MESSAGE FROM THE CEO - AUGUST 2019

One month of winter to go and then hopefully we will start to see the warmer spring weather – particularly in the Southern parts of the Country.

Some of the events in Victoria have copped a real battering from the elements but the Clubs and Organising Committees of the Victorian and Golden Power Series have still managed to run some amazing events – well done to all competitors, officials and volunteers.

Supercars Partnership
In mid-July we announced a promotional partnership with Supercars that will run for the next three years.

It is the first stage of an exciting project where we will work with Supercars to build community awareness of our sport. We have been working on developing the partnership with them for the past 18 months and it was great to be able to launch it alongside Supercars Chief Operating Officer – Shane Howard, Bathurst Champion and driver coach (and Norwell Motorplex owner) Paul Morris along with dual World Karting and Supercars Champion James Courtney and his fellow Supercar driver, Torini 4SS driver and ambassador Todd Hazelwood.

We all know that karting is where almost all professional motor racing drivers started their involvement with motorsport. Through this partnership both Supercars and Karting Australia will recognise and celebrate this but most importantly it will give us a promotional platform into the motorsport heartland.

Starting last weekend at Queensland Raceway, karting was represented at the Century Batteries Super Sprint in Ipswich, QLD. This will become a feature at many Supercars events from this point onwards. It will give our Clubs and Member States the opportunity to be active promotionally at the biggest motorsport events in Australia.

The purpose of the promotions are primarily to expose karting to people who have never experienced it, but who are interested in motorsport, to create awareness of our sport and to guide people, as easily as possible from being a non-karter, to being an active karter and a member of one of our Clubs.

It will only be successful if our Clubs and members of the Australian karting industry get behind it.

There are a number of other elements of the Supercars Partnership that we will be announcing in the coming months including an Ambassador Program with Supercar Drivers.

Building Better Kart Clubs Conference
We are two weeks away from our second Building Better Karts Club Conference – “BUILDING KARTING COMMUNITIES THAT WORK AND PLAY TOGETHER”.

All affiliated Clubs and Member States have been invited to be represented along with significant members of the Australian Karting Industry.

This year’s Keynote speaker is Andrew Westacott – CEO of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation. Andrew has built and leads a top-notch team that puts on the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix and the Australian Moto GP event each year. He will give his insights into what it means and what it takes to build a quality team. The scale may be different to our State Associations and our Clubs but the principles are exactly the same.

I am also looking forward to hearing from Paul Feely – Victorian Country Series Co-ordinator about what they do to organise and promote the VCS, how they do it and why they do it. Undoubtedly the VCS is one of the great success stories of Australian karting at the moment. Six quite small clubs collaborate each year to run some of the biggest karting events in Victoria. So far in 2019 they have averages 228 entries each round, peaking at 262 on a very wet weekend.

Tyre Tenders For 2021 – 2025
We have started what is, a very lengthy tender process to supply tyres to Australian karting from the start of 2021.

Current indications are that all of the world’s best kart tyre manufacturers will be participating in the process.

Safety Grants
The 2019 Safety Grant Applications are now closed. We will spend the next few weeks working through the applications received before making the final decisions about the allocation of our 2019 Safety Grant funding program.

Thanks to all of the Clubs who have made applications.

City of Melbourne Titles This weekend
Good luck to all drivers who are competing in the annual City Of Melbourne event at Go Kart Club of Victoria’s Todd Rd Karting Complex this weekend.

With more than 320 entries, the excitement and relevance of a well organised traditional hallmark event continues.

Well done to Go-Kart Club of Victoria President John Wall and his team alongside Karting Victoria for organising what should be a great event. Hopefully it stays dry for you all.

Ultimate Club Racer I
Heading towards Spring means that we are getting that much closer to our inaugural ULTIMATE CLUB RACER EVENT at The Bend Motorsport Park. Another round of invitations have gone out recently and we are looking forward to a great event as we look to find Australia’s Ultimate Club Racers.

Its on Melbourne Cup Weekend and Tailem Bend in South Australia is the place that a Club Racer needs to be.

We expect a large contingent of drivers from WA with planning already underway for a truck convoy from the West trying to prove that the ‘Sandgropers’ are the country’s best Club Racers.

The Ultimate Club Racer is a unique event and it is solely for the people who support their local club most often.

Over the coming weeks there will continue to be more invitations issued and more exciting news regarding the format of the weekend with Supplementary Regulations to be released in the near future.

SP Tools Australian Kart Championship Round Four – presented by Castrol EDGE
Two weeks ago, the Australian Kart Championship headed north to Emerald in Central Queensland.

The weather was superb, the Club and town’s hospitality were great, and the racing was some of the best and closest racing that I have seen in quarter of a century of being involved in motor racing.

It’s almost impossible to believe that so many races could be won by such small margins. Four of the eight classes were decided by less than a half a kart length with the closest finishing margin being 0.010 seconds.

I would like to congratulate the Drivers, Teams, Officials and Emerald Kart Club Representatives for what was one of the best race meetings that I have been part of.

Well done to everyone who competed in Emerald. It’s now off to the Grand Final Round later this month with all of the Championship titles still very much alive.

AKC Awards Dinner
Tickets are now on sale for the 2019 Australian Kart Championship Awards Night at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium. The evening will celebrate the Australian Kart Champions and their achievements of numerous others throughout 2019. To purchase your tickets, please click here.

I look forward to celebrating with the karting community on the night.

2020 National Calendar
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been working on the scheduling of National events for 2020. It is anticipated that we will have the dates finalised and released within the next couple of weeks. This release date is much earlier than previous years, which will hopefully assist State Associations and their respective Clubs and Series’ to better plan out their schedules.

Regards
Kelvin