I feel like you kind of end up with this in a lot of the 4 stroke racing when there is light/med/heavy since in my experience light is usually all 15-20 year olds and by far the most aggressive class, medium a good mix and heavy mostly older guys who are smart enough to push away the whole race 
. Light is essentially the class between Jr and Sr for the younger teens.
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Good observation. This is true at our club, as well.
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All this talk of allowing 13 YO to race with adults is asking for trouble. Could there be a chance for criminal charges on-track incident? It would be bad enough for an adult to adult assault charge to occur but an adult assaulting a child would look very bad for the sport.
Larry, does that change anything when the age is 16? Still minors on the track with adults.
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One of the fights at SuperNats years ago was from an adult (18 years old) physically assaulting a minor (15/16 years old) after a crash.
Maybe senior should be 18+ and there should be a 14-17 class.
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I know we shouldnt take this as the gold standard, but most dirt racing has the junior class split.
Basically:
Kid kart
Cadet
Junior 1
Junior 2
Senior
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Man, if you run the class with adults expect to get treated like an adult.13, 17, doesn’t matter. I thought Ricketts was going to beat my ass when I was 15 once and my grandpa was going to let him.
As far as an on track incident goes, parents signed the waiver so it doesn’t matter what age they are unless somebody can prove negligence somewhere we are operating under an assumption of risk.
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That’s surprisingly logical and sensible. Why isn’t that a thing? (Senior 18+).
Are any of the top pros younger than that? I think Ryan and the gang look like they are in their 20s to me.
Kids moving up quickly is happening in all levels of racing. In INEX Legends you have 12 year olds racing against adults. Same with 4 banger dirt/asphalt drivers. Mini cups, sprint cars, etc.
As a promotor, you’re worried about losing a kid because he’s either too talented to race against juniors, or too big to race against juniors.
My son is 6" and 145 lbs. Turns 14 in May He’ll be closer to 150 when the season starts, and who knows by season end. He gained 10 lbs during last racing season. He’s been racing at our club since he was 5. I’ll be petitioning to move him to KA Sr because we don’t want to race 15-20lbs overweight.
In the UK we used to have a class called TKM Intermediate. This was a TKM class with less restriction on the engine, but a higher weight limit. I think this is a better solution for larger kids. We split adults into heavy and lights, and I think for younger teenagers it’s worth looking at it rather than throwing them in with adults.
I think the sport needs to protect itself against parents quite a bit. I think the total capitulation to a market that is extremely transient has been the biggest mistake, from a sporting perspective. Obviously high spending parents, even if they hang around for only a few years, are highly profitable if you can maintain an influx of them. I don’t think waivers materially make anything better.
I say 16 because it is generally where a lot of other sports are, but I’d like to see 17+ or even 18+. Unfortunately politically the sport from all angles is geared towards Juniorfication. We’ve collectively lost the ability to market karting to the older demographic. F1, IndyCar etc… will always generate enough parents with cash.
Unpopular opinion… these parents should tell their kids to naff off and then just go racing themselves 
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Kind of strange how this isn’t standardized.
Our local sprint races do split the Junior classes into Junior 1 & 2. Kids at 15 can choose J2 or Senior but anyone 16 at years end must race Senior the full year.
In LO206 the J2’s run the unrestricted black slide making them 2-3 seconds per lap faster than senior.
While some promoters are afraid of losing kids who can’t compete in “older” categories I’d say a bigger problem is turning away new people who get placed into uber competitive classes.
Maybe, along with age, there should be some type of skill factored into classes.
In cycling, my old sport, you accumulate points on a license according to your results. After so many points you can move up to more competitive categories. Keeps unexperienced from racing with pros and pros from racing with beginners.
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That would be perfect for us 20-somethings who enjoy the pace and chaos of senior, but are no longer eligible for “parental sponsorship” Lol
This is what it feels like for me on a 206 senior grid:
thats gonna be me hitting the racetrack on my comeback at 47 years old now , before my first warm up sessions
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I was thinking Seniors need to be 18. Yes, still a problem at 16.
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You can’t waive your legal rights away. The waiver would probably be effective with a civil matter but if there were criminal charges these can’t be waived.
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What criminal charges can you reasonably expect to arise from on track racing incident?
I would imagine assault would be one possible charge. Like the time that adult hit a driver <18 mentioned earlier.
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