ABkC News January 2003

ABkC Annual General Meeting

Russell Anderson and Graham Smith were returned unopposed as Chairman and Secretary at the AGM held at Telford’s International Kart Show. In his address to the club representatives present, Russell Anderson said that the steering group has worked very hard during the year stating: “Although occasionally we may get some things wrong, the ABkC has the ability to put things right with its strong MSA liaison, its membership of the Kart Control Board and the MSA Regional Meeting.” He advised clubs to take a very careful look at their Health and Safety procedures, and follow advice from the ABkC and MSA.

He said the InterNations, held at Watergrasshill in Ireland, had been a great success, with the meeting shown on Channel 4 television thanks to the sponsorship obtained. New members elected to the steering group include Nigel Edwards from Trent Valley, Gary Parker from Hunts and Simon Goodfellow from Manchester & Buxton. In examining the future of the classes, Anderson said: “125 gearbox has been fairly static and currently has two very similar classes. We are now looking towards 2004 having a 125 Super class, with open tuning, and an economy or starter class, maybe to European ICC format, which might be a second or two a lap slower but much cheaper to race.” He went on to emphasise that any proposal was still open for discussion and feedback from clubs and traders.

Club representatives present at the meeting expressed strong views about the MSA’s proposed ban on junior pushers. There was a big majority in favour of allowing spinners to be restarted so the youngsters could continue in the race. It was accepted that pushers, or incident marshals who could still be the driver’s Dads and mechanics, must have some training. Anderson added: “There is also a serious insurance aspect to consider and the ABkC has already set up a small sub-group to report at the next meeting.” Despite the venue the turn-out for the meeting was not particularly high, which hopefully indicates the steering group is generally on the right track.

Steering Group elected membership:

Chairman: Russell Anderson

Secretary: Graham Smith

Treasurer (Co-opted): Ian Rennison

100cc Technical: Neil Hann

Class One positions: Gary Parker, Alan Bryant & Nigel Edwards

Cadet position : Paul Klaassen

Gearbox Technical: Derek Price

Gearbox Positions: Mike Coombs, Malcolm Fell, Simon Goodfellow & Steve Clayton.

ABkC Seminars

The seminar at Tamworth, which included the special section for Timekeepers with HS Sports was particularly well attended. Steve Clayton led the whole group through the new judicial regulations, where a points system replaces the traditional endorsements that have led to such resistance from competitors for relatively small misdemeanours. A verbal warning earns no points, but a written warning earns two points. A fine, time or place penalty will result in three points, and a race or heat penalty four points, but exclusion from the meeting will clock up six points and when twelve are reached, the licence will be withdrawn and sent to the MSA. There are transitional arrangements to marry the old endorsements with the new points, and if it is thought the equivalent of three endorsements are reached, then the licence will be withdrawn at the end of the meeting to go to the MSA. All this can be found in the Blue Book section O.2.2.1.

Steve Chapman then introduced the need for clubs to carry out risk assessments and put forward a host of useful tips to clubs running their own practice days. He also distributed an easy to use points system to find out how risky each task or procedure carried out at a kart race or practice day can be. In these days of litigation it is essential to keep the general public out of risky areas such as the dummy grid and parc ferme or post race collecting area with controlled access and keep a written record of all the risk assessments. John Felix gave valuable advice throughout these sessions. Two very important points came out. One was that entry forms, or supplementary regulations, or both should have a line in to inform competitors that some information from the entry form for the event will be stored in a computer system by the Secretary of the Meeting for use of that Racing Club in the administration of Kart events. Secondly competitors’ attention should be directed to the rules on tobacco advertising, especially relevant if the meeting is to be televised.

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