i absolutely agree with this, and its been on my mind also. good work getting in contact with uk cyclekarts and getting the information required to take things further.
i might also add, the cyclekarts will need some degree of scrutineering. i also think if a rear diff is used, a brake rotor must be installed on both sides to ensure it will stop. id hate to smash into someone all because one wheel didnt quite have enough grip, and therefore no brakes. i know simplicity is key, but so is safety, and i didnt incorporate crumple zones in my design
might help with insurance also if they know we are actively scrutineering the vehicles

Yes scrutineering is included at part of the event organisation along with a drivers safety meeting. Simple stuff but easy to manage and helps keep things safe. Nothing different there to what happens in any other motorsport really. No need to reinvent the wheel.

You can take a flick through the draft guidelines HERE if you are interested

Must admit I've struck a brick wall with the insurance but I do have some additional companies to contact direct (courtesy of Shannons.). The broker that I originally contacted had a knock-back from every single one of their insurers.




These are all specialist events insurers too. In all honesty after the first few knockbacks I was not surprised.

The other option that I was considering was affiliation with Motorsport Australia but after talking to them I don't think that this is viable either. Affiliation costs about $500 / year from the club. So that's not too much of a barrier, but to be able to take advantage of their insurance, every participant in an event needs to have an MSA 'Speed' license. This is $160 per year, which I think pushes the cost outside of what a casual Cyclekarter might want to pay. This is the same license required for any type of motorsport, simply because the racing is head-to-head. There is unfortunately no lesser / cheaper license available.

Whats more is that there is still a $5000 excess, which is payable on any claim so the club would need to have provision to cover this in case a claim was made. The net result is more cost for club members, which is not a good starting point for what might amount to one or two major events a year.

Things are a little different for say a monthly meet for a local branch of the club as it can be classified as a test-and-tune type event. In this case a different slightly cheaper license is needed but that is still about $130, plus the excess then goes up to $10,000. Quite how a local club of maybe half a dozen members can cover such as cost is beyond me. MSA is simply not geared up to cover this kind of sport at this kind of level.

What I really want to try and get in place is a policy that will cover lcoal monthly meets and the occasional larger event for a cost that can be easily covered by a small clubs membership dues without needing to raid the bank. Even if that meant that insurance for the larger events needed to be treated separately. But I suspect that it might be a long journey to get there.