MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

What a month August was!

The “Building Better Kart Clubs” conference, launch of our Respect Karting program, the final round of the 2019 Australian Kart Championship, the successful first 4SS event at Oakleigh Kart Club, King Of The Hill at Hurricane Kart Club (Heat Race Videos here and Finals here) in the West and of course the hugely successful City Of Melbourne event (Results).

Ipswich Kart Club announced that in the second half of this year they intend to start the first official Kart Fun Sessions (developed from the 2018 conference and included in the 2019 rules) under the name SATURDAY NIGHT SOCIALS and of course there has been plenty of great on-track karting activity right around the country.

BUILDING BETTER KART CLUBS CONFERENCE
On the 17^th and 18^th of August, affiliated clubs and State Associations from all Australian states came together in Melbourne to participate in our second Building Better Kart Clubs conference. Theme for the conference was “Building Karting Communities That Work And Play Together.”

Feedback from delegates and the vibe in the room during the one and a half days that we spent together was that it was a great event. Not only did we have a great line-up of speakers, informative sessions and workshops to help and inspire our Clubs to want to develop and become better at what they do for you every week of the year but we had the opportunity to outline our new Strategic Plan for the next 3 years and initiatives to boost awareness membership and participation in our sport.

One of the most insightful and eye-opening sessions was our 4SS Forum with Steve Pegg (President of Eastern Lions Kart Club) Michael Patrizi (Patrizicorse Principal) and Kevin Davis (Managing Director of Torini Engines.) Steve – a self-admitted 4 stroke sceptic at the start, told the delegates of the benefits that 4SS, with the support of the local karting industry, had brought to his club. The 4SS Class has played a significant role in the Eastern Lions Kart Club increasing their licenced driver membership by 56 licence holders (a 32% increase) and club competition entries by 214 entries (a 32.5% increase) in the 12 months to 30 June this year over the same period in 2018. A truly great effort by the Club. <<READ MORE FROM THE CONFERENCE>>

RESPECT KARTING
It was my great pleasure to launch our Respect Karting program at the conference and to have it released to our entire karting community a few days later.

This has been a pet project of mine for a while now and something that has been needed for our sport.

All of our State Presidents have pledged that they will no longer tolerate poor behaviour in our sport.

Every karting Club and its members can now make their own pledge to stamp out anti-social behaviour by signing a Club Pledge. Ask your club do it for all members. There are editable Pledges for your Club to use on the BBKC Web Site (just add the Club Logo and Club Name) and sign away. <<Download your Club Pledge here>>

It is simple in its principles – TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE TREATED.

The artwork and posters that we have prepared and supplied to our Clubs is powerful and a reminder of the principle that we as a sport hold as core values for the culture of our sport.

“THE KARTERS CREED” – in words and video format is really powerful element of the program. Both are online now.

Within the first 24 hours of its release, the Karters Creed video had been viewed thousands of time and shared right across Australian and around the world with positive comments coming back to us about how true and inspiring it is.

If you haven’t seen it or the campaign posters yet, please take a few moments to check it out here.

The Power Of An Apology
Since the Respect Karting launch, I have had a lot of conversations with karters about the program. To a person, the feedback has been fantastic. One of those conversations struck a real chord with me and it deals with the subject of The Power Of An Apology when things just go too far.

“The Respect Karting program is not now, nor is it intended to be a program that will require our Officials to be increasingly reviewing and enforcing issues of unacceptable behaviour at the Kart Club. It is a program that is expected to lead to peer regulation (not incitement) and self-modification of behaviour by our members.

Yes – there will be times where people go far too far and who require mediation or discipline for their actions under the Rules (just as there always has been.) Most anti-social behavioural issues flare up out of a stupid or insensitive comment made in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most issues, as a long time karter said to me recently, can and should be solved with a bit of self-reflection and a genuine apology. Please take the time to think about that for a moment while you read this brief article from the Cultures Of Dignity web site.” <<Read more about “The Power Of An Apology”>>

KARTING AWARENESS

National Karting Awareness Month – Rolling Out The Welcome Mat

At the BBKC conference, we announced that November will be NATIONAL KARTING AWARENESS MONTH.

