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 Congratulations to the Mackay Kart Club for the presentation of the facility for this
event. It is a dramatic change from the last Qld State Championships conducted there some
15 years ago, and to the members go the accolades – Congratulations on a job well
done. The racing too was of a high standard and more congratulations go to the competitors
who made it so – the winners and the grinners provided a spectacle for the sports
members and spectators.
Unfortunately, some officials standards detracted from the polished professional
performance of the karters and if we can just get across this quickly, one of those laws
of diminishing returns will get reversed.It is not acceptable that
standard rule book infractions and prescribed penalties can’t be applied by officials
consistently or at all after the likes of Brian Sparrow and others have worked so
tirelessly to get the vagaries out of the rules and provided the training for all the
officials to apply them the same way. Consistency is king.
The work done on the current table in the book should be enough for any official to
resolve 99% of issues that arise but unfortunately, and I still believe, too often, a
howler gets missed and at a state title, the highest level of competition offered in a
state, it’s an unacceptable and unnecessary detraction from what is otherwise a
wonderful event.
In some cases, the officials actions bordered on stupidity
eg.– an air box dislodged during an event receives a DQ from that section event
– the failure to have bead locks in a rim receives a DQ from that section of the
event, both understandable and appropriate penalties, but then this - using a non
compliant component in an engine receives a $150 dollar fine and retains a podium position
in the final !! – the excuse apparently was “we were
not aware of the rule change” – for mine there was no rule change in 2010,
the rule has been in force via Addendum #8 from April 2009 and included in the Manual 2010
as all other Addendums are ,and add this, our State NKC delegate would have voted on
that Addendum...!!!! competitors in South Australia last year were issued a DQ from
the podium at a State Championship event fined
and suspended…!!! Go figure that one !!
And this,
primary school stuff, issuing a penalty notification for a nose cone that came off instead
of deeming the kart non compliant.lodging a complaint and the Stewards imposing the
penalty - there are only five instances where a penalty notification form can be
effected - non compliant kart formula is not one of them ..only weight - noise- fuel -
transponder and starting infringement.It is quite clear that only Stewards can issue a
penalty for this type of breach upon a proper complaint but that too seems to have been
ignored.
On a sad note, it seems we will be losing the services of a long standing official
and colleague of mine on the technical team, Mr. Harold Arnett. Harold has served
karting in many guises from track official to NKC delegate for at least 20+ years.
Presumably deciding not to waste a tribunal’s time, and man that he is, he has
admitted that he has breached the rules and when called on, will likely just hand in his
officials tickets and say OK, times up….!!
PS – Tech In Tasmania some
years back threw a crank in the bin as he deemed it non compliant – the AKA removed
him from holding an officials position forever..!
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