Richard Walker-Talbot, the Bermuda Karting Club technical director, believes that his club’s members will reap the benefits of a revised domestic class structure.

The association has opted to go with five classes for the new season, which could be extended to six, depending on feedback from a proposal to introduce a new stock shifter class for senior drivers.

The classes to be contested include Junior Cadet for drivers 7 to 12, Junior TAG for drivers 12 to 15, Junior Clone for intermediate drivers and TAG Senior and Shifter for drivers 16 and older.

The Junior Clone class is to be discontinued at the end of the season.

The revised class structure has been adopted from North American prototypes.

“We now have the same rule structure as they do so,” Walker-Talbot said. “The way the structure runs in the United States is the same way and that’s what we are building on.

“We are building on having a tier structure that once you get to the TAGS and Shifters you can go to the States and race with them.

“We want to try to do a tier programme that starts at the bottom with the youngest age and if you focus on everyone running those classes you have more numbers.”

Walker-Talbot, who previously raced in the United States for Walktall Racing Team, said that the response to the proposed stock shifter or Skusa G1 class had been encouraging.

“The response has been verbally good and we are waiting to see how many people are going to buy their karts and engines,” he added.

“Being stock everyone competing has the same engines with no modifications, which makes for more competitive racing.

“Everyone is basically the same and the only real difference is going to be the chassis.”

The domestic karting season started at Southside on September 14.

“For the first race we had 12 cars in TAG, four in the Shifters, six in TAG Juniors and four in Cadets which is good for the first race,” Walker-Talbot said.

“Most people are not ready for the first race, so I am very encouraged by the turnout we had.”

The season schedule includes 16 race days, with drivers required to compete in a minimum of 11 to qualify for the championship in each division after discarding their worst two results.

Four dates have been set aside as trophy days which do not count towards the overall championship, while the Dockyard Grand Prix, originally scheduled for November 1 and 2, will now be held next March instead.

Walker-Talbot hopes to see the local karting race calendar feature more street races, which have proven to be extremely popular among supporters.

“We need more street races because that’s what brings the crowd out,” he said. “The more street races, the better. Dockyard was great and Hamilton even better.

“Hopefully we can build upon our structure as far as street races go and have racers come down from the United States to challenge us and in turn we can go there to compete as well.

“Hopefully in the future we can have an international race between Bermuda and the United States.”

Karting resumes at Southside on Sunday, beginning at 11am. Admission for the event is free.