Tiger Kart Club November 2011 Club Day Report from Sean Phillips
Thu Dec 1, 2011
What a way to finish off the year, our biggest and best club day for many, many years and some awesome racing to go with it.. The official number stands at 130 entries and to be honest I had to keep reminding myself this was a club day when seeing form up grids that had numbers close to what you would expect at the state titles!!!!
I'm sure most of you would have seen how good the track looked first thing Sunday morning with nicely mown grass and not a speck of dirt on the freshly swept track. Hats off to the club for doing this, we have 2 fantastic tracks, something every TKC member should be proud of and every other karter in Australia would be envious of. The whole place is really starting to come alive, the momentum that's built since the re surfacing at Cockburn and state / national titles can be seen everywhere. We have some really exiting things happening for next year that will ensure the TKC continues to grow and offer its members the most fun on 4 wheels...
Onto the racing...
Things got off to a bit of a rocky start with the first aid guys out attending to 2 injured drivers and we also had a computer melt down that stopped the Sportsman 125 Light guys from being able to start there race. Thankfully both drivers were sore but OK (hope to see you again soon guys) and after Gary (thanks Gary) fixed the computer glitch, the day then went like clockwork.
With great fields in all classes and it being the last club day for 2011 the racing was always going to be action packed. Great to see Jnr Clubman and JMax out having a run, Shane McPherson worked very hard to get the Jnr Clubby's out on the track so a big thanks to him and we hope to see both of these performance Junior classes running on a regular basis next year. A strong field of 23 JNL and JNH karts really turned on some great racing although Jake Burton probably had a day to forget with anything and everything going wrong His Dad Steve was probably wishing he was still on holidays in QLD. The Sportsman 125 classes are really starting to build some numbers with both lights and heavy's, open and restricted having great fields and fast action packed racing to boot, we're expecting the 125 classes to really take off in 2012
On another note I thought I'd make a special mention for Phil Lalor who was having his first meeting racing in Sportsman 125R Heavy. Phil was pitted next to me so we struck up many a conversation on the in's and out's of kart preparation, how to fill out the entry form, what the transponder is for, when to grid up, where to grid up, where the cut through is (and that it's only used for roll up laps) and the many other things experienced karters just take for granted... I really enjoyed helping him, especially seeing all his family (Grand kids included) that came down to watch him race and how excited they were for him, this got me thinking.... Sometimes when you're really into Karting and buried in the heat of competition it's nice to be reminded how much fun this sport really is.
I think that's why our club days are becoming so popular, the racing is fierce but everyone is enjoying themselves, being polite to each other and generally having a good time. I took some photo's of the presentations with the under cover area packed full, it was great to see everyone staying back for a few "did you see how fast I went" stories and in particular for Matt Robinson who collected the $500 raffle prize and also young Harrison Lang who scored a new set of tyres!!! We are doing these sorts of things all next year for our club days so as you can see it pays to stay back and enjoy the hospitality.
Remember our club wind up BBQ and trophy presentation is on 11th December starts at 12pm if you haven't advised Renee Summerfield that you are coming please email her ASAP to secretary@tigerkartclub.com.au
The WA Superkart Club is also holding an event at Collie on the 10th of December this should be a fantastic event. Mike Sully and Megan from Kart Mart have worked tirelessly over the past few years to get the club to the stage that it's now fully certified by the AKA and all you need to do is enter and change your sprockets. Details of the event are on our TKC website.
Best of luck to all those competing at the "Have a Go" open meeting at Wanneroo this weekend. Here's hoping we get a few new members from this unique event where you can bring your family and friends down to "Have a Go" in your kart. Nothing quite prepares you for your first time in a proper racing kart and I'm sure those that do venture out will be talking about it for a long time to come.
Well that's my last report for 2011, what a years it's been for the TKC. I can't wait for 2012 because we have some really exiting things on the go starting with the year's first Open in Jan (The Australia Day Open) expect to see lots of Australian flags, a good old Aussie BBQ and even a prize for the "most" Australian kart team, should be heap of fun and a great way to kick off the new year.
Stay safe over the Xmas and the New Year break ...........Sean
