Talk is that there will be no 85cc cadet category next year, but that it will be replaced by a 60cc category!

I think if this goes through it will be great. At the moment we don't have enough drivers to support both 60cc and 85cc cadets so having only one category is the right choice - and maybe add a minimax category for the older cadet drivers if there is interest.

I think the 85cc category is not the right place for drivers to start in because it is just far too fast. They run on big grippy tyres. It's just not the right way for kids to learn how to drive. With the 60cc karts the tyres will be narrow and low grip and will last hundreds of laps and you don't even need to buy rain tyres because the slicks are used in the rain as well!

What do the drivers and the parents of cadet drivers think?

i raced in shah-alam last year in the asian championship. the 85cc was a side event. the 60cc tag engines are ok, and easier to maintain with a longer lifespan. but they run as fast as the 85cc comers. if that is what you will use, then it's a good change. however, if you're gonna use the comer S60 and W60's, then they're no different from the 85cc, except slower. by the way, i'm from the philippines, 11 years old and competing in the miniRok class in manila and in thailand. i also competed in last year's rok world finals in south garda, italy. if you use the vortex engines, that's the bonus. you win the series and you go to italy! congrats on your forum and i hope we can again race there as part of the asian championships.

Hi franco thanks for the reply and welcome to the forums!

Yeah they are looking at going onto the Comer 60 engines. Reason is that as the 85cc karts are a bit too fast for a new 8-12 year old driver, especially with the relatively soft tyres being run. If the interest is there then I guess the 85cc category could be maintained for those that feel the 60's are too slow (maybe allow other tag-cadet engines as well?).

hey everyone.

I agree that the 85 with medium or soft tires is too fast a cat to start in for young kids. Another thing that comes up then though is if the jump from comer 60 to junior is too big so i guess it depends on the interest. 60 with narrow low grip tires is good to learn driving in.

Hi Guys,

I've just started my daughter (7 yrs old) on the cadet cards at CK, Shah Alam. Normally, I will follow behind in an 80cc and even then she can pull away from me on the straight! I think anything more powerful would not benefit her as far as developing her driving skills and technique.

Yeah they really do move especially when they are race-spec! It's not really a problem for the 11 year old kids that have been racing for 2 years - but it is a problem for the kids that are driving a kart for the first time and during their first year. You learn so much more and better with less power and lower grip.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know of anywhere in the Klang Valley that offers training for cadets?

That's a bit of a toughie. I think all kart shops will offer coaching if you ask them the question then is how good is the coaching?

One of the guys that I see at the track coaching young kids pretty often is Razman. Unfortunately there has been a real lack of cadet drivers here over the past few years but this year it has finally started to look promising again. And with prize money/tyres next year for cadets it should only get stronger!

I think with cadets it's particularly important to have a bit of good guidance when they are starting out - of course the no.1 priority is for the kids to have fun while learning to drive. If for any reason they aren't really enjoying it they stop paying attention on the track. Little kids' attention spans are really short as well so training sessions should be kept to a few hours max for most kids.

Since I am still relatively new to karting I am scared to start giving the wrong advice to my daughter.

Fortunately she is full of enthusiasm and I have trouble trying to keep her off the track. Despite a few scary moments on her first time out alone, feet only just reaching the pedals and quite a high speed crash into the tyres she keeps asking for more!

With this level of enthusiasm I'd ideally like to find out how she can best develop her skills.

Razman does offer coaching for cadets, You can contact him on 012 2100069

hi guys, you might want to consider the baby rok engine. it's actually the same engine as the mini rok but fitted with a smaller carburettor. it runs slower than the minirok and 85cc, which should be good for training. and after learning the ropes, just change the carb and you've got a faster engine ready for the next level. cheaper for the dads, as my dad would say, karting is getting very expensive. happy karting!

if i have a daughter, im hiding her from Razman.

Yeah that's an option - right now though Malaysia has hardly any Rok engines - but a lot of rotax max engines (lots of used ones too). The micro-max should be similar in performance to the baby rok I think.

I thought malaysia got ROK competitions so shld have a constant supply of ROK engines?

PS: im relatively new to karting and the karting scene.

The ROK-cup was held in Malaysia for the first time last year, and we had 5 rounds to the championship.

The problem was that the organisation of the events wasn't very good. For example we had 5 rounds(last 2 rounds in one weekend) - and we ran on 4 different makes of tyres during the series sometimes only finding out what tyres we would be using a day before the event. I don't think there were ever more than about 6 drivers on a Senior-ROK... similar for the Juniors(they allowed Rotax and other engines to take part so grids were okish). Also for example minumum weight-regulations for Senior-ROK were changed mid-season without asking competitors about it (not very difficult to call up 6 guys). I did the full championship last year.

This year they were supposed to be running the series again but it has been postponed two or three times without any official word as to why which has dropped the confidence of competitors in the series even further.

Other than the opening round there was no mini-rok category (I think).

hence = not very many Rok engines here.