Barossa Go Kart Club

The memorial race meeting recognizing the life and contribution of Doug Liddle and Rod Gardner opened the Barossa Go Kart Club’s 2012 season.

The Doug Liddle Memorial is for senior drivers and run as Clubman at 150kg.   As the first heat unfolded the ones to watch were Alex Baker, Jesse Batson, Daniel Wallis and Sparky Marquis.  Baker cleared out from pole and was never headed but Batson proved to be the mover, taking second from Wallis on the last lap with Marquis in the leading group in fourth.

In heat two Batson won off pole leaving Marquis and Wallis to provide the entertainment swapping positions with Wallis finishing ahead of Marquis and Baker.

Baker snatched an early lead in heat three but it was all over for Baker on lap 4 to give Batson another win with Marquis taking second from Wallis and Russel Provan.

In the final heat Batson jumped to a comfortable lead with Marquis and Wallis circulating on their own as Alex Baker continued his bad run pulling out on lap two.  Both Marquis and Wallis had their heads down and by lap 11 Marquis had caught Batson and was looking for a way past.  But it was Wallis who was circulating fastest catching the pair and on the last lap shot up the inside on the notorious middle corner to take second from Marquis.

When the points were tallied it was Batson taking home the perpetual trophy and the set of tyres from Wallis and Marquis in third.  Heather Richardson, club life member and daughter of the great Doug Liddle, presented the trophies.

The Rod Gardner Trophy (Junior National) opened with Tyler Morrison winning the first heat with a string of consistent fast laps.  Scott Matheson was just ahead of a late charging Jordan Murphy.

Daimon Goode and Scott Matheson got a great start in heat two but Morrison took both of them to grab the lead by lap two.  The slow starting Murphy caught the leader as his kart came on and passed Morrison with a lap to go but Morrison took it back to win by the narrowest of margins.

Heat three continued the tussle between Morrison and Murphy with Matheson sitting in third hoping to benefit, should the dueling pair in front of him clash.  Murphy crossed the line first setting up a thriller for the final race.

Murphy’s slow starts dogged him again in the final 15 lapper, dropping to fourth off the start behind Morrison, Matheson and Goode.  It wasn’t until third race distance that he cleared Goode and Matheson and found Morrison had over a second lead.  Murphy put in a series of blinders to grab the lead with four laps to go and continued the pace to lead by over a second by race end.  

As all points counted, Murphy paid the price of his slow start in heat one giving the perpetual trophy to Morrison, with Murphy second and Daimon Goode third. 

The mild conditions offered some excellent support racing especially for the finals held under lights.

Results for support classes.

Cadets

Jason Bowyer

Jackson Rees

Jack Hutchins

Rookies

Brodie Cook

Josh Montagu

Joel Oliver

Junior National Light

Joshua Denton

Holly Marquis

Jordan Tasker

Junior National Heavy

Scott Matheson

Daimon Goode

Jordan Murphy

Clubman Over 40

Stephen Blee

Sparky Marquis

Peter Wallace

Clubman Light

Alex Baker

Callum Sharp

Jordan Schulz

Clubman Heavy

Jesse Batson

Daniel Wallis

Russell Provan

Clubman Super Heavy

John Ellis

David Brewer Jnr

Scott Wood

Sportsman SA

Micah Montgomery

Nick Larcombe

Christopher Toonen

Sportsman 125 Light

Bradley Conner

David Harradine

William Ritchie

Sportsman 125 Heavy

Simon Layne

Danny Somerville

Domenico Pascale

125 Restricted Light

Ben Considine

James Gorman

125 Restricted Heavy

Tim Murphy

Andrew Jericho

At the Go Kart Association Awards dinner, held December 2011 at the Port Adelaide Football Club, three lucky recipients were awarded with Barossa Go Kart Club’s highest honours.

2011 Life Member Award;

Steve Blee (left)

Steve Blee has been the President of the Barossa Go Kart Club for many years and a fine leader /roll model to not only the rest of the Barossa committee but to fellow competitors a like. Under his leadership the club has gone from strength to strength with the completion of a new track layout, new modern lap scorer’s box and recently completed revamp of the canteen kitchen. He was the  sport conveyor to Karting the 2011  13^th Australian Masters Games organising the social function special guests and attending the many cluster meetings.

Frank Chessell (right)

Frank has  been a member of the Barossa Go Kart Club for many years as part of the leadership committee. He has taken on the roll of Race Secretary, Grid Marshall and our friendly face behind the bar at the end of every race meeting. He has been instrumental in the design and construction of electronic devices at the Barossa track, like the Remote Control Flag Light System, the Remote Control Start Lights, the electronics’ in the lap scorer’s box and the recently completed solar powered sump pump. His knowledge in all matters of solving problems at various times has been very much appreciated.

2011 President’s Award;

Linda Harris

This year’s recipient of the President’s Award, Linda Harris, is not a committee member but attends most meetings, working bees and race meetings.  Most of Linda’s work goes unnoticed by the majority of members and kart racers but it is essential to the running of our race meetings.  Linda is generous with her time, contributing to all the metropolitan clubs and assisting at country meetings as well.  At the Barossa Go Kart Club we have an excellent attendance at committee meetings but I don’t think it is because of the entertaining banter of the President!  I think it’s because of the wonderful suppers provided by our 2011 President’s Award winner, Linda.

Yes it’s that time of the year again.

Time to renew or maybe become a new member of the Barossa Go Kart Club for 2012.

The club prides itself on being family friendly where camaraderie and sportsmanship are encouraged. With the newly completed Northern Expressway and Sturt highway up grade the Barossa track is an easy one hour drive from Adelaide.

Set in a picturesque gum tree shaded setting it makes for a pleasant practice venue and provides plentiful shade on  race days.

The Barossa track is the only track in the Adelaide region where races are conducted at night under lights. Our race meetings commence at a casual hour on Saturday and progress into the night to provide plenty of variety in your racing experience.

The Barossa Go Kart Club is always striving for improvements to enhance the karting experience.These developments include the construction of a new lap scorers box and the refurbishment of the canteen facilities.

The Barossa Go Kart Club is the ideal kart club for both the serious and social karters alike.

Club membership is keenly priced and offers perhaps the best value for money membership in Adelaide. Memberships are available for competitors, social karters and families.

 Pit spaces can also be purchased annually, to make sure you don’t have any hassles setting up for a race meeting.

Note: All existing pit spaces become vacant on 31/01/2012 so renewal is required to maintain your current spot.

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