No more pushback for skusa?

Based on some threads here. I’m sure opinions will be good

Interesting. Pro Tour driving standards were abysmal before the push back bumper. We were getting scolded by Tom and the race director every event.

Obviously a reaction to a few big races internationally being decided by bumper penalties.

Personally I like them. Having made some pretty big hits and not pushing back I feel that they are more benefit than detriment.

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I have been in so many incidents where my nosecone would have been pushed in that wasn’t my fault. Like the enduro I just did where someone derped in t1. 3 of us woulda been DQ, even though I was able to keep going.

It’s not a DQ though. Even a double pushback.

Is it time? That makes more sense to me. A few S for an incident.

It’s either 2 positions per side pushed back, or 3 seconds for one side and 5 for both. Depends on the series, the only DQ you can get for a pushback is trying to push it back out after the race and getting caught.

In Australia, the national series introduced them a few years ago.
I happen to know how many infringements were applied over the years since.
In the first event 4 years ago, 300 (roughly) were handed out in the course of a 2 day event with 300 odd competitors.
At the last round held THIS YEAR there were 300 (roughly) infringements handed out.
It takes 2 tech guys on the out grid checking them on, 2 guys on the in grid checking them off and at least 1 person on a computer entering out infringements.

My State association has been asked more then a few times to introduce them, but my club will continue to vote no to them, because clearly they don’t improve driving standards, they take an extra 5 people to implement and the cost to the competitor can be excessive if nassa panel and bumpers must be changed to accommodate them (as they would in my case).

Most competitors don’t even understand how our rules are written.
Bumpers are a judge of fact. The penalty can’t be disputed. “they” all believe that if brake checked that they will be able to appeal the decision.

This year however we have decided to “trial” them in one class, the class that keeps clamoring for them. I am going to laugh my arse off when the data came back as above, “for improving driver standards”.

“Pushback” the same as bumping or bump drafting? Trying to follow the bouncing ball in this conversation.

Pushback = drop-down bumpers. Same thing. So if you hit someone hard enough the bumper dislodges and you get a penalty.

Karting turns over so many drivers that you lose collective memory of how bad it used to be. So rather than having a number of people who can weight the costs properly, all people see now is not the lack of big pile ups at the start, they just see injustice. Drivers also learn to game the system over time too.

SKUSA seem pretty confident they can marshal the races with video. We’ll just have to see how it goes. A lot of money and time investment.

I think the move makes sense for SKUSA for that reason, they are able to utilize video marshaling. This should help reduce the number of ticky tack penalties for incidental bumping that has no bearing on results.

May not make sense for other series that aren’t able to implement the same level of video marshaling.

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I’m interested to see how it pans out. Have to give SKUSA credit for listening to feedback from drivers and teams and at least trying to change things.

The video review process will work for in-race penalties but my concerns are the starts, which have always been the messiest part of the race. How will you review 40 karts running into each other simultaneously? I guess they need a full video review team focused on just watching playback of the race incidents.

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Curious that pile ups are as big a problem as they are considering the potential cost of a wreck, which is out-of-pocket for the drivers/teams. Not like there’s “big money” picking up the tab (for most), nor being made/won for the effort.

If the Starts are the messiest part, then why not implement a standing start instead of a rolling one? I have seen this work in some of the larger club classes and it really does reduce the T1 carnage.

It becomes t1, lap 2 carnage. :joy:

Standing start in last enduro. We made it one lap before we all decided to crash into each other.

Or a flying single-file start?

Single speed engines aren’t designed for standing starts.

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From what I saw, the speed at T1 was dramatically slower on the first lap and by lap two most of the field was already starting to spread out. Of course none of that matters when you have ultra aggressive drivers that are trying to win it in the first lap. I have always like the saying, “You cannot win a race in the first corner, but you sure can loose one!”