Should mention before I dig into this long post of a unstructured mess ( writing isn't my strong point.. ) that I HAVEN'T seen anything myself nor been told anything by anyone from Motorsport Ireland. So everything I've been told could be completely wrong! So don't go planning to race in Asia quite yet!
As I write this it's 15th November and currently we've no official word on the 2024 Motorsport Ireland Karting Calendar. That's nothing new from what I remember but supposedly a provisional calendar has been seen by some. On that calendar was 4 dates for MI Karting which if was to remain that way would be half the races that took place in 2022!
This has obviously caused a bit of mayhem within the Irish Karting community as plans are currently up in the air for many. The solution to stop this panic would be simply for MI to communicate with teams/drivers that it's - Not complete, Not true or hopefully not.. is true. I spoke to a individual who did try get an answer and was greeted with no answer at all. Actions like that obviously would worsen the situation! You would think if it was just provisional and more will be added at a later date that they would simply say that right?
The consequences of a small calendar are huge which goes through the whole industry from myself as a photographer to team owners. Many individuals invested in equipment from bigger awnings, trucks, etc which will pay itself off after numerous seasons. But now with a much smaller calendar it'll lead to drivers wanting to go abroad instead which is realistically being talked about as I type this. The UK is favorite for many but we've some looking at countries further away! Usually if an Irish team goes abroad it's to cater for a small number of drivers so the bigger trucks etc is left in Ireland. But what if a large amount want to race in the UK what do they do? Do you taken numerous ferries back and forward raising the costs? Leave it over there but then you can't look after the karts, engines etc as you'd be back in Ireland.. People switch to English teams which would lead to Irish teams closing down..
Remember Karting is where a lot of people start off and if enough people leave for abroad or just TKC, we'll loose the MI Kart Championship! The Irish karting season goes from 15 odd races ( excluding LKC, UKC etc ) for some teams to just 7/8. Not everyone races in TKC for whatever reasons so a 4 events is simply not worth it.
Lots of questions with no answers at the moment but lets hope we're all wrong and we've nothing to panic about. But if someone would just tell us something to calm everyone down that would be appreciated.
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