New surface for Broken Hill

Cadets line up for the first laps of the new track

For the first time in 45 years, members of the Broken Hill Kart Club will enjoy pristine racing conditions, after a recent resurfacing of the clubs track. The original surface was laid down in 1967 and has remained untouched apart from a patch up operation 10 years ago. Broken Hill Kart Club’s president, Andrew Martin, says that since the work has been carried out by GBM Consulting Services from Mildura, driving conditions have significantly improved.

“Now it’s nice and smooth, all the bumps have been taken out. The last track wore through tyres pretty quickly and the bumps caused two broken ribs that I know of, so racing will be a lot better now” he said.

Aside from the smoother drive, Mr Martin also believes that the renewed surface will make it easier to attract drivers and competitions to Broken Hill.

“A while ago we were involved in hosting a round of the SA Festival State Cup, but I believe we lost it due to our rough surface.”

“We’ll definitely be applying to try and get that back,” Mr Martin said.

“We are also hoping that some of the guys from Mildura will be more interested in coming up as well now, as a few of our karters travel to their meetings.”

“As kart races, the track is obviously a major part of what we do, it’s a really good surface now and hopefully we’ll get some of the old club members back too, in fact one of our members who was at the inaugural meeting of the track is going to hang up his stewards hat and come back racing!” he said.

Mr Martin says that the club “scrimped and saved” to afford the upgrade, “it was always a moving target that was out of our reach, so thankfully a generous member of the Broken Hill community has given the club an interest free loan to bridge the gap, making the resurfacing possible.” To start raising funds, the first lap on the new surface was auctioned off and went to one of the club members for $400 dollars, who then gave it to the Cadets to enjoy.

“We always had the reputation for being the shortest, roughest track in Australia, but now thankfully we now only hold onto the shortest track title,” Mr Martin said.

The Broken Hill Kart Club track is situated 2km out side Broken Hill on the Menindee Road. Club meetings are held every 3rd Saturday of the month, racing starts at 1pm.

New verses old

The new surface glistens in the sunset