Help. Creating Class Obsolete 206's

Local right and left turn closed course Sprint track in Central Mississippi run by a club with no money in a city park.
We have people who sign up for Senior adult 206 with a totally 2020 Briggs rule set compliant engine and CIK bodywork kart.
Those totally compliant people are going to follow the appropriate clutch drum and spark plug rules updates.
Those totally compliant people are going to keep up with future rules updates and stay compliant.
Those people are no problem.
The next set of people show up totally 206 compliant except for odd things:
They show up with first generation silver cable/silver seal engines, brand new disk clutches, mainly the original Champion spark plugs and either CIK or Gold Cup bodywork.
They will have legal mufflers and exhaust pipes. One of these non-compliants is the Club President's son. They see nothing wrong with what they are doing and say that making changes will cost the racer too much money. Makes no sense since drum clutches are cheaper than disk clutches.
OK, I am just the start/finish flagman but I have been asked for suggestions from other club members.
My suggestion was to put them all out on the track at the same time just like we have been doing but score the results in two separate classes and award two sets of awards.
1. What 2020 WKA class will a first generation silver cable/silver seal Local Option 206 engine running on pump gas legally fit in with a disk clutch and any sparkplug with everything else being a 206 rules compliant engine?
2. What could we call that class?
3. Would their combination of equipment fit in Gas Animal?
I am trying to come up with a solution to make all the people happy, keep people racing and build our participation.
 
Simply follow the 2020 LO206 rules but allow old seals and put everything else in an outlaw RWYB class with no prize. The outsiders will soon spring for a drum clutch and a spark plug.
 
Simply follow the 2020 LO206 rules but allow old seals and put everything else in an outlaw RWYB class with no prize. The outsiders will soon spring for a drum clutch and a spark plug.


Sounds reasonable enough to me.
These folks already have had a full year to comply with the seal rule.
If car counts are down enough to merit running them together, allow them another year - just be sure to comply with the rest of the 2020 rules.

Playing hardball with them probably won't win you any friends or keep your job at the track.

IF they truly want more performance, there are better ways. Pro-Gas and Animal come to mind.


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Brian Carlson
Carlson Racing Engines
Vector Cutz
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They adhere to all 2020 rules except the seal, if the bottom end is 7 years old and the seal is intact there is no advantage, unless perhaps it is some NOS that has never been run and any advantage in that case would be minor. If they place with incorrect parts and get teched they are excluded.
 
There will be no tech at this track because the club and no member that I know of have tech tools. Also, unless a qualified tech person just happens to be there on race day, nobody in the club is qualified in my opinion to tech. I won a WKA National Championship in 1994 building my own engines and doing my own machine work and I do not consider myself current enough to tech the 206. They have a protest system in place but if someone files a protest, I am wondering how they are going to tech and who is going to do it? Do they have a magic wand to wave over the engine? Do they say, "Magic Wand, tell me, tell me true. Does this engine comply with the 2020 Briggs LO206 Rule Set?". Me personally, if I was not a geezer and still racing, the first time I saw a disk clutch or a non-specified spark plug or a silver seal engine, I would be protesting just to try to achieve fairness by adhering to the published rule set. The Junior class is worse. A unrestricted clone mixed in with various 206 slides. I cannot begin to figure out what is going on in the Junior class. The thing is even with all this cat herding, the pits were full and the fences were full of happy spectators. The place has huge potential to grow the sport in our area.
 
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What kind of car counts are we talking in each class?
Maybe it's a case where they are embracing everyone just to get car counts back up again.
Once interest is back up in karting in the area, then they can start to divide and conquer with some rules enforcement.

Then again, if everyone's happy with the current situation, let them have their fun. If enough people want to stick to the rules, then they may want to create a class for it.

As for qualified tech - that's a serious concern nation-wide.
There is tech certification through AKRA and Lewis Stout. I have taught the LO206 portion over the last several years.
I'd be glad to help in any way that I can in instructing your tech men. You will need tools, regardless of who does tech.
 
What kind of car counts are we talking in each class?
Maybe it's a case where they are embracing everyone just to get car counts back up again.
Once interest is back up in karting in the area, then they can start to divide and conquer with some rules enforcement.

Then again, if everyone's happy with the current situation, let them have their fun. If enough people want to stick to the rules, then they may want to create a class for it.

As for qualified tech - that's a serious concern nation-wide.
There is tech certification through AKRA and Lewis Stout. I have taught the LO206 portion over the last several years.
I'd be glad to help in any way that I can in instructing your tech men. You will need tools, regardless of who does tech.
Brian, they are averaging 7 karts in both classes with occasionally up to 9 in the adult class. Those are good numbers for this area. I started volunteering in 2017 and the amount of people watching was phenomenal at the last race. I have never witnessed that large amount of spectators in proportion to that few number of karts. The totally compliant by all appearances winner of Senior 206, called me the day after the race and told me that he was not accustomed to dealing with crowds like that.
 
With only 7 karts in the class, I'd say that engine choice is hardly a concern (yet.) As new folks get into the sport, then they could be encouraged to purchase (legal) LO206 engines moving forward.
Until then, I'm guessing that the track is just happy to have karts show up (regardless of engine legality.)
While getting/paying a tech man to do tech may be on the radar, it isn't viable yet.

If the track is upfront about promoting the LO206 class, then current racers can upgrade and conform for next season.
It sounds like it is just a ""for fun" track at this point in time, but certainly has potential to grow to a legitimate race track if the numbers can increase. At that time, dividing classes may be an option.
Face it, no one wants to race against 2-3 other karts in a class. I'd rather run against someone with another engine (ie not legal) than race by myself.
Help the thing to grow and see what can become of a legit LO206 class in the future.
 
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