn $5. “Effectively, the good karters pay a ‘success tax’ while the less competitive ones receive a bit of welfare after having a bad day at the races. In the current economic climate, that’s gotta be a winner.”
Other governing bodies are said to be looking at introducing such a tax in the near future, although the FIA are reluctant to introduce it to F1 because there’s hardly any passing there anyway.
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