NEW CLUBROOM
The update is the power cable has been run, the cool room and entry room are in, and the inside has been painted. So we are moving on. To those that have jumped in and helped what a brilliant effort. Continue reading →

Hi Members,
It has been a while (too long) since I did a note for the web site. To let you in on a secret, I have been doing what I love, and that is racing.

Around the club you may have noted that Malcolm McLellan has stood aside as treasurer and Richard Camilleri has taken this role on. Malcolm wishes to concentrate on our new club rooms, so to try and do the two jobs was impossible. We will now see some progress with the club rooms / canteen.

The track committee have come up with some ideas for a new track layout that looks great. They are now putting some costs together.

I need all members to keep an eye on the web site to see when our next working bee is happening. We have quite a few jobs to do and it would be great to see new people helping out and not calling to see when the working bee will be finished so they can come and practice. Don’t forget, you get a free club day race entry for helping out at a working bee.

I have noted that over the last few club days the lower pit area has a lot of area free, and yet the spaces are marked. I have photos of this and will be removing the ropes that were not used. If you do not want to lose your rope, please remove it in the next couple of weeks. This will also be a discussion point at the July general meeting on what to do about this situation.

Talking about club days, I think there is a mis-conception that if you do not pre-enter, that you cannot race. This is totally incorrect. You can still enter on the day and race, although it is preferred that you do pre-enter. If you do pre-enter, it has to be done by the Wednesday before race day.

Our entries on club days are dropping somewhat, especially in the senior classes, and I need to find out why. We have around 300 licenced members and yet only around 100 race. Take out those that are helping around the club, or have set aside their budget to race at open meetings, I believe this would still leave around 200 people who could race at club day. I would like to find out why they don’t. As you might be aware, you are able to leave comments at the bottom of this post, so please do, or if you prefer e-mail me at president@ogkrc.com.au and let me know your views.

Our members that have been racing at various open meetings around the country, have been performing well at country meetings and even the Nationals, and I congratulate them all. Whether you place in the first three, or the last three, the effort is still the same so you should all be proud of both yourselves and your pit crew.

I look forward to seeing you at the next club day and around the club.

Yours in karting
Adam Bourke
President OGKRC

Hi All,
Well I am a little late with the March Race / Club report,. Been a little busy with my other job that actually pays me.

The March club day was well down on numbers, probably due to the other little race meeting that was on the same weekend. The day / night went great though still with some great racing and due to the small number of classes finished fairly early. There was still some fantastic racing though.

The new club room has come to a bit of a stand still mainly due to the fact that we have been concentrating on building those new flower beds, although I have been ensured that works will start in the next 2 weeks.

Our new track committee is up and running and have taken some original plans away to discuss a new track layout so we can move forward.

On Saturday the 9th of April we had our Southern City Classic. We had 114 entries and after a lot of confusion finally got the classes decided. The new Sportsman class was run and while numbers were down those that raced really seemed to enjoy the class. The long lap format did not eventuate due to the weather, but the racing in most classes was fantastic and very close.

Drive of the night was Aaron Lawrence in Sportsman Heavy with the best glowing break disk I have ever seen. Allegedly his accelerator was stuck on.

I have a new respect for the officials, as I was assistant Clerk of Course for the night. Anyone who wishes to complain about the job they do, can come and stand out on the track for 8 hours in pouring rain and wind. Then you may have the right to complain about the job they do and a new respect for the conditions they have to endure.

Don’t forget general meeting this Tuesday the 12th and club day the 23rd of April.

Good luck in your racing.

Adam Bourke
President of the OGKRC

Dear Members,
Our first club day has been run and won. We had a few hiccups at the start that unfortunately made us start a little behind schedule, but due to karters being on their toes for the starts we made up time and still finished at a good and respectable hour.

We had a few difficulties with karters wanting to enter classes without having the appropriate licence grading. The AKA licence / entry system (CMS) does not allow the club to upgrade licences, and the club does not have the authority to upgrade licences, the VKA/AKA is responsible for that task, and only after you have all of your endorsements. It is the karters responsibility to ensure that this is done well before race day as it cannot be done at the track. All karters are able to check their licence grading and status on line with their licence number and password on the AKA website.

There has been some problems with the marking out of pit spots. Whilst it is convenient for members to be able to mark out pit spots prior to a race meeting, if any disputes for pit spots arise, the committee will have no choice but to remove all ropes and markings and it will be first in best dressed.

I really want to encourage all competitors to enter on line for race meetings. We can then check that competitors have entered the correct class and you will also know if your licence is up to date. This also has the added benefit of speeding up the entry taking process.

The club still needs more helpers to run our meetings. (Funnily enough the President would like to have a race and not be in the starters box.) Then we will have more officials and helpers on the track.

Regarding class numbers, if we do not get more entries in some classes we will be forced to join classes or make them a mid weight. It gets a bit boring watching 5 karts go around.

Our next general meeting is on March 8th at the club rooms and I hope to see you there to voice your opinions or listen to what is happening around the club.

Adam Bourke
President OGKRC

Dear Members,
We had a very well attended General meeting on Tuesday the 8th of February, with some great ideas coming forth. As discussed at the meeting, we will be building a flower bed to try and stop water coming in from our neighbours. This will take a few weeks to complete. During this time, please be patient with the current water situation.

The club is also looking at installing larger pumps to remove the water from the track area quicker. Due to this we may have to run new power cables, so again a bit of time is needed.

How long will this take? Being that we all work normal hours, most of this will take place out of hours, but we will do it as quickly as possible. All I ask is that you have patience with the track situation and we will get there.

A vote was taken whether to keep the AMB timing system running on club days as a back up to the CMS system. The vote was yes. The committee had tried to go with the CMS alone as we have trouble finding helpers to run the race meeting, so to have two systems means two people. So we need helpers. For February club day we need a starter, finisher and canteen assistants. In the future we will need the above as well as a CMS timing person. As the members have voted for this, I hope that they will be supplying the people to man these positions.

On the 6th and 7th of May there will be an Endurance event at the track, so the track will be closed for normal use by members. It is a 6 hour event to be held on the Saturday. Keep your eye on the web site for details as they come to hand.

Good luck in your racing.

Adam Bourke
President of the OGKRC

Dear Members,
Here we go for 2011, although we have already had 2 race meetings. The actual races went off without a hitch, but getting them started was a bit difficult as we had a slight water problem.

Once again, I would like to thank those members that came down and helped remove the flood waters, and especially those that returned at midnight to refuel the pump. The track seems to have held up well with very little damage.

Now to the rest of the season in 2011. Our first club day is at the end of February on a Saturday night, so we hope to see some good competitor numbers especially with the introduction of a new class.

As we are struggling for helpers at club days and open meetings, we would really appreciate if some more people could help in the canteen, or with stewarding or technical positions, and also someone with basic computer knowledge to help with lap scoring. When club day arrives, I hope we have enough people to run the meeting.

The stewards and technical school is on this weekend. I hope there are quite a few from our club that have put their hand up to attend. If so, we can then have a roster system for our race meetings. Personally, I attended the course in Ballarat last Saturday, and it was quite interesting to see how to interpret the rules for 2011.

Well, that’s about enough for this month. Hope to see you at the General Meeting on Tuesday February 8, where amongst other things we will discuss the committee for the new/refurbishment of the track. Those who have previously showed an interest in this please attend.

Good luck in your racing.

Adam Bourke
President of the OGKRC