Kart club season starts Sunday

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN: Curtis Michie (21) leads Paul Mabey in a rotax class race at an Eastland Kart Club meeting last season. The club’s 2015-2016 season starts this Sunday at its Aerodrome Road track, with around 130 competitors expected. Picture by Liam Clayton

TWO years ago there were nine drivers going hell for leather around the Eastland Kart Club track.

On Sunday, 130 will converge on Aerodrome Road for the opening meeting of the club’s 2015-2016 season.

“We weren’t expecting this,” club treasurer Robin Trueman said of the rapid growth in numbers.

When a small group of karting enthusiasts got together in 2013 and revived grass-track racing here, their simple approach was “we’ll see what happens” .

Interest spread with wildfire intensity to the point that there will be 100 karts in action from 10am on Sunday.

Among them will be outside drivers but the bulk will be from the Eastland club.

Trueman says there will be nine classes running and such are the numbers that many will be split into groups.

Their battlefield is no longer grass.

“We started on grass but it’s very hard on the body,” said Trueman.

They now have a clay track on which those in the more powerful machines will reach speeds Trueman broadly describes as “very quick”.

Sunday’s meeting is the first of 12 race days up to May of 2016.

Among those will be the club champs on February 7.

The public are welcome to watch. There is no entry fee but a gold coin bucket will be on hand. Money raised from that goes towards track maintenance.

The track is in an area off Aerodrome Road. Signs point the way.

For more information on the club, go to its website www.eastlandkartclub.co.nz