The thing is that there is a whole world of non-MSA karting going on which is so hard to count as it is not centrally controlled and 1974 it didn't exist. I have karted for 30 years as an adult (I started late at 30) and of those 30 years only 4 years were MSA and only then because the Owner series I was racing in converted to MSA from non-MSA. For the rest of the time I have race Club100 and Pro-kart endurance in various series/clubs - some of this has been owner karting and some with rented karts. I know hundreds of people who race non-MSA and very few who race MSA. Many and in fact probably most have earlier in their life race MSA and I know and have raced against multiple Super 1 champions of the past. They are still racing, just not MSA. The lap times may be slower (less power, less sticky tyres) but the quality of racing is as high and in cases higher than MSA racing with bigger grids and the depth of quality in the best non-MSA racing is higher given the spread of ages and multiple ex-champions in the same race. To have a 24 hour race settled on the last lap with the karts nose to tail over the last 30 minutes is incredible. If you are an adult and you work, you want karting to be fun, easy and less time consuming (having work and in many cases kids) so non-MSA and rental karting works better for adults. To get a real measure of karting participation between 1970's and now you have to include non-MSA and I would not be at all suprised if actually the numbers are higher (although I can not of course prove this as I don't have the data as it doesnt exist)
I don't think we can say non-MSA didn't exist in the 70s. Woodthorpe started in 1979 I am not 100% sure it was ever Motorsport UK. We don't have data for the period, so it's hard to say anything for certain. A few hundred extra IKR (and by that I mean not with Motorsport UK licence) drivers won't move the needle all that much either.
CLub 100 membership is around 500, probably pushing 700 with the Cadets and Juniors now. BPEC has regular grids of 40 with 3 drivers per kart. That's just 2 non-MSA series. British 24 hour had 70 karts on the grid with 5 or 6 drivers so that;s pushing 400 drivers in one event (obviously overlap with BPEC but its less than 50%. I'd put money on their being 2000 plus regular non-MSA drivers and that would at least double when you include people who do 2 or 3 races a year but don't want to do full championships due to cost/time. I really think that if you believe non-MSA doesnt move the needle relative to 4000 MSA licences then you severely underestimate the size of non-MSA racing in the UK
Club100 is MSA. I also specify I am talking about owner-driver. "The harsh reality is that adult karting, particularly owner-driver adult karting, is collapsing"
I know the size of IKR karting. The 'term' IKR originated on my website.
Club 100 is MSA now. It did not introduce the Clubman (now Kx) licence until the 2020 season, so no C100 drivers in the data in the annual report you use. As an aside, how can it be that Motorsport UK has no annual reports later than 2018 on it's website or are they hidden somewhere else.
Club100 also now has cadets, so demographically it's getting younger as well Also, I specifically exclude rental drivers from my analysis. This area I am not concerned with, nor has the rental scene ever been parituclar econom,ically and culturally active in the wider media space hence why I am concentrating on owner-driver.
Motorsport UK, have in their Revolution Magazine, spoken about KX licences and their numbers. They are relatively large in number and make Motorsport UK look good. I suspect there's your answer as to why the other numbers are harder to find.
Hi Great read. Just an alternative opinion the Daniel Ricciardo Series mentioned. DRS in my opinion remains the best national level series for people who want to travel amd experience different circuits. (Also gives expodure with all races streamed live. Something you talk about is exposure)
The ethos of an Engine and chassais matched with each other as well as tight restrictions on tyres and setup means its as fair as it can be for a national level series? Nearly everyone owning a DRS will also go down to there local race circuit just as we did.
If you go back to "Ayrton Sennas" era. Am guessing that didn't have teams like Fusion Motorsport with all the data and expense didnt exist. Just like the Premier League it seems Karting wen't more "professional" with the amount of money needed to compete at the top level.
DRS does address this and takes it back a notch as no teams allowed in DRS.
I used to race this series when it was Easykart. Grids were bigger in senior then. They are disappointingly small now but the karts are great, the multi tracks is good and it is a good series to enjoy racing in
Do you not think that the media around karting that was previously read and enjoyed by seniors who themselves raced needs to keep up with todays needs of adults in the karting community who increasingly are on the spanners for younger drivers, or simply paying the bills.
I myself have very limited kart racing experience, but am my son's mechanic. He is a cadet now and has won British titles. It has not been easy though, as there are very few sources of useful information to help parents who are new to the sport, or who want to better understand kart and engine setup - for me, that is what's needed and is severely lacking, and that surely presents opportunity...?
'How to' articles do not provide a good framework for a standard media entity. Media entities, successful ones especially, need stories and narratives. Kid racing does not provide that as there's no real high-stakes associated with it (from an outside perspective, it's highstakes for the kids and parents involved, I know). The lack of adults and focus on karting's 'stepping stone' status pretty much removes any meaning to these kind of investigations and articles. It simply isn't enough to sustain anything reliably.
Power Republic on YouTube also provides a lot of this evergreen material it should be noted.
