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admin commented on this post about 6 months agoThought I'd float this out there...
Now that Covid appears to be mostly behind us and we have returned to some semblance of normality, maybe it's time to think about putting a meet together. I know that there's a few more SA / Adelaide people interested in building Cyclekarts since the last attempt to organise a get-together a year back. So hopefully we can drum up a bit of interest and organise a get together.
Would be good to eventually get a regular thing going. I did have an idea of some kind of Mens Shed or Makerspace meet where those who don't have access to tools can come along and get assistance with their builds and those of us who do can provide assistance. However I think that might take a bit of planning to make it happen.
I'll try and trawl back through the Facebook and forum posts and invite anyone who is local and / or interested into the discussion here and maybe we can figure out a date and venue that suits everyone. Might also be good to try and include the guys from Victor Harbour.Post is under moderationStream item published successfully. Item will now be visible on your stream.
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I don't have an issue with anyone filming me. I guess it would be courteous to ask if othersThere's no rules as such. No media monopoly here lol
I don't have an issue with anyone filming me. I guess it would be courteous to ask if others have an issue with being filmed for whatever reason.
Would also be good to share it with the Facebook group / Website. Anything to increase exposure and get more involvement. More ...
I guess the first question for me is what dates are we looking at?
First meet.
- Do we want to do this before or after xmas? We're just heading into the silly season so I know that things get busy for some people. Mid-Jan after the dust has settled seems like a good time to me.
- What venue? Normally I would be happy to host it, but we're in the middle of building work so currently not the best environment. Maybe do a 'burger night' or a lunch somewhere.
- Evening or daytime? Weekday or weekend? Friday evenings usually work pretty good for general social meets and burger night type events, but that depends on peoples other commitments and locations. For those travelling from further afield a Saturday or Sunday arvo meet might make more sense.
- The intention is to continue this stye of meet on a regular basis. I'm thinking monthly or every other month if there is enough interest and the format is easily maintainable.
Race meet.
- This is going to take a bit more organisation, not least finding a suitable venue. Does anyone have a block or paddock that can be used?
- Track prep. Grass might need mowing and the track laid out. Unless we can find a venue that already has a track or usable path / roadway. Any ideas?
- Would be good to find a permanent venue that can be used on a regular basis. I think that if we could hold regular events it would garner a lot more interest.
- When??? We need to set a date that is achievable. Which really means that we need to find a venue first as availability might already be dictated. There are already completed Cyclekarts ready to race, so this could happen pretty quickly, but it would also be good to get as many Cyclekarts attending as possible, which most likely means pushing that date out a bit to allow more builds to be completed and set a target for those who are considering undertaking a build. After all, there's nothing like a deadline to get people motivated. lol. However, I think that if we push it out too far, we might only get one meet in before the end of summer. It would be nice to get two events in if we can.
I'm happy to invest in the things we need for infrastructure. i.e. cones, flags, hi-vis for marshals, walkie talkies and also putting together a safety standard and risk assessment. All of that stuff needs to happen wherever we race. I think as a minimum for driver safety we should consider long sleeves / pants and a helmet. We will also need to look at spectator safety but that is largely going to be dictated by the venue. Sticking to private venues or purpose built courses would be preferable to keep safety management requirements minimised. I know that all of this sounds complicated and to some perhaps a bit overboard, but having been involved in motorsport for many years it's better to do things right as no one really wants any mishaps. Don't worry, this is not nanny state tactics trying to spoil the fun. What it will come down to is a drivers meet where we talk about course safety and a way to manage spectators so they do not get hurt. Anyone who's done something like kart racing will know it's not really that bad and is mostly just common sense.
Discuss... More ...
I've been doing some scouting and I think thatClive something like Gilman could work although I've never really been a fan of oval track racing.
I've been doing some scouting and I think that what would work really well are existing gokart or motorcycle tracks. Something like Acusa Park dirt track would be perfect...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwq8kdNTYEI
The thing is that they don't hold automotive events due to insurance, but maybe Cyclekarts would fit into a non automotive class of racing. The other thing is that to use the track you either have to be a member and attend one of their existing meet days, which is motorcyclist only. Or you have to be an affiliated club, which means that we would need to set up as a proper incorporated club and then pay for affiliation. This is a load of additional work and cost but, if we are looking forwards to events like holding a Cyclekart Grand Prix at the Victoria Park circuit and dealing with the council, we would most likely need to have an officially incorporated club structure, so perhaps such a thing is not off of the cards. I suspect that if we want to run public events it is inevitable and a smart move from a liability perspective.
I think I would like to test the water and drum up a bit of interest and a few more running participants before plunging into something like setting up an official club. I also think that having a few successful events under our belts would be a prerequisite to approaching a pre-existing venue.
Other venues are the kart track at The Bend, but I suspect that this would be prohibitively expensive, There's also a few go kart tracks near to me - one at Richmond and another at Gepps Cross. I know that the Richmond one hires the track out as I once went to a Bucks Night that started off there
I think that a paddock or bit of private land is probably going to be our best for initial events but the big issue for me is that I don't own a paddock and my driveway is not wide enough to turn around in lol. More ...
Something else that might be worth considering is participating in the Sellicks beach races. This is run by Levis MC club. So again trying to affiliate with them might open a door for that event and perhaps get us an invite as a novelty class. After all there is more than just a tenuous link between Cyclekarts and motorcycles More ...
ThereI think I will move the topic of organising the race meet to a proper discussion as I think this is getting a little lost here in the comments.
There's a lot of considerations and organisation that needs to happen, as well as learnings and info that would be good to pass on to others who want to organise races in their states / areas. I guess we are the guinea pigs in that regards. More ...
We are trying to set that up right now. If you read the post directly above yours (click on the 'more' link as the text isHi Bulldozer. Welcome.
We are trying to set that up right now. If you read the post directly above yours (click on the 'more' link as the text is truncated) I've outlined where we are and what needs to happen.
Do you have a Cyclekart or are you building one? More ...