Editorial GIULIANO CIUCCI GIULIANI
Yes, so we’re fully into the current season, and with the rising temperatures, the European championship has also entered the crucial phase. The French track of Salbris hosted the first round of the 125 gearbox, while the second round of OK and OKJ took place in Great Britain. Both competitions are providing plenty of thrills, as forecast. Good. We can’t but rejoice for the great show the two championships are offering.
Not a marginal feature, nor one to take for granted, the show; one might say, races are always exciting. Not always. The promotion of karting functions in direct proportion to the captivating images transmitted by the competition on the race track. It can’t be otherwise, being an exclusively racing discipline. But the development and success of a category in terms of competition and performance do depend on the technical and sporting regulatory settings.
A race offers a great show for spectators and fans mostly because the proper pre-requisites have been created. Its promotion, its propaedeutic function and, especially, regulations whose scope is to appreciate, that is, enhance the value, of the discipline, thereby nurturing the interest and development of young talent. A condition, this, partly verified in the 80s / 90s. After a too-long parentheses, those pre-requisites have reappeared thanks to the validity of the engines. Because the 125 gearbox, the 125 “Original Karting” and the 125 TaG, with their numerous brand trophies, respond increasingly more to the demands of practitioners, including the Rental and Vintage sectors that, together, amount to an equally important following. So after many years of racing, and after a succession of policies not always relevant to the evolution of international karting, we have again come around, let us even say in a rather fortuitous fashion, to a credible configuration. To optimize these aspects it will still take some time … For now, though, I’d like to believe that a remedy to breach the obstacles opposing this much-coveted expansion and development will soon be reached.
