Kart Meeting For Calder Thunderdome?
Karts could be racing on parts of the Calder Park Thunderdome by the end of the year.
A temporary circuit has been mapped out utilising the Thunderdome’s start/finish curved front straight, the pit lane and infield access roads.
“I was there last Saturday with Rod Clarke from the Victorian Superkart Club to see if it was a viable layout” Matt Wall told KartSportNews.com.
“It wasn’t too bad. It could be a little rough in a few places, but it’s in better condition than I was expecting.”
The event would run under AASA with a maximum of six classes - proposed to be Junior Rotax, Pro Clubman, TaG Light, TaG Heavy, Open Performance (KZ2, DD2 etc) and combined 250/125cc Superkarts.
Wall will soon be having a meeting with Bobby Jane (who races Rotax Superkarts himself) to get a kart onto the facility to check how the layout would work.
“There is a lot of room there, and most of the corners have plenty of run-off” Wall explained.
“It’s a temporary circuit, so it will be a bit more dangerous than a permanent circuit, but really, it’s no different to places like the Las Vegas SuperNats. We’ll have tyre barriers in places if necessary.”
Wall is hoping to have prize money paying down to 5th place in each class. Entry fee is expected to be in the $100 range.
For this, karters will get plenty of track time – a couple of practice sessions, timed qualifying, 2 heats, a pre-final and a Final on which the results and prizes will be based.
“Because it is not under AKA, we can do what we want a bit with the rules” Wall added.
“For example, we’re thinking of having the tyres as ‘open’ or at least a list of approved tyres competitors can choose from. That will introduce some strategy into it as a soft tyre might be fast, but will there be enough left to be fast in the final?
“We want this event to be different.”
No date has yet been set, but some time in October is what the plans call for. “We need to make sure there are no clashes. If not October, then December or January – which would fit in well for running under lights.”
“If this takes off, it could be our version of the Las Vegas SuperNats. We want it to mirror what they do in America with race car drivers coming along and racing against karters on a temporary circuit.”
Wall is about to set up a Group on Kartbook.net for this event. Interested parties can then interact with him with any questions they have via the group discussion.
Relevant news will also be published here on KartSportNews.com
