New Rules - Drop Down Bumpers

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First round Whilton Mill 2016
WMKC decided to go with the new drop down bumpers from the beginning of the season to make it a consistent championship, which was probably a reasonable idea.
The new bumpers and way in which the rules have been interpreted are a problem I think.
Here is what we found.

1. The bumper clamps are crucial and actually the OTK ones are not man enough for the job. You need the CIK clamps to go with the extension mounts. These hold the mounts significantly harder than the OTK clamps.
2. If the bumper clamping bars had moved at all, even a millimetre then you received a 10 place penalty. This is not what rules state. Ref http://www.cikfia.com/fileadmin/content/REGULATIONS/Technical/Updates/2015/Bulletin_40_RT_Full.pdf  To get a penalty the bars should be in the divot area A.
3. We received a penalty for having a bumper pushed back by 2mm on one side after clipping a curb. As he was on his own for the entire race and I saw him clip the curb (it was wet so using lots of curb)
4. We received a penalty on the roll up lap before the race had even started, after the kart formed in close formation on the last one corner and the kart in front brake tested everyone behind, which knocked down the 3 karts behind.
5. Drivers were stopping to try and kick out the partly moved bumpers. This caused multiple pile ups in the pit lane.

​Conclusions:
I’ll be taking the CIK rules with me and arguing the point in the next round. However, as I suspected Brake testing is going to be a HUGE issue. On the rolling up lap they should treat anyone with a bumper down as a false start for the first time. If they see anyone brake testing they should be in the steward’s office with a very good excuse for not be excluded from the race.
The whole it’s moved a bit issue and consequently trying to kick the bumper back fully has to stop. It’s dangerous, so MSA must enforce the rules as the CIK have written them, if it’s down in Area A there is no hope of kicking it back in, so that should stop that. However, clubs need to monitor the pit lane entrance for anyone attempting dangerous things like that and anyone caught should get excluded.

The MSA statement (you can read at:- 
 https://www.msauk.org/assets/cikfrontfairings2016.pdf )
does refer to the 2d drawiung "With effect from 1 March 2016 a 10 place penalty (subject to Motor Sports Council confirmation) will be automatically applied should a kart return to parc fermé with the front fairing mounting kit in the ‘detached’ position (CIK-FIA Drawing 2d)." So the clubs and marshals need to get this right and that might help a lot. 

There was less silly driving but still some drivers intent on side by side ramming and this was, as usual, not seen by the officials. They really need to get more feedback from the marshals on track.

Am I a fan… No/Maybe, I am yet to be convinced. We were robbed of heat a win and a heat 3rd which put my son to 9th in the final. The fact he raced cleanly back to 2nd could be a good sign, but I am not convinced.