He was born for the task, Kenny Karstensen. As the son of former Norwegian champion Torstein Karstensen, Kenny was probably at the one-cell stage the first time he was on a race. He has trodden the track in Mo i Rana since the first day of use, and if he is not organizing races, he has thousands of volunteer hours on the track, in recent years with his daughter in a child carrier.
In order to have a chat with Kenny, it had to be evening. During the day, he barely had time to take a photo. As ACM's club leader, he must not only supplement his pregnant girl friend and manager for the volunteers, he must also ensure that others in the crew have the help and equipment they need.
- It has been a long day...?
- It has been both long and busy. But we have been through this before, and little unexpected has appeared, he says, and reminds us that he has a four-year-old who will soon be put in the caravan. In other words, the whole family is present here.
Technical control or scrutineering, for the uninitiated, is a check of the bike and safety equipment to ensure that everything is within the regulations, both the general and the specific for each class. The noise level must be within the requirements, oil plugs must be secured with locking wire and the bicycle's other equipment must be seamed with an experienced hand. Even the helmet and leather suit must be in acceptable condition.
- How did the day run?
- It has gone as expected. Both we and the drivers have potential for improvement, but overall the implementation has gone well.
- Where is it cracking?
- We are a little short on equipment and have to improvise to get a fair and proper implementation, and then I have to take it upon myself that we got started a little late. At the same time, most time slips are due to the drivers not having read the regulations well enough or having forgotten to follow them. We rarely catch cheaters. Most of it is sloppy.
- Any ideas for improvement?
- We should perhaps start checking the bikes by class and in an order that means that the engines are cooled down before the check, and then we should be able to expect a bit of tightening from the drivers. When the controls are easy to carry out, the queue is shorter and everyone saves time. And then I have a dream of not having to do this under the open sky.
- You don't take the controls alone?
- No, today we were a team of four, and everyone was familiar with the tasks, We still struggle a bit with the bureaucracy.
- The bureaucracy..?
- All bicycles must be registered with the association and have a mc-id number and a separate ID card. If a driver has forgotten the card, we can log into the register on the ID number, but if the driver has forgotten the four digits, it is far more difficult to find.
- This must then be easy to solve?
- I don't know, but it would have been good to be able to search the register for the owner's name. At the same time, we struggle a bit with those who, after a few days of track days, decide to sign up for the NM at short notice. I wish we, as the union's inspectors, could have registered in the register ourselves, says Kenny and has looked at the clock several times. Four-year-olds should ideally be put to bed according to a timetable.
- Ready for the NM?
- Yup! Look forward to get started!