How do drivers feel about this series?

I think it has potential to be an awesome championship similar to how successful the Euro Max Challenge has become. It provides drivers from all around the region compete against each other and at the end of it there are very attractive prizes for the championship winners (trip to the grand finals!).

This year it look like in the Seniors only about 6 drivers are going to compete in all 4 rounds of the championship - but at every round so far there has been close to or over 20 drivers on the grid - mainly because the rounds have all been held in conjunction with the local Rotax Challenges.

One thing I think might help to increase participant numbers is to introduce a similar points rule as what is used in the Euro Max Challenge where every driver drops their worst weekend (pre-final+final). This means that if a driver has a miserable weekend at the first round of the championship they are still likely to take part in the next one because they know they can drop the result. You can also miss a round completely and still remain well-placed in the championship standings.

This rule might also help for example if in the 2nd round Asia Challenge a local driver does well they might do the remaining two rounds of the challenge because they don't have to worry about not scoring points in the first round.

Of course there is still an advantage to taking part in all 4 rounds because if you do you are awarded 1 points for each pre-final and final you start (that's 8 extra points over a guy that didn't show up for one round).

Any other ideas for what might help more drivers take part in the championship?

Two big problems are cost and the timing. India and Indonesia were pretty close together so it was hard to do both.

So, it would be better if the races were spread out a bit more. It would also help if the local govening body took an interest so that everyone combined to take a couple of containers to bring down the cost.

Maybe one way to encourage that is to make the series a "nations cup" as well. So, each govening body chooses up to 4 drivers from each class - junior, senior, masters - in each round and the top 1 or 2 score points towards a nations award.

Hi John welcome to the website great to have you here!

That's all valuable input. I agree the events were real close together. This also prevented anyone being able to ship a container to either event - everything had to be by Air Cargo or carry-on.

Yeah I think adding a Nations cup is cool even if there are no prizes involved for it - and even if governing bodies don't get involved. It all just creates more interest for the drivers .

This is my 1st year watching the Rotax Challenge. To certain extend I agree that the schedule is very close especially India & Surabaya.Besides the costs, for the senior drivers they need to apply leave from work. For the Juniors they need to skip school. It will be even more difficult if the Junior drivers are sitting for their exams (PMR,SPM) that year and when they have mid year exam in June. So when the dates are too close it can become very difficult to some.

Maybe the organizer would consider spreading the events and to start the championship as early as possible and not to wait until March to start of the the year. Just my 2 cents...

Mikko,

there's a few good ideas going around in the forums. Have you thought about how we make sure the organisers get some proper feedback from this. I guess some of them will browse the forums but let's think about how we can structure feedback to them. Maybe we can chat next week at Sepang.

Yeah it would be good to have some kind of a system in place. We should have a chat about it with at least Paul David and James Leong.

There's a Malaysian motorbike forum that does something similar for the Malaysian Super Series in that sometimes ideas are brought up and then the comments are forwarded to the organisers basically to give them more information on competitors' thoughts when they make decisions on rule changes and category introductions for example.

Of course nothing will ever be officially decided on the forums - the intention is to channel ideas through which might then be able to influence changes for the better.

Hello all from Darwin, Australia - our club here in Darwin would like to become more involved in the Asian Series given our location and nearness to Asia. It would take us a whole lot less time and money to race in your series than to travel 3500 kilometres to southern Australia.

We would also very much like to explore the possibility of running a round of the series here in Darwin at our international standard karting track. You may wish to visit our web site www.dka.org.au to have a look.

I would very much like your thoughts on the above.

regards to our Asian Karting Colleagues,
Grant Hamon
President
Darwin Karting Association

Hi Grant,

Welcome to forum....

I believe I have been to your track before - just as a spectator in 2006. If I recall correctly, its part of a motorsports complex and your kart track is quite undulating and has plenty of character....

I am sure driving it would be a blast....did meet a nice chap whose son was running in a Lepoard. ( they were racing in SA the next weekend... )

Sorry, off topic guys but just wanting to be hospital to Aussie fellow karters.

Jules

Hey Grant,

Nice of you to join us. I have always thought that Australia should be considered part of Asia.

I'll love to run a series there. Sounds great. Australia has been known to have a level of competition close to the standard found in Europe. Massive karting market with huge potential. You guys even have you own V8 Car series.

Why don't you get a couple of drivers to race in Asia. Then it brings a bit of a bond and allows for everyone to known each other and maybe who knows, Maybe johnny tan will have the Asian Kart open to include aus too.

Hi Grant, as a racer it sounds like a great idea to have a round of the Asia Max championship in Darwin. The organiser of it is James Leong and he does browse the forum. Next time I see James I'll remind him to reply to you.

Hi Grant,

As the championship is inscribed now nobody on an Australian license can take part - the Zone doesn't include Australia. We have had a few Aussies travel from Australia to races here before such as Scott Auld and Barclay Holden -when the events were inscribed as international.

Thanks for the feedback - sounds like we should get a few of us to come up from Darwin and enjoy a bit of racing. Can anyone provide me with the organisers contact details please? Email and phone numbers if possible.

Any tips for making the travel and race entry arrangements "easier"?

We can get internaitonal drivers license's from the AKA - will this be enought to allow us to race in the challenge?

look forward to hearing from you all,

Grant

Contact Jame Leong - james@swisshutlessasiapac.com

As the promoter of the AMC series, I would like to say something to the forum.

I am aware of the dates for the rounds being very close as a result some drivers are inconvenienced. When I first started to get the dates done, I gave a 1-2 months in between the rounds. KB and India eventually came quite close because at the last minute, the Sultan of Kelantan had to go to the US for medical checkup. I had to push the date to May because they insisted on it.

Surabaya date was to be in August 26 but the Indonesian organiser wanted to run AKOC/AMC together. This was not acceptable to me and we decided that we use the Surabaya round as the AMC.

I also had problems on dates as India said they cannot come since some of the dates clashes with Formula BMW or other single seater race. This makes life very difficult for me as a promoter.

For 2008, I have already slotted provisional dates for all the 4 rounds of the AMC. This will be submitted to CIK before end October. I want to assure you that I have taken into considerations school holidays etc. As far as possible the dates will stand and I do not want to change them even if it clashes with any Formula BMW or other races. There will be a gap of at least 1-2 months between each rounds. This will give ample time for any container to leave Malaysia and come back in time for local races.

I want to make the series a success like the Euro Challenge and I need your support. Any feedback would be welcomed. I have been reading the comments in the forum and I will take positive steps to remedy the situation. You guys can help by submitting your entries early so that we can do our planning. I am doing this for you all not because of the money since there are none to be made anyway. I have said more often enough that it is the passion that is driving me to do this.

James Leong
Kartmore Racing Services

This is key - getting the calendar out nice and early and then sticking to it as much as possible. The Euro Challenge for example has also already announced their provisional 2008 calendar.