A reader poll was run the other week in the wake of the unfortunate re-starting accident at the OK World Championship (see HERE).
Joe Turney was struck by another competitor as he attempted to re-fire his kart, resulting in breaks to his lower leg.
In Australia, many of the classes utilise a clutch and on-board starter, so there is no requirement to push-start. However that’s not the case with the OK and OK-Junior classes.
Regardless, we asked the question “Should there be a blanket ban on re-starting in karting?”
Interestingly, the opening day of polling had massive support for a total ban, touching about 70%. But then as responses started coming in from Europe and the USA, the ‘Yes’ for a total ban tapered off, finally settling at 56.9%.
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Some of the comments posted on the poll’s Facebook post:
- It doesn’t make any sense to allow 50 kilos young drivers to try to push start a 90 kilos gokart! Even 80 kilos adults have a hard time push starting the karts. And of course, when you are at race mode, full of adrenaline, the odds of making a wrong assessment of the situation and trying to push start the kart is the perfect recipe for disaster! – Felipe Nardo
- Feet hit the ground, DSQ – Damien Scurlock
- No don’t change the rules, you just got to be careful – Ron White
- Restarting the go kart should be banned. It worked back then when the drivers were adults and the go karts used to weight half. Nowadays the karts are heavy and the drivers are very skinny kids. They rarely are able to restart and they put themselves in a very dangerous position by trying to do so – Marcelo Sartori
- Maybe rules on yellow flags should be adhered to – Rich Pacey
- I’ve been reading about a new technology called starter motors? Any chance they might take off? – Johno Johnston (with tongue planted firmly in cheek! – Ed.)
- We used to do all the time and yellow flags should cover it – Andy Mackie
- FIA should pull restarting in all classes. If the driver puts a foot out of their kart, ie gets out, whether a motor running (TAG) or not, they are DQ’d. It just simply safer for everyone – Stephen Wilson
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