Kart racers from all over New Zealand are heading to Hastings this weekend to help the Hawke's Bay Kart Club celebrate the 40th annual running of its Blossom meeting.
The club has been planning gala celebrations for several years now, on one hand to celebrate the fact that this year's Blossom event is it's 40th consecutive one - a major achievement in its own right - and on the other to mark the 50th anniversary of the sport itself.
American hot-rodder Art Ingels created the first identifiable 'Go-Kart' in 1957, and just two years later New Zealand had its first club, the Auckland Mini Kart Club.
Other clubs followed quickly and in 1960 the first National Championship meeting was held in Taranaki.
Fifty years on KartSport is both a family-friendly recreation and the first step on the ladder for anyone contemplating a career in motorsport with World Formula 1 Championship leader Lewis Hamilton just the latest in a long line of motorsport superstars who got their competition start in a kart.
This weekend's meeting in the Hawke's Bay has attracted over 180 entries, some from as far afield as Dunedin and Whangarei.
Two classes - Junior Yamaha and Senior 100cc Yamaha - are running at capacity (32) and most of the other classes have over 20 entrants.
Testing at the club's ZM Raceway at Roy's Hill on the outskirts of Hastings began today and continues tomorrow with racing on both days over the weekend - with the track being run in a clockwise direction on Saturday, and anti-clockwise on Sunday.
There will be as much action off the track as on it as well as the club has put together an allied motor show on an adjacent property under the Octane '07 tag. On display will be all sorts of competition vehicles from karts and racing cars to classic cars, motorcycles, even off-shore powerboats.
Several successful kart-turned-car racers will also be on hand to mix with current karters and fans including local heroes Greg Murphy and John McIntyre, V8 Supercar driver Fabian Coulthard and NZV8s driver Paul Pedersen.
Members of the Hawke's Bay Kart Club like Mark Jenkinson and Dr Rhod Murray have also been buying up and restoring some of the karts which were raced here in the early 1960s and 1970s, and several will be seen on track over the weekend on 'active display' during the lunch breaks.
