2nd September 2014

KARTING IDENTITIES SHOW SUPPORT FOR REVIEW OUTCOMES (full quotes)

Bart Price – General Manager, DPE Kart Technology
“On an overall basis the Whole of Sport Review is really good, we’ve now got some good direction for our sport.
“Since the report was released I’ve probably fielded more than 100 calls from our dealers to discuss various aspects of it.
“In all of my time of being involved in the sport and the industry – and speaking with George (Turton) and Drew (Price) who’ve been around longer than me – we’ve never seen something so comprehensive and professional be presented to the karting industry.
“To have covered so many different areas of the sport in one go is probably a lot for people to swallow, but at the same time I think its what had to be done.
“Probably what the Board has done is created clarity, you can now see how the karting calendar can be formed and I really like the fact that we’re talking Championships rather than one-off. It will bring out the fact that a driver’s decisions on the track will affect the Championship rather than a risky last lap move to decide a Championship.
“In terms of the engine decisions, it was an absolute must to chose new engines. I feel as though they’ve picked the best two kart engine manufacturers in the world. These engines will now be produced with the most up to date technology, which will result in the best parity between engines that Australian karting has ever seen.
“I’m very excited about the future for our sport and the potential that can come following the implementation of the plans that are contained within the report.”

Troy Hunt – Multiple-time Australian Champion, proprietor Top Gun Racing Academy
“My general view is that going forward, it is the best thing for the sport. Every customer I’ve spoken to from Club through to the top level can see how it is going to make it easier for newcomers and help grow the sport.
“Its a lot easier for me when advising people what direction to take, there’s clear pathways on what you want to get out of it. To me there’s four clear customer bases now and a clear structure where to compete for what you want to get out of the sport.
“With the implementation of the new engines, the parity will be a lot closer and people of all levels can now be confident knowing that they’ve got exactly the same equipment as their competitors.
“If I could pinpoint one thing that I was most impressed and excited about, it was the detail of the entire report, the depth that the review went into was surprising for most – but a good surprise.”

Ian Black – Managing Director, International Karting Distributors
“I believe a review of this nature for our sport has been long overdue and following its release we will have a much brighter future.
“Every sport we compete against has experienced Sports Administrators steering the ship, we’ve really struggled in that area in the past. This is probably the first time we’ve had ‘real’ management of our sport.
“If everybody looks at it from their individual position, some could say that it doesn’t suit them personally, but if you look at the overall sport I think we’ll all be better off.
“I can genuinely only pick one or two things from the entire report, but they are basically things that can be worked out in the final details rather than the overall plan.
“It is important that we all get behind the changes and make them happen. Over the years this sport has been so negative, now we’ve got strong leadership and a clear direction it’s time to be positive about the future.”

William Yarwood – Multiple-time Australian Champion, proprietor Project X Racing
“I’m not impressed easily and I can genuinely say that I was blown away by how impressed I was by the Whole of Sport Review report.
“I’ve been involved in this sport for my entire life and have never seen anything that comes close to the detail that was put into this review.
“The new engines that are coming in are fantastic, I now know that when I sell an engine to a customer that I can look them in the face and honestly say that I have sold them something they can be competitive in once they learn their racecraft.
“Certainly, there are some things that I think need to be fine tuned when the final rules come out, but overall the principles contained within the report are really, really good.”

Les May – Managing Director, Dunlop Kartsport
“It is a definitive, positive step forward.
“Something that we have all been asking for, or saying that has been lacking in the sport. I don’t think it’s 100% right, but the basis that is there is a huge step forward for the sport.
“It’s a well put together document, I can’t ever recall 100 pages of effort going into investigating what the sport needs. I’ve read the document 3 1/2 times. I think all three times I have had a different perspective, some items are clear and plain as day. The half that I have read again are things I have read that directly affect our business so I really wanted to get it clear in my head.
“All of the engines are a huge step forward for the sport.
“We have been indoctrinated with the ‘AKA’ way of thinking for a long, long time, in my case for 32 years, and it’s been difficult to see that there is another way. Now that we’ve got Karting Australia, and a clear leadership in the form of the Board of Directors, everyone needs to park the old method of doing things. We needed change and now there is change.
“It’s a modern platform, there will be some hurt, but for the little bit of hurt there will be a lot of gain. If people can focus on the positive it will certainly help.”

Remo Luciani – Managing Director, Remo Racing
“From a general point of view, there is change, which is what we needed as a sport. The Board have implemented change and we should all give it a go before we criticise it.
“People have been asking for change in our sport for many years and now finally we’ve got some change that I feel is going to be very good for our sport.
“In general, people know that IAME is one of the world’s leading kart engine manufacturers and have been quite pleased with our ability of servicing the engine for Australian customers in the past.
“The IAME engine is made up of new componentry and the production process of the engines will begin next week when the European factories return from their summer break.
“I keep hearing that there will only be 100 engines available, that is very different to the truth, pre-orders are around the 100 number at the moment. The first shipment is expected to arrive in Australia late November.
“IAME have the capacity to build 600 engines per month if the demand warrants it and by the end of January I’d expect that we’d have around 1,000 engines in the country.”

Shayne Piper – Two-time Australian Karting Champion, Proprietor, Shayne Pipe Race Engines
“The new engines are definitely the best thing to happen to our sport for a long time. With the Yamaha engines, it has always been extremely hard to provide my customers with engines that provide the same levels of performance.
“These engines we have been using were designed in the 1970s and technology has clearly improved over this time. I believe now is a good time for karting in Australia to move to an engine that will provide my customers, and all competitors for that matter, with a fair and even chance of performing well and an even chance of winning.
“All the other proposed changes within the review, I see as very positive and provides some good direction in many important areas of our sport. However, I personally believe there could be too much too soon for all our karting community, we may need to think about staggering some of these changes for sure, the new engines are fantastic and the implementation of these need to be our priority.“

Troy Farley – Proprietor, Troy Farley Race Engines
“I love that our sport is taking a new turn of events, the Board is taking the ‘Bull by the horns’ and leading the way.
“There are some of the concepts that I believe need to be worked through in the coming months, but from an overall perspective the report is very good.
“We have needed something like this in our sport for a long time, we’ve all been crying out for a professional approach. We now have some strong leadership in our sport for the first time since I’ve been involved and I believe it is a great thing.
“We’ve openly spoken to many of our customers about the report and it has been largely well accepted across a variety of levels, there has been a number of questions but overall when you dissect it, there’s some really good concepts in there.
“From the engine perspective, we’re excited. For far too long we’ve had the Dad asking for us to build an engine that is fast as his competitors but sometimes that just wasn’t possible. Now we’re working with a very even base of parity we can honestly give them.”