>That has been a problem for a lot of people considering buying a kart. Last
>year F125 had a good turnout at Topeka . Howard had told several people in
>F125 early last year that a good showing at Topeka would get F125 permanet
>status. F125 exceeded that goal and then were told after Topeka they have to
>bring up the regional numbers. A 1/4 of the regions don't even allow karts!
>At that point I said the hell with it, I had spent the last 2 seasons ,
>volunteering for more than my share of the work at events, and having to
>suck up to every jacka$$ that has his name on a committee roster to help
>bolster the class. At this point Howard ,the SEB and rest of the Denver
>bunch can stick it as far as I'm concerned .I'm not spending my money where
>I'm not wanted.
Early last year, the decision was made to give F125 two more years to
either make it or not as a national class. This decision was due to the
number of people telling us that one-year increments weren't enough, but if
they got two years for sure, lots of people would make the switch. OK, two
years it is. Which is to say that after two years, the decision would be
made. I suspect very strongly that you are misrepresenting what Howard
told you (intentionally or not). First year went OK. We don't have a lot
of regional participation, except for a few hot spots, but we did have a
good turnout at Nationals. Now we are waiting to see how the second year
goes. I would characterize F125 as being "on the bubble" - if the turnout
is good at Topeka this year, chances are good that the decision will be to
keep the class (personal opinion only!). What we don't want to do is
create another class that is always just barely making it, or worse, that
needs to be cut two years after it is created. We understand that karts
can't run in all regions - that's not a good argument for making it a
national class. I have detected no animosity from anyone official and no
real wish to drop the class, but on the other hand it has not shown any
particular likelihood of ever being very big either. It has been allowed
to languish as a supplemental class far longer than others, but then it's
been in between "no interest" and "we have a winner" all along
too. "Howard, the SEB and rest of the Denver bunch" work a hell of a lot
harder than you ever will, so we can happily just consider the source and
say "have fun, and don't let the doorknob hit you on the way out". I have
no animosity toward the karting groups, so I can't say whether or not they
deserve you. You are insulting people you don't even know, and doing it
with a remarkable degree of ignorance.
> A smaller problem for f125 on the national level is the rules. The
>rules are from the 1996 WKA rulebook. If you also race SKUSA or WKA events
>under thier current rules your engine is illegal for F125. For those of us
>that also compete in sanctioned kart races that is an extra engine to buy
>and maintain.
This is a problem with how the rules were written. There is a
well-established way to deal with this. I really don't think people want
to have Solo karts, with a completely different rules set than the rest of
the kart world (Solo V has this problem, and though there were good,
logical reasons for it, it's something that is going to be avoided if at
all possible in the future). On the other hand, we'd also like to avoid
having people be required to buy multiple rulebooks, or be subject to rules
made by other sanctioning bodies (heck, people complained about the
PCS/GTCS/GCR situation as regards Prepared category cars, and that was SCCA
too!) At the moment it appears that we have sort of a Vintage F125 class
going. There are two choices - A) call that good (with the result that
there is probably limited growth potential and the class could be in
trouble in the future even if it makes it now), or B) change the rules to
refer to "current WKA rules" or something like that, with the understanding
that it means the current group of people running F125 will have to spend
money to keep up, and that they'll need to keep up with what's going on in
WKA as well as SCCA. For that matter, the SEB and others will have to try
to keep up with those changes too, just to make sure there won't be any
major future surprises. I'm sure WKA does have some interest in rules
stability, but that doesn't mean that every decision they make will make
sense in SCCA.
Paul Brown - not in any official capacity, just personal opinions
MR2: "Not the easiest car in the world to work on"
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