I am probably the guy who took the "hard case approach" that Dennis is
referring to in his post. I believe that what I did was not being hard line.
Yes, a local father did bring out two used karts to a NASA school. I was
helping to instruct the kids on a separate course that was set up. When I
noticed that these karts had Comer engines, I informed the man that none of the
SCCA classes used this engine. I also told him that it would be perfectly ok to
run these engines but not for points, at least for the time being. He did not
seem offended in the least. When I found out that this was a problem, I spoke
to him at the next opportunity and apologized for anything that I might have
said or done to offend. I thought the matter was over, but apparently not.
I guess the central issue here is to have rules or not to have rules. Even
though they are children I believe we should give them a level playing field.
Yes, there have been some hard feelings at National level events when one kid
beat the rest with a blueprinted motor. The rules were changed, not by me but
by SCCA, to help prevent further protests. I thought it wouldn't matter either,
until I witnessed the problem firsthand. I don't consider these parents to be
the over-competitive Little-League variety, either.
Now I don't advocate a lot of restrictions and pages of rules like the karting
community has, but there should be some rules to make things at least appear to
be fair. Kids notice these things.
As the Kart Steward for my region I am *required* to have a set of rules. I am
as open as can be to changing them. Heck, we could even add a Comer class if
those two kids wanted to run them.
-Vernon Head
------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001 08:47:29 -0800 (PST)
From: Dennis Hale <dhale_510@yahoo.com>
Subject: kid karts
Like much of life and much of SCCA there are two
answers to one question.
The tight answer is there is just one specification
for a kid kart and the Comer would not be acceptable.
The friendly answer is whatever the fellow competitors
agree to is perfectly all right, it matters not to
anyone else. Only safety issues may be protested by
someone not running in class, and I doubt the kids
will want to play the protest game.
Locally [SFR] the fathers of the kid karts took the
hard case approach and chased off participation before
they developed a viable class. Shame on them. At least
one father bought a couple of used kid karts and
intended to participate with his two kids, was
attacked over wrong specifications the first time out,
and took his family to the karting club. He had
autocrossed for 20 years and was shocked by the
attitude displayed. I think we have lost him as an
autocrosser too, 8-[
So checkout who is running the karts in your area and
how they are doing it. Or start the group in your area
and see to it that the kids have fun and bag the
foolish restrictions.
IMHO
=====
Dennis Hale
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