We’re always striving to make our events better. Over the years, we have adjusted scheduling, classes and rules to provide safer and more enjoyable events but have never really tweaked our optional Friday practices.
We received numerous requests throughout 2019 to become more involved with running and enforcing our rules on Friday practices. Parents expressed to us that unsafe driving was taking place as well as people practicing out of class.
The effect of all this is that people who had a negative experience on Friday had the tone set for a bad weekend all around. Nobody wants to bend an axle on a practice day, and rightfully so. We saw things happen a few times towards the end of the year, and started trying to figure out how to fix it.
The solution was simple really. We have made the decision to have CKNA staff members on-site in an official capacity on Friday as well as the entire weekend. It is not reasonable for us to expect a track’s local race crew to officiate by our rules when they are not accustomed to them. Members of our crew will now be there to make sure that everybody is still playing by the rules on and off the track, as well as being safe and cordial to their fellow competitors. They will also be responsible for adjusting practice orders or making any determinations if a driver needs to be penalized
As you will see in the CKNA 2020 rules in the coming few days, we will be adding specific previsions for CKNA track officials to issue penalties to a driver for violating any safety or conduct rules during Friday practice sessions . These penalties will be enforceable on any day of the event including race days.
The additional benefit is that our staff can also make sure that everything is ready to go much earlier in the weekend. Simple things that the tracks often times don’t have the staff to worry about like checking the timing system or opening the scales can now be taken care of much earlier in the weekend. As we go through the season, we also hope to have the ability to distribute tires much earlier for those of you that choose to buy their tires through the series.
Adding additional staff also adds to our costs. Whomever we ask to be at the track on a given Friday will have to take an extra day off of their jobs and stay an extra night in the hotel. To cover this cost, we have made the decision to increase the cost of practice on Friday from $25 to $40. We weighed this decision heavily, but decided the importance of everybody’s safety justified it. And as this is the first price increase we have had to do in a few years, we hope that all of our racers will understand.
