Ok I am going to go out on a limb here.
I have been a delegate for many years as either a co-delegate or delegate to the NKC. I have sat on many AKA committees, Australian Made Engine Committee (AMEC), International Karting Committee (IKC), Class restructure committee etc. My involvement stretches back to 1997 and many things have changed in this time. I have agreed and disagreed with many decisions made by the AKA. I have seen the system at its best and also at its worst.
I have been a delegate for many years as either a co-delegate or delegate to the NKC. I have sat on many AKA committees, Australian Made Engine Committee (AMEC), International Karting Committee (IKC), Class restructure committee etc. My involvement stretches back to 1997 and many things have changed in this time. I have agreed and disagreed with many decisions made by the AKA. I have seen the system at its best and also at its worst.
I have been abused, told my life membership to the AKA has no value when it is given to people like me, been accused of spending $20k on women of the night and put up with ridicule as posted by people on these forums " What's the difference between a porcupine & an AKA exec meeting? with a porcupine, the pricks are on the outside". I have had arguments with close friends that just should not have happened but all revolved around rules and their interpretation.
Why because I enjoy the sport and have always said that I have got a lot out of this sport and want to put something back into it.
I am one of the few delegates that actually race, have raced Internationally and are involved as a racer. I see the issues from a different perspective.
What is this post about?
I have always held the opinion that if the members are kept informed of decisions and the reasons why a decision is made in a specific way then even though they may still disagree with the decision they are at least a little wiser as to why the decision was made. Many untruths (if that is a word) are told, most of the time because people do not understand the issue and the background to it and sometimes just to stir up a situation. I have always had an open book policy to explain anything if asked (unless it is commercial in confidence). That is how I work in this state.
I would like to make this an open book to anyone. If you want to know something or are bemused by a decision then make contact and I will answer your questions. We may not agree but as long as it is a sensible amicable discussion we both may learn something.
I will not get into a never ending debate that goes round and round getting no where.
Craig Denton
0419718672
Comments12
Hi Craig,
Thanks for sticking your neck out! I appreciate it very much, and your post is in exactly the spirit we hoped we could foster when we created Officials Corner.
No doubt soon you'll have some questions to answer.
"I will not get into a never ending debate that goes round and round getting no where."
No, and not least because as per the special guidelines for Officials Corner, the moderators will be putting a stop to that!
Thanks for being the first official to grace Officials Corner!
Col.
Paul, thanks for contributing. Allow me to rephrase your post in the manner that I will be expecting (and soon requiring) in all posts in Officials Corner:
Quote Paul Hewitt (with edits):
Hi Craig,
Good on you for your efforts, I hope that karters will soon have access to the information of what is happening at the decision-making table, because right now we feel left out.
Why do we hear of decisions afterwards? We feel totally powerless and at the mercy of the decisions of the NKC.
Eg IKC took their budget to the NKC, but when did the clubs get a chance to see it? We didn't, to our knowledge, so the delegate had to make a decison uninstructed, which we think is happening too often.
If forums are so wildly off the mark, and untruths are told its a simple sign there is not enough effort made by the NKC being put into advising or asking the karter what he wants!
I believe that the Publicity Officer should be doing a lot more to ensure that the information is disseminated to the karters, something which shouldn't be too difficult with karting.net.au, kartbook, facebook, kartsportnews all available.
I can't stress enough that this lack of information is the main cause of unrest in the general karting populace.
They would quickly change their minds if they saw an effort to ask them what they want, and to tell them go to their club is just not good enough, when there are so many easier and more accessible alternatives on the internet. The fact that we lead busy lives and can't make it to our club doesn't mean we don't have a valid opinion.
Delegates at all levels are vote carriers, they don't have the ability to alter their vote, and nor should they be put in a position to vote without instructions, and should never go to any meeting without instructions. Nothing that has not been given the proper amount of time to be voted on at the grass roots should be voted on at NKC levels.
If all delegates act as they are supposed to Craig, then many of the AKA's problems would not occur.
Thanks for reading.
Officials Corner is not for ranting. It is for intelligent discussion. It's quite possible to make your point without "shouting". Ranting is completely counterproductive and will not help to encourage positive change. Everyone, please phrase your posts as politely and constructively as you possibly can at all times!
Craig, what do you think of Pauls questions?
Like many drivers who didn't read the rulebook and officials who don't read constitutions, I plead guilty here, better go and have a read.
Not easy to take emotion out of a passion you have for the sport ;-)
hi craig i have 2 questions will the clubday racer have to upgrade to the 09 rotax barrel and will we have to have transponders for just clubdays i do my racing on a buget and can't see why i will be forced to spend big money to be competive when i am just happy to go out and race
cheers Trav
My first question/s Craig is/are .
What do you see the future of class development in AKA karting over the next say few years?.
There have been some new classes introduced lately ie Junior performance,Tag and 125 restricted as well.
Do you think this is a good move forward for karting or is this just a complication of classes?
Also who suggested,voted and approved these new classes?
Thanks
Hi Travis,
The Rotax issue will be an agenda item at the Annual Conference. There are points for going to just the 09 version as we can finally get close to the world rules. This was one of the mistakes that we made with rotax. We should have stayed with the world rules. Unfortunately for your situation it does not help, but I am sure a compromise for club days/non championships could be found. Ian Mooney started a thread elsewhere that discusses it in depth. He was originally against just the 09 version but after the discussion on here I believe he is nearly convinced that it is a good thing.
