Vroom International June 2018 out now!

EDITORIAL

Yes, so we’re fully into the current season, and with the rising temperatures, the European championship has also entered the crucial phase. The French track of Salbris hosted the first round of the 125 gearbox, while the second round of OK and OKJ took place in Great Britain. Both competitions are providing plenty of thrills, as forecast. Good. We can’t but rejoice for the great show the two championships are offering.

Not a marginal feature, nor one to take for granted, the show; one might say, races are always exciting. Not always. The promotion of karting functions in direct proportion to the captivating images transmitted by the competition on the race track. It can’t be otherwise, being an exclusively racing discipline. But the development and success of a category in terms of competition and performance do depend on the technical and sporting regulatory settings.

A race offers a great show for spectators and fans mostly because the proper pre-requisites have been created. Its promotion, its propaedeutic function and, especially, regulations whose scope is to appreciate, that is, enhance the value, of the discipline, thereby nurturing the interest and development of young talent. A condition, this, partly verified in the 80s / 90s. After a too-long parentheses, those pre-requisites have reappeared thanks to the validity of the engines. Because the 125 gearbox, the 125 “Original Karting” and the 125 TaG, with their numerous brand trophies, respond increasingly more to the demands of practitioners, including the Rental and Vintage sectors that, together, amount to an equally important following.
So after many years of racing, and after a succession of policies not always relevant to the evolution of international karting, we have again come around, let us even say in a rather fortuitous fashion, to a credible configuration. To optimize these aspects it will still take some time ... For now, though, I’d like to believe that a remedy to breach the obstacles opposing this much-coveted expansion and development will soon be reached.

Empowered by the history and experience lived in the world of kart racing it seems clear that now, after many revolutions, it is necessary to bring order and to differentiate, first of all, the movement of practitioners, between those whose aim is professional from those, instead, who simply want to try their hand and enjoy themselves.
The magazine I have been managing for 30 years has always gathered and collected the impressions, outbursts, joys, anger, in sum, a sounding board and forum for and of the sector. A world we know well, immersed and in contact as we are every single day of the year. As are those who legislate and promote this discipline, of course. Why it is difficult for me to believe that the folks on CIK’s top floors have not understood that today there are, indeed, the right conditions to improve and have this motorsport make true gains, even by leaps and bounds. It is an opportunity for the body, as the authority, to reaffirm its credibility by demonstrating its ability to operate in compliance with the sector’s needs, needs that are competitive and, importantly, industrial. This is the time for action.

I’d like to take this opportunity to make an empassioned appeal to Cik Fia Vice President, Kees van de Grint, and reiterate the importance of making several regulatory changes that could re-accredit the stature of the queen class of international karting.

We know that the KZ, belonging to Group 1, already presents some differences with the Cadets (KZ2). Starting with a free or open chassis, weight at 170 kg, 5 less than the Cadet, the servo-assisted speed variator, but it’s not enough, because these items, as we have seen, do not influence performance in a preponderant manner. The aspects that should, instead, be taken into consideration to differentiate from KZ2 rely more on the engine. And for the moment, let’s leave aside the issue of tires that, as we well know, are what condition performance most. To render the competition more interesting and transform the KZ1 into the true top-class or queen category, some regulatory changes could be made to allow for the use of experimental material, so as to permit manufacturers to verify the competitiveness of various measures and solutions to be tried and tested and, later, implemented in subsequent homologations.

Let us not forget that KZ is the result of an exciting technological challenge, and that it involves a significant financial commitment for the engine manufacturer. A challenge, theirs, aimed at measuring and exceeding the limits of the 2-stroke endothermic engine. And it is not logical that after 22 years, on the same track, the karts ran the same lap times. And the show offered by the FC in the old millennium is certainly not comparable to what we saw at this year’s KZ European Championship. Cik, taking advantage of the year’s end homologation, valid for the next three-year term, 2019-2021, should launch a provocation with several regulatory variables aimed at making KZ more interesting, to promote research and development, and at the same time, make the stage for Cik-Fia-titled races more spectacular. That’s if, of course, one wants it certified as the queen class of international karting. Because flat, unexciting, unappealing performances and races do not reflect the prerogatives of a karting top class, especially when aired on a small screen and broadcast in live stream via web.

Cik should transmit a signal to the entire sector manifesting its will to aim for and share the same objectives together: to improve and broaden the appeal of karting for its very promotion and for the many who invest and work in the field, to protect and curate a business activity that is, on a global basis, unique!

Giuliano Ciucci Giuliani