g'dday folks!
At Oakleigh, around the end of last year, and apparently continued into this year is the rather hot topic of degrading driving standards. If your not sure what i mean by this, its thos stupid little (or sometimes big) incidents that happen around racing that endanger safety for no good reason. the old inside move that forgot to use the breaks, or try to pass from 20m back kind of thing.
it has become such a problem at oak, that during the first clubday of 09, we were all called for a second drivers briefing to tell us to cut it out or all go home. yes its that bad. numerous club meetings have been held to try and stamp it all out, but apparently its got worse.
my question is this: are other clubs suffering from similar behavior? and what are you guys doing about it to stop it, or prevent it from starting? or does anyone have any good ideas for oak?
At Oakleigh, around the end of last year, and apparently continued into this year is the rather hot topic of degrading driving standards. If your not sure what i mean by this, its thos stupid little (or sometimes big) incidents that happen around racing that endanger safety for no good reason. the old inside move that forgot to use the breaks, or try to pass from 20m back kind of thing.
it has become such a problem at oak, that during the first clubday of 09, we were all called for a second drivers briefing to tell us to cut it out or all go home. yes its that bad. numerous club meetings have been held to try and stamp it all out, but apparently its got worse.
my question is this: are other clubs suffering from similar behavior? and what are you guys doing about it to stop it, or prevent it from starting? or does anyone have any good ideas for oak?
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who was at newcastle psc on the weekend? I've never been at a race meeting when so many people were called to the stewads it was crazy. and most of them were being penalised, written up, excluded etc.. for basicly doing nothing wrong!
thought the standards were a little to high...
I found last few seasons I got more damage on clubdays than open events.I did some at GKCV and for some reason there was very rarely that problem and driving standards pretty high as far as safety goes.
So I did the first one this year at Oakleigh thinking it may be different...........how wrong was I .
I had some gumb pollaxe the back of my kart on the roll arounds!!!, bent me axle and back chassis rail of the kart.When the race started another newb decided to launch himself 1 metre in the air over the back of me and put himself into a fence!
Probably the only suggestion i got is if they got harder on roll arounds. If you can't form up in 3-4 laps they used to put the offenders at the back of the grid for wasting everyones time and money.Its always hard for any club to control the knob factor and I know Oakleigh and every club does there very best to stop it but sometimes its just out of their hands when running a clubday unless they introduce compulsory labotomies for the crash and burn types.Oakleigh is a great safe track and the committee are good people so I spose its a hard choice to single out the few that just should be playing another sport like lawn bowls or something.I'd say every club would have a certain amount of crashers so its not just one club only.
Maybe bring back heavier penalties for dangerous or in experienced driving maybe.??dunno.
I'm probably wrong.
yeah, i was in that 1 at the roll arounds james... guy behind was pushing me so hard through the form up lap that i cooked the breaks onto the pads and still got heaved up over the back of the guy infront. my engine was stalled and breaks locked, and i was still being pushed too fast. when i went over the guy infront, he hit you and the rest is history. crap like that really needs to be stamped out, or we'll never get the driving standard up to scratch.
and to geoff, maybe thats not such a bad thing. keep the standards high, make everyone scared of hitting, and then they wont. lax off the rules, see how it goes. if it leans back towards the stupid, start being strict again.
The Feb club day at Oakleigh was great!!!!
For me it became a day of self preservation.
Josh Brookers rear tyre almost got me, next race Adam Hughes and Benjamin Dunkin got together and Ben made a vline for the tyre barrier i was behind. Then a few races later we had the big one in Super Heavy with Rob McLennan hitting the cyclone fence pole. Have heard it was 2 fractured ribs and some bruising, but that was a hard hit.
From an outsiders point of view, it was a rough and tumble day. A bit of it was rust from not racing for a while, but i think a lot of it was trying to win on the first lap. At least, that's what it looked like. Inexperience would have been a factor as well, no doubting that.
James, i saw that launch, i was just coming down the stair at the start tower, missed the photo, but that was a big hit.
All a bit interesting that......
I started 18months ago in Clubbie Heavy (now in Rotax Heavy) and was advised by about 3 different people not to join oakleigh as "there are too many incidents and red flags" - some reckoned that the tighter corners at Oakleigh encouraged more do or die moves......never been so dont know!
Joined GKCV and never really had a problem to be honest - apart from the usual bloke who tries his best to make no friends in certain classes...!!! ;)
I think the Clubs do have an obligation to set the standards as high as possible - and if that means 'benching' people for the rest of the day or even missing a meet.....so be it...the message will soon get across.....
david I agree , oakleigh can someimes not be suitable for the "underskilled"
where todd rd has a little more track space to pass em bye ....
I reckon OLT tests should be compulsory and have a cert (or signature in the book to prove it.
And to pass it you have to go up against a club champ or similar not a clock.
I went for my gun licence and had a safety test with a qualified offical, if u fail then go again ......why cant we do the same for karting?result..........better drivers:)
No grade .........no race,,,,,,,just like goin for your road licience.
I have been racing at Oakleigh for the past 3 years and it always seems to be the same people in these accidents. You have to remember it is not fun Karts it is racing and if there are people who cant race then as Truey says maybe give lawn bowls a go. I race all over Australia and would have to say Oakleigh is the best racing at both Club Day and Open Meetings. There is a reason Drivers like D. Sera, J Sera, A. Hughes, J Schneider, G. Smith, J.Dixon and a huge list of champions come from Oakleigh, Great Racing, Great Club, Great Track.
as Tim said, you cannot judge an entire club, on a few people, and there is no denying it is the same people who never seem to learn there lesson
Sounds like something to be looked at next clubday to make sure all drivers are there to race and not smash the crap out of each others karts. As we all know contact just slows you down and won't get u on the podium.
The commitee there is good and as i said before on this thread i know they do their best to make sure alls fair 4 everyone but as u guys said its maybe the same members each time that make it bad for everyone else.
Driving clean means driving fast i reckon.:)
Without a doubt I do far more damage at small open meeting and clubdays than I do at a State Title. Just the level of experience you are racing against. I don't there there is much you can do but try and educate the offenders of what the standard is. I guess if it's more of a club issue, they need to tackle it as a whole. My club seems to be fairly good, but like in any club there are people who think they are Schumacher.
Regarding Newcastle, I hear they were penalizing people for running mesh over their radiators to stop rocks from damaging them. Pretty pathetic. Must say one of the reasons I stay away from upper NSW is the officiating. I have no problem with it anywhere else.
Well ive been racing for many years and raced several state titles where its been pretty rough. Im a queenslader and i have to say. Ive moved up to clubman light and the racing has beeen unbelievable Reasonably clean but really tough. And sures theres been accidents but nothing like your saying. We've been getting big fields for a long time and the racing's been excellent. Goood on ya's
Yer I agree with nick, last race meetin we were both in a 7 way battle for the lead... unbelievable racing and all was clean moves... there was 1 incident which took 2 ppl out of the group but that was it for the whole race. It was better racing then I've seen in some classes at state titles really close and clean with plenty of passing... im sure the spectators would have liked what they saw..