Transponders are coming in and will be in for all meetings. My club is looking forward to it as they struggle to get enough help on race day and see this as a few less people they need to find. There are benefits and negatives. Hopefully the benefits will outweigh the negatives.
At the risk of upsetting a few I shall explain a little bit of history.
One of the hardest decisions the AKA need to make is to reduce the number of classes.
John McCleverty, Gary Light and myself sat on a committee many years ago to restructure the classes. We reported back and the first part of the report was to remove Senior National Light and Heavy from the Nationals and State Championships. It was approved by the AKA with a phase out period.
Guess what the states got significant backlash and at the next years annual conference the decision was overturned.
Thats the way it goes and we are a part of a democracy. Had governance been in the board may have made the same decision with the big difference being that the members would have no recourse until election time.
Single engine classes grew the sport of karting out of sight in Australia when clubman was first introduced. This was then followed by National. It was a different market then as the other classes where expensive and suffered reliability issues so clubman grew. We now have Rotax etc that is performance based and reliable.
We used to have a rule that if you placed in the faster categories eg International etc you could not run clubman. This was to allow clubman to foster new people to the sport. This was flawed however as these classes cost so much to run and did not run regularly so people (me included) made sure you did not place if you could not win.
I have been very much against the TAG scenario for many reasons but mainly due to parity. How hard is it to come up with a perfect scenario for multiple engines of differing power characteristics. Having said that the AKA have done an excellent job in getting TAG Restricted up and running. The begineer aspect takes out some of the parity issues as the winners are usually the most experienced drivers irrespective of engine. I did not believe that we would such a strong take up of Restricted 125 here in SA, mainly due to the cost of purchasing one, but clubman has dropped off and Restricted 125 has boomed. How is it in other areas?
We need to have some class decisions made.
My preference would be for a single engine for Midgets, Rookies and Juniors.
A club based class for club days that is non championship.
Then two or three senior classes of varying performance and engine freedoms.
The problem is what engines???? and how do you do this without loosing much of your membership base?
Junior Performance and Restricted 125 had been discussed for nearly 12 months before they where introduced. Junior Performance used to be a NSW based class for a while.
James True said: My first question/s Craig is/are .
What do you see the future of class development in AKA karting over the next say few years?.
There have been some new classes introduced lately ie Junior performance,Tag and 125 restricted as well.
Do you think this is a good move forward for karting or is this just a complication of classes?
Also who suggested,voted and approved these new classes?
Thanks
I had a huge long winded reply typed to this a couple of times and didnt post them as you have raised many points.
One of the biggest issues I have seen for 15 years is the role of the NKC delegate. Governance would have fixed this issue once and for all but unfortunately it did not evolve.
I have sat in meetings and had motivational speakers come in (Tasmania many years ago), and constitutional lawyers come in and tell us that we sit at the table to represent the sport on a National level not on a state level. I know this goes against the beliefs of some but it is not clear. Enough said as this debate will go on and on with good points for both cases. It needs to be clarified one way or the other.
Thanks for the reply Craig.
By your answer to my question , I sort of figured you believe that every class has a certain expiry date sooner or later.
Your Senior J from the nationals comments suprised me as they way people have spoken in the past,they wanted to exclude senior J racing from nationals but it was the AKA/ NKC that resisted it. Sounds like they were just reacting to the votes/opions they were gatting back to keep the classes in the nationals. Time will tell i'd expect.
I do agree with your other views on tag parity and the "one engine" for the midget/rookies /junior classes. Cost to go karting for the kids would lower a bit, not be as frustrating for parents wallets and encourage karts as more affordable and simple for the earlier karters.
On the other hand , I agree with you as its hard to think of an engine to discontinue without upsetting many people and the risk of a lot of dollars people have in engines they own.
For instance. What if they dropped the J ? I think there would be some very upset people,or dropping the ARC? would that have the same impact?
I can see now that its hard to change anything without the risk of losing karting memberships.
Its all not as simple as it seems without someone being upset i guess.
The Camera rule was introduced as a necessity due to the many different variations of mounting systems. If people did it sensibly no worries. I have seen some with e 400mm piece of angle iron mounted to the rear left hand bearing hanger. Great footage but pretty bad if you land on top of it.
I will be honest and say I am not aware of the current ruling as I would have to look it up and having been at the track today for a race meeting am about to go to bed. As you say the tech advisor could approve it. I thought this was the case but will have to look it up.
CD
Craig could we get a rule that allows camera's to be used if they are scrutineered first?
Craig Denton said:The Camera rule was introduced as a necessity due to the many different variations of mounting systems. If people did it sensibly no worries. I have seen some with e 400mm piece of angle iron mounted to the rear left hand bearing hanger. Great footage but pretty bad if you land on top of it.
I will be honest and say I am not aware of the current ruling as I would have to look it up and having been at the track today for a race meeting am about to go to bed. As you say the tech advisor could approve it. I thought this was the case but will have to look it up.
CD
We used a helmet camera at a Superkart event at Eastern Creek last year which was run under CAMS rules. We were flagged-in on the first lap. The officials spotted the helmet camera and ruled that we had made a modification to the helmet, which could result in the helmet not working as designed and approved.
CAMs acted very quickly and updated their manual and sent out an addendum the next day. It basically said that cameras could not be mounted on helmets.
One week later, the AKA went one step further and banned on-board cameras.