Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Kitson
The BARC blame the costs of F1 for driving everything up in price. I see it as the other way around. When some parents are spending six figures on little Johnny's go-karting season, huge unecessary motorhomes, dataloggers, new tyres every five minutes and everything else, something is seriously wrong. The karters then move up into 'bigger & better' cars, naturally expecting it to be more professional, the teams oblige and costs spiral..the higher the move up the ladder the more expensive it gets. Similarly FF chose to go to slicks, to satisfy the karters that move up. In the 70s very few FF drivers did karts first...a trip to Jim Russell or Brands racing school was enough to get them started. Karting and the roots is where the expensive over the top professionalisation has come from.
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You have hit on something there but I still think it is the F1 effect that trickled down which has made karting more professional.
F1 has advanced considerably in the last 30 years from the "garagista" era that the likes of Ken Tyrell were were still hanging onto as recently as the late 80's.
We beagan karting in the late 90's and there were a couple of big teams such as O'Neil & Zip Young Guns with a presence the paddock but there was still a high percentage of dad & lad operations with a van or even estate car & an easy up even at Super One level.
Now you go the average clubbie kart meeting and the big teams are very much in evidence even there and cater for most of the drivers. I suppose its just reflective of the eveolution of the sport throughout and very little grass roots racing is actually a grass operation anymore.
But this situation isn't just unique to motorsport, sport in general is just far more professional and business like these days (not something I personally necassarily welcome)