Dear Superkarter
On Monday morning the 20th July John Whitfield, Gary Pegararo & myself met with Ian Black of IKD (International Karting Distributors) the importer of the Rotax Max engines at their premises in Emu Plains. We ceased the opportunity given the Final round of the Nationals where both Gary & John were available in Sydney for the extra day.
Our primary objective was to establish some level of understanding surrounding the current changes with the Max engine thus enabling us (SWG) to put forward a discussion paper with a short term approach to the STR's & long term approach to the STR's that will see us through for years to come in the Max class, it was obvious after some hours of talking to Ian that the path forward for the Max class is in fact very clear in Superkarting. The SWG need to carefully establish a transition period from the "old" to the "new" with the least impact to the current racers & I believe this can be easily achieved in a window of 24 months, the changes will bring with them a much more level playing field to the current one.
Ian provided plenty of technical information both from Rotax & the AKA that clearly demonstrated the differences between the old & new is not as significant as some choose to advertise. Rotax claim the "new" will be equivalent to the better engines of the past which is contrary to information that I have been given. It was common knowledge that there are Rotax engines & then there are Rotax engines……those gaps by all accounts will be gone.
Personally for myself it was a very informative meeting given my limited understanding of the class, but it became clear very quickly that there is no mystery surrounding these engines & Rotax have taken a very proactive approach to the product on a world scale. It was also clear that following this last round of barrel changes we can expect many years of stability with components. I have observed that this has been a subject of elevated debate amongst Superkarters.
The show stopping moment for me was when we were told that Rotax offer on ALL new engines purchased a no questions asked 6 months warranty - never heard of an offer of that nature before on racing products.
In closing I would like to thank John Whitfield & Gary Pegararo for their considerable efforts in attending the meeting. As for myself - well it cost me the day but I'm a local. The meeting was very informative & will greatly assist the SWG at moving ahead in an otherwise very time consuming class given it's controlled nature.
Regards
John Pellicano Chairman Superkart Working Group.
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