Controversial Karting Australia rules changed

Karting Australia along with Karting Victoria and Karting SA have made an adjustment to their controversial new entry requirement rules.

Initially the rules were designed to deny competitors from interstate to compete in all state-level, multi-round championships.

Here is a clear outlay of what this latest change to the rules means for you as a competitor.

Victoria

Any driver with a licence issued by Karting Victoria, Karting SA, or Karting Tasmania can now compete freely in Victoria.

South Australia

Any driver with a licence issued by Karting SA, Karting Victoria, or Karting NSW with a home track of Broken Hill Kart Club can now compete freely in South Australia.

New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia have not seen any changes to their rules.

Karting Australia’s latest press release outlines that this decision was heavily influenced by the South Australian State Karting Council.

“Since the release of the revised eligibility through State Regulations, Karting Australia has received feedback from some SA club representatives that the impact on SA karting was not a major concern to them.” read the announcement.

Speaking with Karting Australia COO Lee Hanatschek, it was confirmed that Karting SA as a whole was happy to open up and let its drivers compete across both Victoria and South Australia.

Hanatschek also noted that Karting SA was one of the major leaders in pushing for the original rules to be put in place as it has struggled for many years to achieve strong numbers at a local level.

Another excerpt from the Karting Australia press release states: “We have now been advised that the position of Karting SA is that we request that the restriction of SA competitors competing interstate be removed and allow them to compete in interstate series.

“We also request that restriction on interstate competitors being allowed to compete in South Australian series be removed.”

It is unclear as to what has prompted a change of heart from Karting SA but it could be backlash from competitors or even a desire to have have interstate drivers compete in the SA state series to bolster numbers.

Queenslanders are still the most affected by the changes as they currently do not have a state-wide, multi-round championship.

While there is a Northern Queensland Series, all the events are held around a 15-hour drive from the majority of Queensland’s karting community.

Hanatschek also expressed a desire to have a multi-round championship run in Queensland in the near future to close the gap in racing that competitors are currently facing.

Calls for these rules to be completely revoked have been strong throughout the karting community. It appears that these amendments will allow many competitors to now run in their desired series, there are still restrictions for much of the country.

With entries opening tomorrow at 10am for the Golden Power Series, it will be the first true test to see what the actual effect is on state-level championships.

To read the updated rules for yourself follow the link below

/https://www.karting.net.au/administration/rules/