We’ve been taking a bit of a break over Christmas/New Year, but there are still a few things happening in the world of karting. See below for a quick overview….
Karting New South Wales has done a deal with David Sera. The governing body has announced a three-year partnership with the 18-time National Champion’s Kart Class coaching business. The agreement offers members of KNSW affiliated clubs a 10% discount to access the Kart Class online portal that contains a bunch of information to help drivers learn & improve their skills in driving technique, race craft and mindset.
The World Karting Association honored its all-time Daytona winner this week when it presented long-time karter Randy Fulks with a “Mr Daytona” trophy, which will be on display with his kart in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America museum through March.
“We came to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America to celebrate a go-kart driver who has won more races at Daytona than anybody we can find on record” a press release stated. Fulks is up to 59 Daytona victories so far (all on the road course) having started with the inaugural KartWeek in 1974. In that time, he’s missed just two KartWeeks. “I had to work” he said. “So I changed jobs.”
While some use karts as a stepping stone to other forms of motorsport, Fulks said he was content to stay racing karts. “This is the event to be part of every year,” he said. “You strive to win Daytona. We race at a lot of other tracks around the country, but you want to be the Daytona winner because of the history here.”
SKUSA has announced it will scrap the push-back nosecone system for all classes in its upcoming Winter Series as a test run for its 2022 Pro Tour.
“As some may recall, the pushback bumper in my mind was always a good example of trading one problem for another,” SKUSA’s principal Tom Kutscher said. “We left it to a vote and the majority decided. However, now the majority have spoken out against it. Zero doubt, it cleaned up some of the driving in various classes. But it also introduced a new series of consequences, where many drivers were penalized unfairly in a very binary format for something they were completely blameless.”
advertisement
Instead, SKUSA will rely on its video marshalling system (in which it says it has invested heavily) to eliminate bogus penalties for unrelated things (like accident avoidance or hitting a curb) and to judge the context of on-track incidents before applying a penalty.
Additionally, the organisation has reduced the minimum weight in several classes by 2.8% to 4.3% to better reflect the median weight of competitors.
Italian kart and component manufacturer IPKarting srl has announced it will be running all IPK brands (Formula K, Praga, OK1) under one tent in 2022. According to a press release on Tkart, from January 1st, Juri Serafini will run the official IPK European Factory Team. Leading Edge Motorsports, run by Greg Bell, will be the official US factory IPK team. As per Europe, the strategy will be to run all brands from under the same tent.
In Europe there will also be a satellite team, SUMAKO IPK Racing Team, run by Petr Ulbert. Cash van Belle has been named vice president for racing and will support both IPK Factory teams as well as national teams and will help to recruit drivers from national to international level.
In Australia, Formula K will continue via Pro Karting and Praga via KartingHQ.
The new surface is down on Oakleigh’s track extension. More photos on the club’s Facebook HERE.
The inaugural Twin Track Challenge at Lismore next month will include racing in the opposite direction for the first time in its 50 year history.
advertisement
