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It’s no secret that the numbers at our US Divisional races have not been what they used to recently. For a variety of reasons, kart counts at regional 4-cycle events have not been what they used to be. But let me be clear; everybody at CKNA is committed to doing everything possible to complete our entire schedule as planned and ensure everybody attending one of our races has a blast being there!
But since the kart counts are down right now, we want to make the most of it. The reason for this press release is to announce three changes we believe will help make for better racing, help kart counts and ultimately create a better overall experience at CKNA events.
New 2-day Divisional Format:
As our series has grown, so have the days. What used to feel like a quick weekend show has become a 3-day long marathon. We often hear from families who feel like they have to arrive on Thursday to get setup for the weekend. We want to get back to our roots and accommodate people that really just want to get as much track-time as possible, but not have to take 2+ days of work off to do it.
We will be testing a new 2-day Divisional Format at G&J Kartways for the North Season opener. Here’s how we envision it working:
- Saturday track activities begin at 10:00am
- 3 rounds of practice
- Qualifying
- 2 Heats
- Feature
- Sunday track activities begin at 9:00am
- 1 round of practice
- Qualifying
- 2 Heats
- Feature
We hope this change will allow people to avoid an extra day away from home, and potentially even two because there will be enough time in the morning to arrive early Saturday and skip Friday all together! Obviously, this will save racers and staff money on hotels too! We’ll gauge how people feel about the change at the conclusion of the event and see if we want to try the 2-day schedule more often.
A limited number of CKNA staff members will be onsite Friday evening to assist in parking, checking-in drivers, etc.. We’ll have gates and everything else ready to go early on Saturday, so day-of arrivals have plenty of time to get ready!
Since there is also no longer an official practice day, we will be crediting the practice fee back for anybody who already paid for Friday to their Race Select account. Racers whom only did the $100 deposit will simply have the practice fee removed.
CKNA Penalty Points System is being discontinued:
The CKNA Penalty Points System was designed to make sure that racers who repeatedly ran afoul of the rules received appropriate consequences, regardless of what division they received penalties in. It did this very well, but there have been some unintended consequences as well. “Penalty Anxiety” has become an unforeseen result of the system, Many drivers tell us that they are electing to skip Divisional races so they don’t impede on their chances of winning one of the National events. While we believed that dropping points for each race a competitor joined should have been enough to alleviate that issue, many people either thought it was too complicated or simply didn’t think that it was enough to make them feel secure in their standing going into a national event.
Ultimately, our goal has always been to foster the fairest and most competitive races we can. Not to penalize a driver that had a bad weekend or somebody who had a call or two not go their way for an entire season. Moving forward, our primary focus will be officiating the race underway. We are going to have a simple penalty enforcement policy that will be used at all CKNA events:
- Anybody receiving multiple contact or room to race infractions in a weekend may be subject to disqualification for THAT ENTIRE WEEKEND in that class.
- Anybody receiving a penalty rising to the level of unsportsmanlike conduct will be subject to disqualification for THAT ENTIRE WEEKEND in all classes.
- If a driver receives multiple disqualification from penalties over the course of a year, additional consequences including suspensions may be applied by the series directors based on the severity of the offences.
Ultimately what this does is allow every weekend to be it’s own event. It removes any games that could potentially be played between drivers and/or teams. It puts the responsibility back on us to officiate the races as accurately and fairly as possible and handle habitual offenders accordingly… which you have our commitment that we will do.
Video Review at Divisionals:
I believe that the addition of video penalty review has been a good thing for CKNA. It has allowed us to make sure that we are getting calls correct as often as possible. And although we are not to the point that every penalty can be video reviewed, we get closer to that each and every race.
We have a plan on how to get there, and we are working towards that. In the meantime, we want the video system to be available to our drivers and their parents as a learning tool whenever possible. So at Divisionals, the following changes are being made:
- Divisional requests for review are being reduced to $100. You will still only get one request per event. If you submit a review that overturns the call against you, you will be awarded one additional review.
- Any driver/parent may request to see the video from a penalty they received at no charge. However there will be conditions:
- You need to provide the official with all the relevant information (kart number, lap, turn). They will not have time to find that for you.
- The official review must prioritize the on-track action first. Their availability to offer this service will be dependent on what is occurring on the track. This means you may have to be patient while the video team does their jobs.
- The video official will not render any opinion on the incident. They will simply queue up the video and let you see what was recorded. Once you have seen it once or twice, the official must move onto their next responsibility.
- If you disagree with the call, you will still need to file an official request for review with the official so either they or the race director can render an official verdict. The same time limits currently in the CKNA rulebook will apply.
We hope by making these changes, we can add more transparency to the penalty process, and give drivers the ability to see what we are seeing to learn for the future. Our Divisional program is supposed to be focused on helping drivers develop in their motorsports journey, and we believe this will be a great step further towards that mission.