CKRC Celebrates Successful 2015 Season At Their New Home

The Calgary Kart Racing Club just completed their inaugural season of racing at the newest kart track in Western Canada, North Star Raceway, a 1.2km, 14 turn and 9m wide track on 20 acres of land in Strathmore, AB, 20 minutes East of Calgary.

After a winter of planning and promotion at the World of Wheels and the International Car Show, the club grew to its largest membership size ever, just clearing 150 members.

The season began late at the end of May with several important renovations/improvements still needing to be put in place to be able to begin the race season. Some of the larger tasks were the underground electrical installation, asphalt extension of the Pre-Grid area and pit runners, re-constructing the scale shack and scale pad area. With Spring weather being mostly cooperative the CKRC members banded together to get these tasks done in time for the first ever Race event at North Star Raceway. The first couple of events ran long but we soon found our stride and were back to finishing at 4:30pm. Rounds 3 & 4 of the season included the Alberta Shoot-Out which was a friendly invite for our neighbors to the north, EDKRA to come down for some friendly competition. This was a double header weekend which drew over 100 entries each day. We hope to continue the Alberta Shoot-Out in 2016 and grow it into a healthy regional championship.

Some crazy weather in the middle of July with torrential rain, thunder and lightning forced us to re-schedule this event for the beginning of October. Other renovations continued through the season with our grandstands being re-installed and certified, grass filling in around the circuit and Pre-Grid gates being completed. Over the season, club race entries averaged about 61 per race. With our dedicated staff of race event volunteers we were able to run a safe and efficient race season.

In the weeks between our race events, the Try-A-Kart directors Phil Haggerty, Steve Orton and Alan Haggerty with the assistance of the club members were able to coordinate 6 very successful Try-A-Kart events, where close to 500 members of the public were able to try one of the real racing karts that we have assembled for our Try-A-Kart fleet. Members of the public from ages 5 to 75 were able to try either a Kid Kart, Cadet Kart, Junior Kart or Senior Kart(all 4 cycle powered) by going through our program. This included: a one hour classroom session, 2 lead and follow sessions and 1 solo session with all equipment being provided by CKRC. This program has proven to be a great way to entice new racers into our sport and a great way for the club to raise funds. Many new members and even a few raceday volunteers became involved with our club through this program.

New to the CKRC in 2015 was the introduction of the Kid Kart Program for new drivers aged 5-7 years old. This program ran on Monday evenings and was co-hosted by our manager Fred Causer and Joey Guyon from Overdrive Motorsports. 34 young drivers drove a Kid Kart through the Try-A-Kart Program, 16 new drivers tried a Kid Kart during the Monday sessions resulting in 6 new drivers joining with their own equipment. We see this as a great way to introduce the kids to karting before they become entrenched in another sport and to begin a feeder series for the junior classes that are always changing with drivers moving along in the Junior classes.

We were also able to hold our annual Summer Driver Camp for all the Junior aged drivers in the club. This was an intensive 4-day practice and skill exercise that saw many of our new drivers take multiple seconds off their lap times. This also gave the kids and parents a chance to build camaraderie in a non-competitive karting environment.

Final CKRC 2015 Championship Standings:

Junior 1 Briggs:
1 12 Enzo Sartor 1737
2 88 Jonathan Howe 1681
3 68 Alexander Berg 1525

Junior 2 Briggs:
1 7 Jill Altamirano 1775
2 26 Garrett Cook 1647
3 165 Steven Humeniuk 1611

Junior Rotax:
1 206 Naila Deen 1292
2 238 Evan White 992
3 55 Brennan Peters 933

Rotax Masters:
1 5 Alan Haggerty 1768
2 9 Josh Carter 1711
3 161 Peter Magee 1611

MicroMax:
1 14 Shawn Kozma 1357
2 17 Spencer Perreault 1177

MiniMax:
1 8 James Altamirano 1781
2 12 Connor Peet 1171
3 185 Tyler Kozma 1126

Shifter:
1 337 Nathan Bartley 1642
2 75 Nils Joergensen 1354
3 35 Justin Woolsey 848

Senior Briggs Light:
1 5 Alan Haggerty 1665
2 15 John Kwong 1639
3 44 Mark Hillier 1577
3 88 Markus Kottmann 1577

Senior Briggs Heavy: (Masters)
1 84 Dennis Bauer 1125
2 25 Patrick Tompkins 782
3 111 Phil Haggerty 538

Senior Rotax:
1 48 Mark Newson 1714
2 15 John Kwong 1657
3 36 Nigel Baines 1579

For 2016 we will continue to add improvements to our facility and will continue our usual program of an 11 race club championship, the Alberta Shoot-Out regional, the Summer Junior Driver Camp, the Try-A-Kart Program, Kid Kart Program and our annual 3 hour endurance race.

By: John Kwong for CanadianKartingNews.com