The thing is that there is a whole world of non-MSA karting going on which is so hard to count as it is not centrally controlled and 1974 it didn't exist. I have karted for 30 years as an adult (I started late at 30) and of those 30 years only 4 years were MSA and only then because the Owner series I was racing in converted to MSA from non-MSA. For the rest of the time I have race Club100 and Pro-kart endurance in various series/clubs - some of this has been owner karting and some with rented karts. I know hundreds of people who race non-MSA and very few who race MSA. Many and in fact probably most have earlier in their life race MSA and I know and have raced against multiple Super 1 champions of the past. They are still racing, just not MSA. The lap times may be slower (less power, less sticky tyres) but the quality of racing is as high and in cases higher than MSA racing with bigger grids and the depth of quality in the best non-MSA racing is higher given the spread of ages and multiple ex-champions in the same race. To have a 24 hour race settled on the last lap with the karts nose to tail over the last 30 minutes is incredible. If you are an adult and you work, you want karting to be fun, easy and less time consuming (having work and in many cases kids) so non-MSA and rental karting works better for adults. To get a real measure of karting participation between 1970's and now you have to include non-MSA and I would not be at all suprised if actually the numbers are higher (although I can not of course prove this as I don't have the data as it doesnt exist)
I don't think we can say non-MSA didn't exist in the 70s. Woodthorpe started in 1979 I am not 100% sure it was ever Motorsport UK. We don't have data for the period, so it's hard to say anything for certain. A few hundred extra IKR (and by that I mean not with Motorsport UK licence) drivers won't move the needle all that much either.
CLub 100 membership is around 500, probably pushing 700 with the Cadets and Juniors now. BPEC has regular grids of 40 with 3 drivers per kart. That's just 2 non-MSA series. British 24 hour had 70 karts on the grid with 5 or 6 drivers so that;s pushing 400 drivers in one event (obviously overlap with BPEC but its less than 50%. I'd put money on their being 2000 plus regular non-MSA drivers and that would at least double when you include people who do 2 or 3 races a year but don't want to do full championships due to cost/time. I really think that if you believe non-MSA doesnt move the needle relative to 4000 MSA licences then you severely underestimate the size of non-MSA racing in the UK
Club100 is MSA. I also specify I am talking about owner-driver. "The harsh reality is that adult karting, particularly owner-driver adult karting, is collapsing"
I know the size of IKR karting. The 'term' IKR originated on my website.
Club 100 is MSA now. It did not introduce the Clubman (now Kx) licence until the 2020 season, so no C100 drivers in the data in the annual report you use. As an aside, how can it be that Motorsport UK has no annual reports later than 2018 on it's website or are they hidden somewhere else.
Club100 also now has cadets, so demographically it's getting younger as well Also, I specifically exclude rental drivers from my analysis. This area I am not concerned with, nor has the rental scene ever been parituclar econom,ically and culturally active in the wider media space hence why I am concentrating on owner-driver.
Motorsport UK, have in their Revolution Magazine, spoken about KX licences and their numbers. They are relatively large in number and make Motorsport UK look good. I suspect there's your answer as to why the other numbers are harder to find.
Hi Great read. Just an alternative opinion the Daniel Ricciardo Series mentioned. DRS in my opinion remains the best national level series for people who want to travel amd experience different circuits. (Also gives expodure with all races streamed live. Something you talk about is exposure)
The ethos of an Engine and chassais matched with each other as well as tight restrictions on tyres and setup means its as fair as it can be for a national level series? Nearly everyone owning a DRS will also go down to there local race circuit just as we did.
If you go back to "Ayrton Sennas" era. Am guessing that didn't have teams like Fusion Motorsport with all the data and expense didnt exist. Just like the Premier League it seems Karting wen't more "professional" with the amount of money needed to compete at the top level.
DRS does address this and takes it back a notch as no teams allowed in DRS.
I used to race this series when it was Easykart. Grids were bigger in senior then. They are disappointingly small now but the karts are great, the multi tracks is good and it is a good series to enjoy racing in
Do you not think that the media around karting that was previously read and enjoyed by seniors who themselves raced needs to keep up with todays needs of adults in the karting community who increasingly are on the spanners for younger drivers, or simply paying the bills.
I myself have very limited kart racing experience, but am my son's mechanic. He is a cadet now and has won British titles. It has not been easy though, as there are very few sources of useful information to help parents who are new to the sport, or who want to better understand kart and engine setup - for me, that is what's needed and is severely lacking, and that surely presents opportunity...?
'How to' articles do not provide a good framework for a standard media entity. Media entities, successful ones especially, need stories and narratives. Kid racing does not provide that as there's no real high-stakes associated with it (from an outside perspective, it's highstakes for the kids and parents involved, I know). The lack of adults and focus on karting's 'stepping stone' status pretty much removes any meaning to these kind of investigations and articles. It simply isn't enough to sustain anything reliably.
Power Republic on YouTube also provides a lot of this evergreen material it should be noted.
Spot on...i first raced in 1980 and the sport has changed beyond all recognition since then...and not for the better!