Hot on the heels of Karting Australia’s lightning and thunderstorm policy, which came into effect this year, comes news that the governing body is planning to amend the regulations for 2027 to include flood management protocols at karting facilities.
“Looking at the facts, there are karting circuits under our jurisdiction that regularly flood every few years” KartSportNews was told.
“We have no policy around managing the considerable risk of those events.
“It is a clear double standard to have policies for lightning strikes but no safety requirements or guidelines for flooding. The latter is arguably more important, given that flood events cause more deaths in Australia per year on average than lightning strikes.”
The organisation has admitted it has followed the lead of other sports with the implementation of lighting and thunderstorm policy (Appendix 8 in the 2026 rule book), but this won’t be the case for flood management.
“We want to be a leader in modern sports governance” the organisation continued.
“This Flood Management Policy (FMP) will ensure the safety of our members, participants and stake holders, and will serve as a model for other sporting organisations.
“The Australian Sports Commission has signaled its intent to use our FMP as a template. It will enable sanctioning bodies of other sports – such as Golf Australia, AusTriathlon, Little Athletics Australia, Australian Sailing and the like – to draft their own Flood Management Policy in a far more streamlined manner.”
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While the final draft is yet to be revealed, it is expected to contain similar processes to the lightning and thunderstorm policy – ie, clubs will need to delegate responsibility to a club member to monitor rainfall, track levels in nearby waterways and determine triggers for event suspension. Additionally, evacuation plans will need to be prepared and communicated beforehand.
Further, clubs will need to install Flood Depth Indicators at several locations across the venue.
While these signs are relatively inexpensive, they will need to meet Australian Standard AS1742.2-2009 (part of the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, stipulating size, reflective material, scale and placement).
EDITED: Yes, publication date is 1 April 😉
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