billmcfast
Site Supporter
From the Office of AKRA
2/25/2016
2/25/2016
This statement is in response to the most recent events and the heightened level of awareness for the need to implement more stringent safety measures. Because of a situation/accident that occurred this past weekend at a speedway dirt event in Georgia we are making the following statements. First and foremost we want to join with all racers in praying for a complete and speedy recovery for Andy Ward. We will certainly have the entire Ward family in our continued thoughts and prayers.
At this point it appears that the primary concern of the racers and the racing community is the need the slow our Junior drivers down, we at AKRA share in that concern. We have always supported our associated tracks in their efforts that pertain to safety issues at their facilities. With respect to the current class structures as to ages, weights, mandated small pipe with silencer, and size of required Restrictor plates for each applicable class we have always instructed our tracks to stand firm on these requirements. These requirements are the maximum requirements for each of these groups. We have never nor will we ever encourage our tracks to allow racers to move up to higher age bracket of competition as to their respective age group if they do not comply. However, we have always supported our tracks when they chose to impose more stringent restrictions on their racers if they felt the need to slow their racers down due to track conditions or track configuration. Again these class brackets are the minimum restrictions placed on each category. We have and will always encourage our tracks to impose additional restrictions on the racers when track conditions and track configurations mandate the need for the safety of their racers.
We will continue to monitor these concerns and implement appropriate regulations where and when needed. There are other areas beyond age and restrictor plates that need to be revisited, the number of classes in a given race day( kids don’t need to be racing at 3am), stricter control by race officials, better and more effective pre tech at events just to name a few. Below are two options that we would suggest utilizing in the interim to help insure the safety of your Junior/All drivers while we review any needed changes for the future.
Option One:
The Jr. 3 class should run the Purple Plate (the current Jr.2 plate). (.500”)
The Jr. 2 class should run the Green Plate (the current Jr. 1 plate). (.425”)
The Jr. 1 class should run the Red Plate. (.375”)
Option Two:
Implement gear rules in the classes to give additional control over the speed of the kart and driver.
Respectively,
Bill McCutcheon
AKRA, Inc
