1 September

The Wells Interview

Motorsport News magazine published an interview with AKA President Donald Wells in their previous issue, #316. For those who missed the mag, MNews has given KartSportNews.com permission to re-publish the interview on this website.

from Motorsport News #316 August 17, p69 .

KARTING in Australia has some problems. The racing is still fantastic, just as it always has been. Club level numbers are reasonable, the state series are flying, but the top level is ordinary.

With DPE's continued support, KartStars should recover for next year. Baring the Intercontinental C gearbox, it's hard to see CIK surviving. Having the top-end of karting struggling to such an extent is adding to Australian karting's image problem.

There are more mums, dads and kids watching motorsport than ever before. In the mid-nineties, the AKA often said 'just wait 'til an Aussie cracks F1 - the sport will take off!' Well, Webbs made the podium this year at Monaco, but AKA licence numbers are down ...

MNews asked AKA President Donald Wells what was needed to reverse the downward spiral.

Promotion
"Large promotion," says Wells. "More promotion on a larger base than where we are now. Karting is a stepping stone, so you will have trouble keeping people because obviously they aspire to something more than just racing a kart.

"You'll find that most of the V8 Supercar and F1 drivers started in karts and obviously you will never keep them. So you've got to get that ground base coming in underneath to keep your numbers up."

Yes, the flow of new karters must be strong, but why does Australian karting insist on downplaying it's own importance?

'Just racing a go-kart'? In Europe there is no shame in being a career karter. In Australia, it is a serious form of motorsport with big money and many jobs involved. Sure, you are always going to have drivers progress through the sport and leave it, but at the same time do not downplay the successes and significance of those at the top level of karting that choose to stay. Not everyone is destined for stardom in F1. At any kart meeting, look at how many kids have helmet designs that are copies or variations of mutiple World Karting Champ Davide Fore - they are everywhere. So while karting is keen to drop the names Winterbottom and Whincup in its promotion, it shouldn't forget the names Price, Wall, Hyrniuk, etc. The kids look up to them as well.

But of course, promotion of any kind costs money.

"The corporate dollar is very hard to get and we don't get a lot of media coverage compared to other forms of motorsport," says Wells.
While some motorsport media do support karting, it will never be to the depth that a quality specialist karting magazine will be able to provide. At the moment, such a pucblication does not exist. In the nineties, when there were several karting mags already in publication, the AKA published its own magazine. Would it consider that again to fill the current void?

"Yes, because all we have at the moment is club-based reporting on activity that is happening at the clubs and results from race meetings at those clubs," says Wells. "There is nothing of a higher level for promotion.

"We did have a magazine years ago and … again, you have got to have the resources and the money to be able to do it.

"At the moment, we are trying to move towards Governance, with the AKA becoming a 'Company Limited', which will then change the focus of where we are because then we will have a Director on the board whose responsibility will be promotion and marketing." Wells says the new structure will be functioning this November.

Street races were beginning to become an effective promotional tool for karting before safety and insurance factors brought about their demise. Wells would like to see them return. "It is one thing that is on the agenda. We still have it in the AKA Manual. We have been working with a couple of road engineers and construction consultants and other people to revisit that area. "Now this is a personal opinion, but I would like to see them back, because it brings our sport to the public. If you bring it into town, all of a sudden you have a spectator base that will walk down the street to come and see it. "Portland Go Kart Club is very keen for it to get back up and running too, because that was one of their main features, and there are others."

Costs
One aspect of the downturn that couldn't be helped was the post-2001 insurance climate that sent AKA licence and club memberships skyrocketing. It brought the sport to its knees, but Wells sees the price structure being stable into the future. "We've looked at different issues with our risk management and our claims have been minimised over the past four years and our insurance is now steady."

Cost-cutting is a never-ending process, but another criticism Wells has picked up on is how karting has technically evolved out of the grasp of the average driver. The technical challenge of CIK is one thing, but a driver in Senior National shouldn't have to bring three axle stiffnesses, a data logger and a hired kart guru/mechanic to run in the top half of the field. "Exactly," says Wells. "We have already had this discussion with the industry and we are looking at bringing in a class with less technical features if you like, so that if you want to be a C-grade driver - because that is the lowest grade of licence other than a P-plater - we will say 'this is what you will run'.

"We will make it a standard thing and if that is what they want to run and enjoy, great, and if they want to compete at another level, then they can go up a level. We will have the club day karter at a very basic level."
But please don't say we are going to get yet another class! "No, we would still have Senior National or Clubman, but you'd have a 'National' (spec) class (within) that."

Wells sees a control chassis as a direction for these new spec classes, but most see control parts as sufficient.

Class Structure
Bluntly, there are too many classes. "Yes, exactly," says Wells. "That is very true. There can be too many, but the thing is again that things have evolved across the years and again that is on our business plan, with the new board to review.

"You can have the classes in there, but every club believes they should be offering all 15 or 17 classes, where that is not true. You should be offering what is available in your area. That is very hard to get through to the clubs. You promote what is best for your area and every now and then have a feature (event) that will draw some other classes in, but you don't have to put up every class to every meeting."

So when the AKA has its new Governance powers, is merging some of the classes and ensuring engine parity something of priority? "Something we are looking into at the moment is TaG class, which is Touch-and-Go. We are looking at (125cc - Rotax, Leopard, Rok) to start with, and then to bring that down (across other classes) because our aim in the long term is that every class will have a clutch and an electric start. Then you have a safety issue that is taken off of the out-grid. The competitor will also get more time on the track because if they spin out they can recover and finish the race.

"All of a sudden, you can start looking at those motors that are in the 100cc classes of Formula Australia and Clubman and put them together in a (100cc) TaG class. Instead of having 10 and 14 karts (in two classes), you have 24. That's better for the competitor and the spectator."

The plan seems to be to have Senior National as the budget class, 100cc TaG as a Clubman-style 'core' class, and then 125cc TaG for the 'guns'.

Wells is also aware of the need to protect the Yamaha KT100S 'Clubman' engine, the most popular engine in Australia for so many years. Tampering with Clubman has a troubled past: the attempted introduction of the ARC engine and the previous control tyre almost killed the class that is so important to the sport, although it has bounced with the newest control tyre. "There is a clutch out there now that was homologated and approved a couple of years ago (for the Clubman)," says Wells. "But obviously, until the competitor is forced to go down that track, they are reluctant to do so because there is an initial cost."

"So at our next meeting next month, which is our National Conference, this is an agenda item to be debated, as to whether it is 2007 or 2010. But we need to have a sign-off date where the competitors in the sport realise 'hey, this is the direction we are taking'."

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