I understand that the TaG class had these faults as the engines weren’t designed to compete, but I’m simply relaying that in a mix-engine formula there are differences. Surely a group of engines designed to a formula will be far more equal. My stories are an exaggerated example of course. As Umberto Merlin commented when he came to watch for the weekend, “this is no serious racing, this is for fun no? Sonik and Rotax and Leopard cannot race together…”
Maybe my mindset isn’t quite aligning with what the goal for OK-N is right now at least in the States. And maybe that goes back to Alan’s comments regarding the marketing angle for the class. In Europe, this is going to be a “national” class, so positioned below the top tier. Here it will BE the top tier, and I suppose it should be treated as such with regards to budgets, builder/tuner involvement, factory backing etc.
Objectively speaking we always have to separate the product and it’s technicalities and the sporting aspect of an event / series.
The project was designed by the FIA with both a product (the OK-N and its technical attributes) and a sporting package which aims at restricting costs (with a dedicated toolkit for ASNs / organizers). Our “responsibility” vis-a-vis the stakeholders “stops” here, in a sense, apart from the continuous drive in communication, marketing material and discussions with federations worldwide, we cannot force them to adopt neither the product or the sporting aspect which was envisioned (which will nevertheless applied for the world cups events). Some will adopt both, some will adopt only one and adapt the other aspect in a way that reflects their needs.
Performance wise, I think it’s constructive to look at result sheets from international racing, where we see all three “active” manufactures on the podium in alternating fashion, which means the OK platform has developed to the point were diminishing returns in R&D have been hit. The platform has seen développement since 2016, and they’re all very very close. Do remember that the OK-N shares 99.9 % of parts from their OK big brothers, so I am confident in the relative engine parity that we will see (of course, there will be développement. It’s a fundamental part of open class racing, but not as much as people think I believe)
Yes of cause there differentces, but the huge gains some claim they can find in the “special” Rotax exhaust, correct year bottom end and what else is hugely overrated. Engine parity has always been a hot topic.
But there is also differentcies in the CIK/FIA engines, and it tend to be exspensive to get the tuned ones that work.
Realistically with OK-N this should come down to how your engine is setup. Ideally you have an engine built for tight tracks, and one for fast flowing tracks. Something like that anyhow, but saying you could have the same brand but built completely different.
This is where I think rather than calling back on the TaG days of multiple engines, we should look to how the KZ class has been stateside in 2022.
RPG ran Vortex and stuck it through the year, struggling a bit on tuning at New Castle as they adapted to the fuel. The majority of the field were on TM, but a few other teams tried different manufacturers and for the most part stuck with them – i.e. Musgrave / IAME.
The other difference being that while the TaG Manufacturers probably looked at the US TaG classes as a joke and didn’t offer much support to drivers, in theory, the manufacturers in OK-N will be doing the opposite. Trying to do whatever they can to make their engine work within the bounds given and keep teams and drivers on the product. In the TaG era, the regs were just BoP by weight, so doing the same notion just meant making your engine faster however you’d like and then leaving it on the series to make it fit again. Eventually, it seemed like manufacturers stopped trying to play this arms race against each other because it wasn’t regulated, and all focused on their own spec series instead.
Not OK-N, but maybe relevant in terms of future direction. There is a trend of young drivers going into the gearbox classes. If Freddie is skipping OK, then one has to ask… what’s the point of it if even the F1 ladder drivers aren’t bothered with it any more? The FIA ensured all the lifers went to gearbox. The F1 ladder drivers naturally are following them to make sure they are up against the best…
My assumption would be that take up is quite low. WSK Masters Series offers OK and OK-J, and I assume that’s drivers preparing for the big events. The Nationals would have to be additional demand that wasn’t there before, which I would suspect is unlikely. Maybe supply issues are there, but yeah, not a great start either way. ACI doesn’t start till late May as well.
