Should shakedown meetings be dropped in favour of an extra day of practice?
Typically at venues that host an AKC round, the race meeting prior to the AKC event attracts the big teams and drivers and effectively turns into an unofficial “shakedown” race meeting.
The upcoming ‘shakedown’ event at Ipswich (which is actually just a club round, but has attracted lots of AKC competitors) is already over 340 entries and could go close to 400. So, there’s clearly a market for shakedowns, and they’re a money spinner for the clubs.
The Perth round of this year’s Australian Kart Championship featured an additional day of practice, effectively enabling the non-locals some extra track time to get themselves sorted before the meeting officially got underway.
It seems this was popular with a number of teams and competitors. Karting identity Dale Verrall posted on social media – “I’d rather see these ‘shakedown’ meetings dropped across the board. Add a days practice to the Australian Kart Championship. Saves double travel, time off work etc. The Perth format was great.”
So, is this a good idea? Should schedules and rules be put in place to eliminate AKC shakedown events and replace them with an extra day of practice?
Cast your vote below:
advertisement
advertisement