This week’s blog was supposed to be about the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix. Sadly, though, there is very little to write about. It was just another race that fitted the pattern of the season: dominated by Mercedes, a distant third-place finisher, and faltering McLaren’s Fernando Alonso trying desperately to maintain a positive veneer, despite a third successive retirement (the first time that’s happened to him since driving for Minardi in his debut season in 2001).
You can read about boring races here, and what McLaren should do here.
So moving on, I thought that this week we’d talk a little bit about domestic motorsport in the UAE. When people hear the word “motorsport” they tend to think of car racing, rallying, and even motorbikes. This is all fine, after all when you’re spooling the TV channels desperate for something to watch, this is invariably what is being broadcast.
But have you ever thought about watching some live karting? No? Well why not? What if I told you it is the most popular and most accessible form of racing in the UAE? An what if I told you that it's happening in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah?
Last weekend, I was invited to Yas Island for the annual national karting series awards ceremony – the series is called the “United Arab Emirates Rotax MAX Challenge”, but that can be a bit of a mouthful, so “RMC” will do going forward). I know the series well, for six seasons I was Clerk of the Course (read: the poor chap who was always wrong). And I was genuinely surprised to see so many new faces – and even more surprised to see some old ones.
When I was first involved in the series back in 2008, there were less than 20 drivers aged between eight and 80 and spread across a handful of non-descript classes – the Monaco paddock it was not. However things have changed radically it seems.
This year, the series recorded its highest ever single-race attendance, with 93 drivers spread out over six classes and one sub-class. The biggest single class was around the 20 or so mark. That is a figure that puts a lot of prominent, and very-well established, European karting series to shame.
In fact such is the growing popularity of the UAE’s national karting series that several European manufacturers now have dealers selling their karts, equipment, and expertise right here, something that seven years ago would have been deemed “highly unlikely”. They even fly over special drivers to help shift their products… and it is working. The paddock on race day is awash with colourful awnings, fancy racesuits, and eloquent European accents.
If you are in to your motorsport and have never watched a proper kart race then I would advise you think about it. Watching 20 or so 120kp/h race karts all barrel into the first corner at the start of a race is a kind of racing that you won’t find on TV – in fact, have you ever seen 20 children barrel in to a first corner? The races are rarely processions like they are on late-night Eurosport.
When you think about it, karting is the perfect fit for live TV broadcast. Races are anywhere between 8-20 laps, and there are six or so classes racing 3-4 times each. All the circuits in the UAE are modern, the 2-3 minute turnaround between races would be ideal for adverts, all the karts have plenty of advertising space, and the race lengths are bite-size and new-viewer friendly. The series here even races around Yas Marina Circuit – well, part of it anyway.
If motorsport was selected for broadcast based purely on the closeness of the competition then karting would be the winner every time.
There are some that might say that karting is “amateur” and no one knows the drivers, so why would any broadcaster invest? Ok, but by that logic then junior car racing Formulas like F3 shouldn’t be on TV – I don’t know those drivers either, they’re just the public as far as I’m concerned.
Certainly, had some kart racing been on TV at the same time as Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, I know what I would have picked.
Of course, raising awareness of karting is going to require more than the written ramblings of the former Clerk of the Course. And while Rupert Murdoch is unlikely to be knocking on the series promoter’s front door any time soon, who is to say where the sport will be in five years’ time?
Maybe not on TV, but five years ago I remember people saying the series would be dead by now.
