"honda is the entry lrevel class for 8 yo and should be run as a low profile club class without any national championships"
Sorry, to an extent that is rubbish. There's a national championship for the clubman type of entry, it's called the NKRA. It's recognised as a national championship by the MSA, who give it a championship licence.
There's even a regional clubman championship in the north with the NKF.
The problem is that there are parents who are seduced by the tales that the only championship is the expensive one, and that coming last in that is somehow better than coming in the top 10 in one of the others.
Talent has a certain amount to do with winning, but talent can only get you so far, particularly at the cadet and junior stage.
Track craft, tuition, equipment and race time gives a huge advantage to the man with the money.
I am not talking about multi-thousand pound motors and a new kart every heat, but the simple ability to spend the time at the track to get it right.
How many of us can spend a day at the track and use up one or two sets of tyres, with detailed data logging equipment to experiment with different lines and different braking points for just one corner? How many of us go to the track with enough people in the team so that while the driver is de-briefing to the coach, someone else is downloading the results to the PC and analysing them while someone else is checking and refuelling the kart, making any changes, different carb, different engine, different tyre pressures etc and logging it all down.
How many of us have wished, at the end of a long, wet,day, that someone else could put the kart away, (and have it ready for tomorrow, cleaned and prepared) and roll up the tent.
And to do it every weekend and a midweek too.
It's the difference between being able to repeat laps in traffic to the tenth and being able to repeat laps in traffic to the hundredth of a second. At an average 60mph, that's an 8 foot advantage per lap, enough to position oneself for the overtake.
And if you don't have that budget, then race in the clubmen's championships. When you are winning those, then maybe the time to see if talent can outperform budget.
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