I agree that bodywork has caused the problem in the first place, and I too raced in the 1980's when contact wasn't a problem.
I'd love to see a return to no nose cones, but it's not going to happen. The problem is, now it's here we have seen a gradual increase in the amount of deliberate contact, so there has to be some way to stop it. Blaming the officials is easy (I'm not one, but have managed a commercial Kart Circuit), and we have to accept that there will never be sufficient observers to enable consistent punishment of offenders. You can't exclude based on drivers evidence, and therefore need the officials to have actually witnessed the offence. With the best will in the world, this will only be possible some of the time and will also result in unfair exclusions from time to time. Karting doesn't have the luxury of video play back either, so it's one or two people trying to watch a lot of karts spread over several hundred meters of track.
A 'tell-tale' system is the solution, and I know Alanrr doesn't like what they've come up with, but the fact is that it's cheap, low tech and on balance works reasonably well. Clearly, like any rule, the competitors will find ways of circumventing them if they can to gain an advantage, it happens at all levels, and the governing body will react to close the loopholes when they can, but in the mean time, whether it's a poorly thought out solution or not, it can't be denied that there is less contact now.
I can't agree that the MSA are just writing rules to make their lives easier. Surely they are writing a new rule to close a loophole that allowed some chassis to have an advantage? Doesn't that make the competition fairer?
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