The blame shouldn´t necessarily been put on the clone engine itself, which was a great deal to run out of the box as it came...
Oh, I dunno...The engines were never built to be run "out of the box" to begin with (like the LO206.) The clone was simply another industrial replacement engine that was sold on the sole marketing platform of CHEAP. If the clone engine parts had any consistency at all, you wouldn't see all the hand-picking and sorting of "magically delicious" parts by engine builders, (something else that the LO206 addressed - ie you don't see guys hand-picking the better flowing heads -- they are all nearly identical on the bench!)
Racers will always be racers -- they will exploit every advantage in the rules they can find (engine or elsewhere.) If they can't work on the engines and spend money there, they WILL spend their money elsewhere in their racing budget (tires, ceramic bearings, etc.) You can't stop a racer from spending more money than the next guy, but you can take away the advantage of spending more on the engine (as has been seen over the last 5 years with the LO206.)
The LO206 will eventually overtake the "clone madness".
That's certainly one opinion and possibility (of which I'd sure like to see play out.) Not what I think will realistically happen though. My thought is that the clone will "self-implode" as I think we are already seeing. Once an importer specs out a new "improved" cylinder head/carb/crank/pick-a-part and has it imported, the demand for said part and price increases on the overall engine to remain competitive. This continual evolution of a completely blueprinted engine will start to cause "spin-off" stock engines (think Predator) that address the lack of cost control and ultimately lead to the clone's demise.
There was a tremendous surge in clone racing, when they were $99 and subject to tight regulation
Re: tight regulation...Was this EVER the case?
Personally, I think the largest failure of the clonies was a LACK of regulation from the very beginning -- something that Briggs really got right with their own set of rules from the very beginning of the LO206 program.
The 206 owes its existence to the clone, without the clone we might have never had the 206 as a sealed package. Now of course there is no way to stop the clone madness and nonsense.
I'm convinced the clone madness will stop alright. Well, maybe not rules changes, etc etc, but I think we are already seeing clone racers jumping off of the proverbial sinking ship. It will go the way of the West Bends, Macs, Piston Ports, Yamaha KTs, Tecumsehs, and many more. Karting has always embraced new engine packages and they seldom stick around as long as the venerable old flatheads.
It's quite amazing how much forethought went into the development of the Briggs Lo206 program. It addresses so many needs that karting needs for growth and stability that are so much lacking in the clone craze. It was not simply a knee-jerk reaction to lost sales to the Chinese.