Taken from this article on kartsportnews:
Kees van de Grint: "An important point about racing that upsets me at the moment. There is still too much incorrect behaviour on the track, I do not appreciate it that karting sometimes resembles stock cars. For me, sportsmanship must be a core value of our discipline. It is easy to blame the officials or surveillance cameras, but first and foremost it is the mentality of drivers that must change. Karting competition must provide satisfaction to all, even to those not on the podium. I would love to be able to measure the pleasure of participating in exciting races and the advantage of having smiles on the faces of the competitors on the track."
I wholeheartedly agree. I think - especially at club level - that we need to instill a greater culture of respect for other dirvers out on the track.
It sounds a bit like Kees van de Grint (vice president of the CIK-FIA) is saying that it's not the responsibility of the officials to change the driver mentality, and on that point I disagree. I think our national body should create a series of videos showing driving manoeuvres that are considered illegal, and the penalty a driver should expect if he transgresses in such a manner.
Then, the officials should (starting at club level and working all the way up) start enforcing driving standards much more closely. If someone makes a pass by just slamming into the next bloke and pushing him wide - and the penalty for that is shown to be 10 seconds or whatever - then penalise the transgression EVERY TIME and stamp it out.
You can't change human nature, but you can change culture. I'd like to see the culture around our driving standards change, and I think it needs to come from the board of directors as a national directive.
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Comments12
Amen to that, we you watching us last weekend Col, had some tyre marks added as well as a lot of opposite lock to me that shouldn't have happened..
+1senior J ban, but since I haven't seen one in Vic for serveral years what are they again?? Cameras can be linked to Remo's X30 green control box for the officials to jump on us..
Next...
Mal Crosher said:
+1 . Electric karts with remote cut off will become a reality otherwise. matter of time. there many away around it enforced properly . Pressure kill switches behind bumpers, marking tapes etc. And your only cheating yourselves . Racing with knowledge of racing room and or knowing your not going to get punted is sooo much more fun. even at back of pack amongst yourselves. P.s. ban senior j's
Great post Col.
I disagree with you regarding your statement: "...Kees van de Grint is saying that it's not the responsibility of the officials to change the driver mentality". I believe he is saying that officials should be regarded as a 'last resort' when it comes to controlling/changing how people drive, rather than a suggestion that officials are not responsible for changing mentality. I think he is emphasising that good behaviour/attitude of drivers should be part of karting culture and that all too often people think they don’t have to drive safely or fairly as it is up to the officials to catch them out, rather than them applying good sportsmanship. To this length I agree with Kees.
On the other hand, I don't particularly agree with Kees point that "first and foremost it is the mentality of drivers that must change". I don't think you can change a drivers mentality, nor do I think this is essential. Ultimately, it's not what their thinking that matters but how they act. Drivers will always want to beat the guy in front of them; that is their mentality. I don't think many people go out with the intention of, what we are effectively calling, cheating. A lot of the time the way we drive is in the 'heat of the moment' and we generally try to pass when we are (or think we can be) quicker than the person in front. Change this mentality and you've change the entire foundation of the sport.
The most desirable outcome is a change in behaviour. Behaviour is a personal and individual action and so individuals should be held responsible for their actions. So how do we make people responsible for their actions? The first and most obvious answer is punishment. Most people respond in a predictable manner when threatened with a less than favourable outcome. Whilst this is not the only way, it is relatively easy to implement
Controlling culture is much more difficult and relies heavily upon the values that each person brings with them. A change in culture may be easy when you can selectively chose members of the public to form the karting members but this is obviously impractical in a sport where clubs need members (read $$$) and realistically take whoever they can get.
Just my thoughts...
Our sport does need a tune up in driver standards
But not sure it might be to late ( hope not )
tag retards
I agree that the culture of racing needs to change. I believe it starts at time of OLT and needs to be reinforced at club level. Consistency with officials enforcing the rules (with explanations/education) and awarding penalties will help get the message across not only to the offending driver, but to other drivers on the day. Promote and reward good sportsmanship amongst drivers and make the driver responsible for their actions. Reinforce the rules, improve the atmosphere at race meetings and basic human behaviour amongst the racing fraternity will improve.
Lets just take all the pods off,nose cones and piss these wets off, go back ol school.... Sort the men from the boys..
Mal said: "Explosive dye packs in our rear bumpers."
Genuinely laughed out loud here Mal. Thanks.
Ryan said: "Great post Col."
Right back atcha mate. I think you and I agree. You can't change how a person thinks at their core. If they're morally opposed to the idea of cheating, they almost certainly always will be, and if they're not... they probably never will. But the consequences of cheating can be forced upon them, and the potential punishment needs to outweigh the potential benefit in order to ensure that their behaviour is altered. Even if I'm willing to cheat, if there's penalties in place that make it highly unlikely that the result of cheating will be in my favour, then I won't. Whatever my moral code.
