The distribution of BRP-Rotax karting engines will change hands on May 1 after a swift move from the Austrian parent company to rescind RaceMax’s distributorship, with previous distributor, IKD accepting the approach to bring the engines back under its umbrella – as announced in Europe Friday morning.
It will sure up the future of the brand’s racing activities in Australia along with strengthening ties between Rotax, IKD and Australia’s governing body of kart racing, Karting Australia.
IKD took over the distributorship in 2008 from foundation importer, Drew Price Engineering (as it was known) and in 2009 launched the wildly successful Rotax Pro Tour concept. 2020 saw Rotax karting engines’ distribution moving to the long-standing New Zealand importer, Richard Bethune – under the banner of RaceMax.
RaceMax carried on with the Pro Tour concept, however fell out of favour with Karting Australia, choosing instead to run several events under the rebel Karting NSW banner with limited success. In today’s announcement from Rotax head office, Bethune claimed the Australian market was ‘extraordinarily difficult to serve and develop’.
“We have found that the efforts to serve and develop the market of Australia for Rotax are extraordinarily difficult. With IKD having a well-established network already in place and the willingness of Ian Black (IKD Managing Director) to take on this challenge, the deal for the transfer has been finalised,” he said.
Only last year were tentative bridges re-built between RaceMax and the governing body – and Australia fielded a depleted field – compared to years gone by – by numbers not talent – of five at the Rotax Max Grand Final Challenge in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
IKD’s (International Karting Distributors) Ian Black tells Speedcafe.com that it is a warm feeling to welcome Rotax back to his Emu Plains-based facility after an unexpected call from Helmut Voglsam, the head of karting for the BRP conglomerate – led to multiple discussions between the manufacturer, IKD and Karting Australia.
“When (our contract) was coming to an end in 2020 and Rotax was going to be taken over by another company, Helmut – and Rotax – tried very hard to keep us in the family and that meant a lot. He’s a great guy and we’ve always had a close relationship,” Black explained.
“I’m glad to be part of the Rotax family,” Black added. “(Since we started our Rotax journey), the brand has always been in my heart and we probably should never have left to be honest, but we’re back, they’ve welcomed us back – and – that’s enough for me.”
Through the four years since the change, competitor and Rotax user numbers in categories that are open to the 125cc water-cooled model, such as the TaG and TaG Restricted, have dwindled significantly, with DD2, junior and sub-junior competition effectively non-existent in the Australian market.
An immediate goal for IKD is to re-build confidence among the karting community across dealers and competitors, ensuring engine and spare part supply are up to the standards dealers came to expect over the 12 year period the company previously held the rights to distribute Rotax product.
Black added that, right now, there is no plan to re-invigorate the Rotax Pro Tour, however, deep and open discussions will take place with Karting Australia on how the brand and its various levels – from sub-Junior, Junior to Senior and Masters – can best fit the current Australian karting ecosystem, while also working with BRP-Rotax to generate opportunities (in line with market capitalisation) for Australians to race at the World Grand Finals in years to come.
IKD confirmed that the ‘brains trust’ that was behind IKD’s previous life with Rotax continues, with Donald Stevens as General Manager and no change to the staff that competitors had become familiar with.
The Rotax kart engine brand comes under the BRP (Bombardier Recreational Products) umbrella, which creates leisure and industrial equipment as diverse as Evinrude outboard motors, Ski-Do jetskis, Can-Am ATVs, snowmobiles, Aircraft, Defence and in Australia, the Gold Coast G:Link Trams are Bombardier products.
The welcoming back of Rotax engines adds to IKD’s acquisitions over recent months. It was announced in December the company would take over a newly formed ‘Master Distributor’ model of all OTK chassis brands – which includes the famous Tony Kart and the karts bearing the name of Formula 1 stars, Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz.
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