Galletta's Karting Club

At Galletta’s, we have a unique situation. We take a page out of non-motorsports in the utilization of a mid-race timeout for repairs (if possible), or a kart change (if available). We do this since most of the karts are house karts that people pay a nominal donation to use, we don’t race for money, and are all friends and family that want to race together more than we want to win. This is how it works:

1. Timeouts

If a driver’s kart breaks down during a feature race, he may be eligible to call a timeout for a quick repair. This timeout should be 10-minutes or less. Some caveats:

• Each driver has a limited number of repair timeouts per week and season. In this case, we start with:
  a. One timeout break per week;
  b. Three timeout breaks to use over the season.
  (We may have ways to earn timeouts, including feature victories and carryovers from previous years.)
• If the damage is too severe to repair in that time frame, you won’t be eligible to call one (unless you call a second timeout).
• Driver must inform the head flagger and/or fellow drivers that they are taking a timeout. We do not stop the race automatically.
  
  Additionally:
• No heat race ever gets stopped for a breakdown. Only feature events are eligible. Also, if the feature only has a few laps left, you cannot call one.
• If a kart broke down (a) before they didn’t get enough laps, and/or (b) didn’t break down due to driver fault, then they are owed extra laps that they can ask to use (either after the main feature, during the week for an arranged practice session or makeup point race, or the following week or get extra laps in after the point races have completed).
• We may place a time frame that eliminates repair timeouts. This would normally be 10 PM, but may change based on the attending drivers’ wishes.
• Again, this does not count if a kart has significant damage, as rental money is supposed to pay for kart repair (but let’s just say it almost never does).

2. Mid-Race Backup Kart

At Galletta’s, we allow drivers to hop into backup karts mid-race if their starter kart breaks down and cannot safely and competitively continue (and especially if a quick repair is impossible) and a backup kart is available. Some caveats:

• You can do this if you own your own backup kart(s).
• You can do this if you pay an additional rental charge to whoever owns the backup kart(s).
  
  Additionally:
• In a regular-season race, you will be docked a -5 point penalty each time you do this.
• In the 200-Lap Klassic, you will be docked a -20 point penalty and a loss of a lap.
  [We had to enact this rule to prevent drivers from breaking karts then hopping into fresh karts and having a significant advantage over drivers who are still in their original karts and taking wear and tear during the marathon event. You can get your lap back by either passing the entire field (which you can do during the green, or asking each individual driver on the lead lap to allow you by during a caution break).]

Any questions, just ask! 🙂