Everyone in our sport has a part to play in this and we hope that at a large number of clubs across the country it will culminate in a series of Welcome To Karting Day’s right across the country.

Matthew Gould and Lee will be co-ordinating KA’s part in the awareness programs and will be assisting everyone with ideas and concepts to boost awareness locally at and around your clubs and within each state.

Our Clubs have been given an easily implemented step-by-step guide for Karting Awareness Month leading to a Welcome To Karting Day that showcases our sport and the local club to their community.

We have asked our friends at Supercars to help us with this too.

<<READ HOW YOU CAN PLAY A PART HERE>>

GIRLS RACE TOO
In our new 2019 – 2022 Strategic Plan we have set the objective of building female participation and membership in our sport.

We see this as a being both appropriate and vital for karting and for our clubs. Motorsport should no longer be seen as the almost exclusive domain of men and boys.

Last year at Australian Kart Championship level we implemented the Ladies Trophy. It was won by Taylah Agius in 2018 and Beck Connell was last weekend crowned the 2019 Ladies Champion. Alice Buckley won the 2019 Bridgestone Supercup.

All of our ladies and girls in AKC (regardless of the class in which they compete) score points in the Ladies Championship. It runs side by side with the Class points and provides recognition and encouragement for females who race. Girls, tell your Club to do the same thing. There is no reason why our Clubs can’t take the same approach by creating a Club Ladies’ Trophy for all of the girls and ladies who race at your Club. Its simple and its shows that your clubs cares about getting more girls into our sport. <<READ MORE>>

4SS SUCCESS
I mentioned earlier in this email that we had a great 4SS forum discussion at the Building Better Kart Clubs conference.

It gave us the chance to hear some of the real success stories in the formation and initial growth of 4SS in its first 18 months. What is important for our sport and our Clubs are the initial sceptics turned 4SS disciples’ stories.

Kevin Davis from Torini engines in just 5-10 minutes on his whiteboard gave one of the most import explanations of 4SS – and why every Club should be properly considering getting on board the 4SS train sooner rather than later. Kevin’s session opened a lot of minds as to what 4SS is all about – building our clubs through the use of simple, easy to use, easy to run, uncomplicate, low cost karting that is mainly for fun and targeted at the beginner and retention market. It is informative and compelling and has been sent to all Clubs. <<READ MORE>>

KANSW first 6 Months
Recently Karting Australia NSW President Dave Laughton released the first 6 month report on activities of the new affiliated association in New South Wales. If you haven’t seen it, it makes for interesting reading.

Our affiliated Clubs in New South Wales and Karting Australia NSW are an invaluable part of the Australian karting landscape. They are punching well above their weight at the moment and are showing

In Short:

KANSW licence numbers are UP.
Event entries at all clubs are UP.
Race permit fees are the lowest in NSW in many years and by a very long way.
Administration costs are down, and the state provided services are the same as before.
They are providing well run, fun and exciting race meetings.
Their objective for the next six months is to start to reunite our sport in NSW.

It’s a picture of how positive people can make things really happen even in times of adversity. To read it <<CLICK HERE>>

Australian Kart Championship
The weekend just gone, brought the 2019 SP Tools Australian Kart Championship presented by Castrol EDGE to a close. Another record year. One carry over champion who went back to back and 7 new National Champions.

It is the 5th year that we have run the Australian Kart Championship in this format and our entry list continues to grow every year. This year we had 1381 entries across all events, an increase of 36% in that time.

All of our host clubs get significant financial benefit from hosting an AKC event along with the prestige and fun of having Australia’s best karters race flat out in what is now a world-class karting event. Read more on the Final Round Here and the Gala Awards Evening Here. Videos from Sunday’s racing and the Awards Dinner is here.