Talk about pent-up demand to get back in their karts and race each other at a major regional meeting…..The re-scheduled third round of this season’s WPKA Manawatu & TRC-sponsored 60th anniversary Goldstar Series meeting being hosted by the KartSport Hawke’s Bay club at their Carter’s Tyre Service Raceway at Roy’s Hill near Hastings next weekend (July 11-12) has attracted a record-shattering 170+ entries across 10 classes, and will be live-streamed across the world by leading contractor The Pits Media.
“We are certainly in for a stellar weekend,” WPKA President Chris Rooney, said this week. “Entry numbers are the highest in the history of the Goldstar Series and probably the highest in general terms for a race meeting in recent years.”
With the COVID-19 Lockdown effectively splitting the 2019/20 series in half, the organising committee initially postponed rather than cancelled both the third and final ‘Championships’ meetings, in the hope that the restrictions on gathering numbers and regional travel would eventually be lifted.
Which they were, and with clubs round the country free to run meetings at their own karts for the past three weekends, the Goldstar round at Hastings will be the first major regional meeting to be run here.
As such it has attracted 170+ entries from as far south as Invercargill and as far north as Whangarei and – literally – all points in-between.
KartSport New Zealand set up a successful virtual competition using simulators to give its members something to do during – and now after – Lockdown. But organisation President Graeme Moore says it was never supposed to replace ‘the real thing.’
“As anyone – from your self-confessed weekend ‘clubbie’ to a guy at the absolute top of the car racing game like Scott Dixon or our current patron, Scott McLaughlin, will tell you, in terms of motorsport bang-for-your-buck nothing compares with the rush you get racing a kart. And the proof, if you like, is in the entry they have received for the Goldstar meeting in Hawkes’ Bay next weekend.”
As well as points for the Goldstar Series itself, next weekend’s Hawke’s Bay round will also host the second round of this years’ ROK Cup NZL series for Vortex ROK-engined kart classes.
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