Martin said: "it might be too late"
The average karting career lasts three years. We're only ever three to five years away from 75% of the licence holders being "new". This forum gets 90 new registrations a month, and I would guess that the AKA gets approximately 120-140 new licence holders per month. Both this forum and the AKA also lose the same number of members monthly, so the total remains static. The point is that turnover is high, and relatively rapid. The kids joining cadets tomorrow could have a whole new understanding of driving standards before they're old enough to move into Juniors. It could happen quickly, if the national body saw fit to coordinate a decent effort.
As Mal said, I think racing is more fun when you're comfortable that you're not going to suffer a brutal take-out. You only need to see the top 10-15 CIK guys chatting amicably after each race - each of them totally pumped and loving it - because they've earned each other's trust and they know that the winner will be crowned fair and square.
The same can't be said of the average club day TagR race, and that indicates a problem that needs solving.
How about letting drivers self regulate poor behaviour again? I not talking revenge attacks, but anyone who was a driver back in the days without side pods understands me. We could do it quuite safely often enough. The odd accident occurred.. certainly not as often as they do now!
We used to quite successfully without the officials even being involved. It was only the poor behaviour of parents of drivers that enforced the rule makers to kurb it out and restrict us drivers from sorting it out.
Due to the drivers being scared to respond to stupid driving themselves we see the following happening now in b) and what used to happen in a);
1. Stupid move by someone
2. some DNF's
3. silence in the pits. No apology, no reason, no argument of two sides of the story.
4. officials do nothing but stand around with a penalty book waiting for a swear word
5. next race. repeat 1-4.
6.a) swearing on the in grid. problem gets worked out by drivers, but pink slips are flying around everywhere.
6.b) or mouths shut. Officials stagnant. repeat 1-5 next race meeting.
7.a) you become friends with the people you swore at and you don't know how and you don't care. See them next race meeting and try to beat them.
7.b) shit days karting. Cyber bullying. Whinging about how they were robbed on Kartbook. Complaining about parity on Kartbook. Probably retires and we lose people from our great sport.
Oh wouldn't it be sweet!
David Kerwood said:
Lets just take all the pods off,nose cones and piss these wets off, go back ol school.... Sort the men from the boys..
Thank you Col, Love the topic..
And I agree to what you have suggested:
"I think our national body should create a series of videos showing driving manoeuvres that are considered illegal, and the penalty a driver should expect if he transgresses in such a manner."
There are many new to the sport, like myself, as well as the old hands who would benefit from the VISUAL demonstration a video on the driving rules can give.
With the advancement of technology in on board camera's there is Every reason a very instructional Should be produced.
This can only help the sport and change the behaviour on the track.
Carl.
Great subject Col.
Overseas when trolling thru the internet all you see are academy based driver training schools. I know we have the likes of Troy Hunt and Deadly Dave doing driver training but racecraft in general is not being progressed by the main core of karters. Are we missing a level of dicipline that should be taught/moulded into future racers?
As an ol school pre sidepod racer if you assisted a position gain you were generally dragged up post race and appropriately dealt with. Now it's pretty much a rubbings racing mentality and nothing is done about it. I know that is a burden on clubs/ officials but really the buck starts with them to enforce some of these standards then and it will take awhile standards may improve.
If you consider yourself to be the next F1 star have a look at some of Lewis Hamilton's racing videos when he is 11 on YouTube and the standard of racecraft for the top 6 kids is unbelievably good. Col Fink said:
Mal said: "Explosive dye packs in our rear bumpers."
Genuinely laughed out loud here Mal. Thanks.
Ryan said: "Great post Col."
Right back atcha mate. I think you and I agree. You can't change how a person thinks at their core. If they're morally opposed to the idea of cheating, they almost certainly always will be, and if they're not... they probably never will. But the consequences of cheating can be forced upon them, and the potential punishment needs to outweigh the potential benefit in order to ensure that their behaviour is altered. Even if I'm willing to cheat, if there's penalties in place that make it highly unlikely that the result of cheating will be in my favour, then I won't. Whatever my moral code.
Martin said: "it might be too late"
The average karting career lasts three years. We're only ever three to five years away from 75% of the licence holders being "new". This forum gets 90 new registrations a month, and I would guess that the AKA gets approximately 120-140 new licence holders per month. Both this forum and the AKA also lose the same number of members monthly, so the total remains static. The point is that turnover is high, and relatively rapid. The kids joining cadets tomorrow could have a whole new understanding of driving standards before they're old enough to move into Juniors. It could happen quickly, if the national body saw fit to coordinate a decent effort.
As Mal said, I think racing is more fun when you're comfortable that you're not going to suffer a brutal take-out. You only need to see the top 10-15 CIK guys chatting amicably after each race - each of them totally pumped and loving it - because they've earned each other's trust and they know that the winner will be crowned fair and square.
The same can't be said of the average club day TagR race, and that indicates a problem that needs solving.