NKC Decisions: Clutches Delayed, Governance Approved

AKA press release

Members of the Australian Karting Association (AKA) will benefit from several decisions made by the National Karting Council (NKC) during its November conference held in Sydney last weekend.

Given the current economic climate, the members of the NKC have made the decision to delay the implementation of mandatory clutches for all National and Clubman classes until August 30, 2009.

AKA President Richard Erdmann believes the NKC’s decision is a rational one given the pressure being placed on the budgets of karters across the country at the current time.

“Karting is a sport which generally flourishes when the economic times are good and when the outlook doesn’t look so bright our sport can suffer,” said Erdmann.

“Given the current economic outlook, the NKC has made the decision to delay the mandatory implementation of clutches in the National and Clubman classes until August 30, 2009. This decision effectively provides the competitors in these categories a further nine months to prepare.”

For the past few years the NKC has discussed the possibility of the AKA moving towards a new structure in the form of Governance. Last weekend the Council made the final decision to move ahead with this process and the interim Board of Directors will be chosen early in 2009.

Following the selection of the interim Board of Directors in March, it is anticipated the first AKA Board of Directors will be voted in prior to June 30, 2009.

“Governance is something that has been bandied around for quite a few years, with a lot of work going on behind the scenes to get all the ‘ducks in a row’ so to say. I’m pleased to see that we are now moving forward with the final stages of this process,” said Erdmann.

“By having a Governance structure in place I believe that the AKA will become an even stronger entity and also be able to provide more value and enjoyable experiences for our members.”

Another key decision made at the weekend was in reference to the use of the Yamaha KT100J engine in the Midgets category. The NKC has monitored the difference between this engine and the Comer SW80 engine over the past few months. As a result of this monitoring, the current 13.5mm restrictor plate in the Yamaha engine will be replaced by a 13.0mm restrictor with an effective date of January 1, 2009. Drivers using a Yamaha engine will also have a minimum combined kart and driver weight of 100kg kilograms.

“It is important that we ensure the engines in the category remain within the spirit of the regulations, which is why we have made this slight alteration to the performance of the Yamaha engine,” said Erdmann.

“The intention of the Yamaha engine is for it to be a transitional engine for those competitors close to making the move into the Rookies category.”

The next NKC conference will be held during early 2009.

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