I feel like @Alan_Dove would know about this being that this his part of the world.
I ran across a Tweet that was talking about how the MSA was separating karting out from the motorsport world, but I don’t know much about what goes on over there.
https://twitter.com/Photofeature/status/1069295853796507650
Does anyone have any insight to how MSA is affecting karting in UK?
Motorsports UK (previously MSA) are creating separate divisions within its structure and giving them new names. It’s a simplification process. So now we have Rally UK, Race UK and Karting UK or something to those affect.
Before we had the Association of British Kart Clubs (still do oddly) that administered much of the UK karting under the MSA anyway. We also had a seperate rule book (Good Book) which the additional karting regulations for classes.
So from this point of view it isn’t all that much different. If anything the Motorsports UK are trying to bring more of karting in-house but karting in the UK has always had its own ecosystem. We’ve certainly never been part of the big family, most of the time car racing has been a parasite stealing our competitors and doing f-all in return.
Do you think its a good or bad thing at the moment? I know Super 1 is pissed.
ABkC always had the feel of a karting mafia and (even though ABkC is still staying around) their power may be diminished.
Like what is happening with the legendary “tyre tax” (yes USA, we taxed our tires a little extra), that money used to be dished out to Super 1 for prize money (supposedly).
i have no clue to be honest. I am not sure what benefit this will bring. Motorsports UK are promising to dip into the rainy day fund to give to clubs that host the new championship rounds. They haven’t released any specific information on this though.
Super 1 is right to be pissed. Regardless of what anyone thinks of S1 and Hoyle the actions Motorsport UK took are ridiculously unprofessional. The teams had threatened a breakaway, but still it’s crazy to consider the lack of notice S1 were given. On the face of it this whole thing has been a move by the Motorsport UK to placate the teams. Long term I think Motorsport UK wanted to take absolute control anyway, this seemed to hasten their actions. The dearth of information about simple things like logos on karts for next year demonstrates the lack of clear planning.
No one is putting forward anything particularly innovate that could prove to be a catalyst for improvement either. The marketing material relays the same old tropes about ‘karting being the stepping stone blah blah’.
I think what we will see is Motorsport UK exercising a bit more control centrally. They may spend a little more cash promoting the big events (I think posters near the track was suggested… yep big big stuff). I don’t think Motorsport UK have the imagination to do something proper, but not many have, and I’d be happily be proved wrong.