Hmm… there is certainly a point here. However, I do feel that most people do a Senior OK year, then do KZ / KZ2 year. As you pointed out in your other comment, having a KF2 and a KF helped. We have a KZ2 for FIA competition and I believe other series as well. Most of the; “young rich kids” go to OK and then graduate to KZ. They go to OK because the age restriction is 1 year lower than the KZ/KZ2 restriction… besides, where else would they go? Stay in Junior?
yes. I think we’d be better off with 12-14 and 14-16. Something along those lines and similar to how youth football works.
The problem with FIA Karting now is it’s constructed to serve F1, or becoming increasingly so. it is not to serve karting, but a sport to which cares very little about karting. The Senior direct driver classes are now all but irrelevant to ‘karting’ (by that I mean the general karter doesn’t really care who wins and on what chassis), which is a shame considering the wealth of heritage there.
Also, I suspect, as we see more ‘youth F1 prospects’ move into KZ, because that’s where the professionals are, we’ll see adult flight from the class as well as the growing proliferation of ‘spec-shiter’ classes. TM have now teamed up with EasyKart italy to offer a spec-shifter class.
This is a 2 stroke problem exclusively IMHO. There isn’t many people trying to do top level racing from Briggs 206 in comparison anyway. I think that goes a long way into how much experience the fields have in karting especially at the Masters level. The field depth IMHO is deeper then 2 stroke above 30 years old and the field size represents this. Just lately with KA has Masters even been relevant in 2 stroke racing outside of grand national events.
The problem with adding a 2nd junior class, is that you’re potentially creating two smaller classes, and adding another class to your timeline. In most situations, drivers want big fields of drivers and as much track time as possible. I know at our club, we are under time constraints, and have members asking for more laps. Adding another class would be difficult for us.
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That’s only a problem if you have more than one junior class running. If you had one single junior class, then it isn’t a problem because if you’ve got 60 entries, then splitting them into two groups makes no difference to track time as you can only have 30 (give or take) racing at one time anyway.
Naturally spec-racing has been the biggest driver in the issue about track time, especially when amalgamation or shared races isn’t possible.
Ok reading this back I sound like a jerk. I should have said “those who are fortunate enough to be able to pursue championship racing”. It’s not like I didn’t have good luck with my birth and subsequent apogee, which makes me a hypocrite. My apologies. (And yes I’d trade places with Lance in a heartbeat).