MOTORSPORT - Kart champion remains on the right track

Like many promising sportsmen, Robin Woolridge's sporting career was cut short by the heady attractions of cold beer and fast women.
Unlike most people who give their sport away at a young age, kart racer Woolridge promised himself he would take it up again. It has taken him more than 30 years to make his comeback - but the wait was worth it.
The Whangarei driver is the current National Superkart Champion and will defend his title at the Ruapuna Raceway in Christchurch on June 16-17.
Superkarts - high performance karts that are capable of speeds in excess of 200km/h - are raced on circuit tracks rather than the smaller, specialist kart tracks around the country.
The sport is maintaining its popularity and at a recent race at the new Taupo circuit, 55 superkarts took part.
"It's a really scary thing to drive because the aero-kit is giving you plenty of downforce and when you enter a corner, you go in so fast your head is telling you that you'll crash. But you go around anyway because of the effect of the aero-kit, even though your head doesn't quite get it," Woolridge said.
"It's very similar to Formula One, where they say if you turned the cars upside down they'd fly ... mine isn't quite like that but you get the idea."
Wooldridge was first drawn to karting in 1974 but the-then apprentice was easily distracted by other opportunities.
"I gave the sport away and sold all my gear until such a time when I was a bit more settled. But it wasn't until some 30 years later that I got back into it," Woolridge said.
He started karting about 12 years ago for the second time and, with a natural engineering bent, started winning.
A national Superkart championship, four North Island titles and a South Island title were soon in his pocket.
"The most important thing to remember in this sport is that corner speed is everything," Woolridge said.
"You can have all the horsepower in the world, but if you can't go around a corner quickly you're not going to go very well at all."
Although Woolridge recognises that if he had carried on competing in the 1970s, he might have had a shot at becoming a full-time driver, that was never his aim.
"I've always wanted to be a mechanic, first and foremost. I look at the V8 Supercar drivers in Australia getting paid in excess of a million dollars a year and while that's pretty good money compared to a mechanic their responsibilities are huge too."
Now Woolridge is confident he can retain his Superkart title unless the meeting is affected by rain.
His competition will probably come from Hawkes Bay policeman Darren Waugh and Christchurch's Matthew Hamilton, but Woolridge said there are a few other karts that could cause him problems in the right conditions.
Competing in a PVP dedicated road race chassis imported from Sweden, the kart is powered by a Gas Gas 250cc single cylinder, six-speed engine built in Spain and developed in Germany.
"It's an expensive sport but I have been helped by Wayne and the team at Morgan Auto Painters, Toll Shipping and my family - without them it would be difficult to continue," he said.