BKA and BMF combine to launch new karting class

The Barbados Karting Association (BKA) is to introduce a new category for the 2025 season with an innovative ‘arrive and drive’ scheme organised in association with the Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF), the island’s governing body of motor sport.

  The OTK class will join the BKA’s ladder of performance, a natural progression from the Easykart 100cc Juniors, while Easykart 125cc remains the senior category and Easykart 60cc Cadets will continue to introduce young newcomers to this grassroots sport.

  With the provisional results of its 2024 Sectus Technologies Championship published after the Glassesco Raceday earlier this month, the BKA will be using its final scheduled date for the year this Sunday (November 3) to launch the new category at its BKA Appreciation Day. 

  The club will also use the morning as an opportunity to give its volunteer marshals and officials a chance to go racing in the Bushy Park Driving Experience rental karts as a thank-you for their hard work during the season and allow some general practice and testing for Club members.

  BKA Chairman Barry Mayers said: “It is well-known how important our volunteer marshals and officials are to the success of the sport, so the BKA Appreciation Day is our way of saying thanks for their commitment. We’re hoping to have a bit of a competition amongst them, a shoot-out, they all race and then maybe the top four from each race go into the finals. We’re still working on the detail.”

  The new OTK class will use the Vortex-engined Exprit OK-Junior karts, most recently used in the Caribbean Junior Karting Academy Trophy (CJKAT), which was administered by the BMF. The regional competition ran for the third and final time at the Palisadoes International Raceway in Jamaica last July, where kart racers from Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago competed.

  While plans are still a work in progress, competitors in the OTK class will pay an annual fee of Bds$2250 to the BMF and have a kart provided. Beyond that, the only additional costs will be entry fees, fuel and tyres and any repair costs after accidents. There will be a chance for prospective entrants to drive the karts on Sunday.

  Mayers added: “This is a new venture for us, made possible with the help of the BMF, and I am really grateful for their support and co-operation. We will also be focusing on inviting other countries to compete in this class and considering a ‘Nations Cup’ with four events for all other countries to come and compete. Nothing is firm as yet, but we will make more announcements in the coming months.”

Picture courtesy Barbados Karting Association/@kophillipps

- caption info: The karts to be used in the new OTK class were last raced in Jamaica in the Caribbean Junior Karting Academy Trophy in July 2023

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