Having had lots of insight and a bit of consultation into this program since it’s start, I can’t help but feel this is a big step for karting as a whole in the US.
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What more can you tell us? It’s going to be something like you can’t race x30 at USPKS until you’ve done x amount of club races? Curious what the requirements will be for the higher levels
I think I have to be fairly hush for now but there will be participation requirements for pro classes, so no one who is unqualified will be able to jump into the deep end at a national event without proving their merit somehow.
Here’s more details per KartChaser:
“BIIIIIIG Bombshell from our friends at eKartingNews.com today.
We’ll have our thoughts on the program during a segment of tonight’s KC Happy Hour. Here’s the cliffnotes with the full press release available in their original post below.
$150/yr annual license fee
Tiered Licensing to prevent amateurs from racing Pro designated classes, such as 125 Senior and 125 Shifter. (No more 1st ever race weekend drivers in those classes.)
Penalty points tracked across all participating series — no more crashing in an LCQ or Sunday Main Event with just a paper slip to show for it”
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not sure about how I feel about that part. Don’t you think that a higher Pro fee, combined with a 105% rule on qualifying time would automatically prevent the issue? I really like the licensing idea for many reasons, but I’m not sure about this specific aspect
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Personally I also like the 105-107% rule to enforce this but I think this is just a convenient and easy way to achieve the same goal. The system is going to be in place anyway.
On the other hand it would really suck to register and travel to the race and spend all the money to find you’re not quick enough to race come quali. This nips that in the bud and kind of keeps people from falling into that awful situation.
I like the 105/107% rule but I don’t believe that would be enough. There were 2 drivers that wouldn’t meet the 105% rule in X30 Senior qualifying in Orlando, both of whom only put in 1 fast lap and I assume had some type of issue, so they would be allowed in anyways. On the other hand, there are probably 10-15 drivers in that field that should be running KA instead of X30. It’s incredibly hard to be outside of 105% of the pole time.
A concern that’s been brought up with these types of discussions before is, what do you do about the drivers that aren’t able to run X30 but should? Think Brandon Lemke, Christian Miles, etc. They should be in X30, but don’t because of money. Are we kicking them out of KA because they’ll qualify for a “Pro” license? Are we deciding to allow Pro drivers in the amateur category?
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As long as they keep this licensing system for restricting certain classes at the National level and not let it trickle down to the clubs (and keep it far away from Road Racing, which has their own licensing system), very well. Not that it will solve the problem they’re supposedly trying to fix anyway.
If they do intend to restrict classes all the way down to the base level, well, U.S. karting is seriously running out of places to shoot themselves in the foot.
This is specifically for National Series, USPKS/SKUSA and one unannounced series, although I could see an argument for 4 between ROK Cup and Stars. No mention or reason to go towards road racing or club racing.
What problem do you think they’re specifically not fixing through this anyways?
I’m just happy to see cooperation. Good concept in theory - will be interesting to see it all rolled out. Has a ton of potential.
Would hope that the other major players are included in the process. Rok via Vegas & FWT is by and large the exact same competitor base so their inclusion would only strengthen the data as well as the weight of the potential sanctions. Challenge of the Americas and particularly Stars have legit claims to be in that conversation as well.
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Everyone is in the conversation and aware of the program, but so far only SKUSA and USPKS have bought into the licensing program. I think other series are waiting to see before committing.
Reminder that NAKL is an independent effort, not like a couple series came up with an idea and are trying to control the system like some people are thinking. This was done separate and the idea has been floated to all major series, because I think everyone wants to see cooperation across the board, and honestly this whole system works best the more cooperation among series.
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Interesting points last night at happy hour. From what I gather SKUSA/USPKS have really signed up to send the points tally to NAKL. Acting on them could be a different question. Someone brought up the existing ban’s that weren’t uphold by the agreement previously, not to sure how this will survive.
If you are banned, you will literally be unable to register for the race.
I know it’s early in the announcement, and this new program seems driver focused; are there plans to standardize marshalling and officiating with this program? Also, will there be a set of standards for driving?
Being on both sides of the officiating/racing coin, I saw a lot of arguably poor driving (side-podding for example) go uncalled in Orlando, but general bumping/pushing get called and large penalties given in return. Prior to this, at Supernats they didn’t call general bumping/pushing, but called more podding.
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Start having banned drivers show up in wigs with a fake ID. 
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So to elaborate on TJ’s comment here – both series us Motorsportsreg.com for registration.
The points accumulated will work on that individual driver profile’s total. So the website will automatically disallow you from registering if you’ve got too many points. And I’m sure there’s something in place to keep you from making a duplicate account with the same name.
Takes it completely out of the series hands.
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Have a bunch of “Rodney Sandstorm” types registering after they been banned.
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I’m wondering about drivers that only run one series following the NAKL program and point out in a weekend that’s followed by a series that they’re not planning on running anyways? Say I point out at USPKS Houston, and SKUSA Utah is following that. If I’m not planning on running anyways, that one race suspension doesn’t affect me at all.
The first “solution” I can think of is that you still have to register for an event to serve the suspension. If I don’t plan on running SKUSA Utah in this scenario, well now I have to pay the race entry just to serve a suspension in a race I wasn’t going to anyways, an extra $625 from my season budget I’m out just to serve the suspension.
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I think it’s so worth the $150, but I’ve never seen more people complain more over $150
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I imagine you would be suspended from the next participating event. If you point out at USPKS Houston but aren’t going to race until 3 months later, you would be suspended for that race that’s 3 months away.
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How do they know/track that though? I can say I’m running any event. If I point out right before SKUSA New Castle, what’s stopping me from saying “oh I was going to run Pro Tour New Castle as a one-off,” and use that as a drop so I can still run USPKS Cincinnati?
Not trying to badger you guys about the program, just trying to think of how competitors may try to circumvent this system.
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