Club News
Hamilton Kart Track Undergoes Maintenance in Preparation for Busy Race Season and CRFKC
The countdown is on at the Canadian Mini Indy Kart Complex as the days tick off one by one until the track becomes the newest to host a Champion Ron Fellows Karting Challenge race on June 3. It’s now less than a month until the big race and a lingering winter forced track officials to delay some much-needed upgrades until the month of May. But over the past week, it’s been a very busy karting track, albeit with dump trucks and asphalt pavers replacing go-karts on the track.
Part of the agreement in place for Hamilton to host a CRFKC race this summer was some touch ups and adjustments to the race track. While the entire race track hasn’t been resurfaced, a good portion of it has, removing deep bumps in the road and creating a much more consistent racing surface. One section of the track was also slightly reworked as per instruction from ASN Canada.
Hamilton will be the third track to be a part of the very popular CRFKC program in Ontario. The first three seasons saw races exclusively at Goodwood Kartways and Mosport Kartways, but there was been plenty of talk of adding the fifth event and a new track to the mix, and Hamilton won that battle, with a decision coming at the end of 2017. Since that announcement, it’s been full throttle in planning and execution to ensure the facility will be ready for the big race.
Photos courtesy: HRKC
CMIKC, also known as Cameron Karting, is the home of the Hamilton Regional Kart Club, as well as a very popular Canadian Mini Indy, arrive and drive league. BirelART race team Prime Powerteam also calls Hamilton home, with Trevor Wickens managing the race team and the track operations.
Wickens has been away with the race team while the adjustments have been happening at his track and he tells CKN that while he has trust in the group doing the work, it pains him to be away from the track while the work is being done.
“Being in Phoenix this week has been stressful. Paving is expensive and you want the job done right. Luckily for us, Rich Folino, one of our team drivers, has been involved from start to finish and was on location for the duration of the upgrades.”
“Paving is extremely expensive and it’s important that the everything fits well into a capable business plan. We set forward with a reasonable budget and wanted to do the best we could with what we were willing to spend.”
Among the updates going on, Wickens explained that nearly every part of the track is receiving some sort of touch up, but the main work took place in turns one through four where excavation below the surface releveled the base before paving on top. Turn four was also extended by 35 feet.
The other main adjustment was reconfiguring turn seven and eight. Instead of using the old design of a closing radius hairpin into another hairpin. Now it’s been changed to a long 90-degree corner into a chicane.
Finally, turn ten was fully resurfaced to make sure the Rok drivers will have a smooth surface during the full throttle corner.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BiUURXrha7z/
Off the track, there is a new scale house being built as well as a new timing system being put in place to ensure there are no delays on race day.
With all the paving work nearly complete, Wickens explains that the track will be closed for a short time to ensure everything settles and lasts more than just this summer. Racers looking to get on track before the CRFKC race need to reach out to the track and follow them on their social media channels to find out when the track will be open for testing.
“The track will be closed for a couple weeks to set and cure. But as soon as the Ron Fellows events in Goodwood are over, Hamilton will be available for testing. We ask that everyone looking to test to follow our Instagram, call or email to check for track availability. Furthermore, the weekend prior to the Hamilton CRFKC race we will have a Hamilton Regional Kart Club race that drivers and family’s from other clubs are welcome to attend.”
To reach out to the track, you can call 905.679.2122, followed by extension 2. Alternatively, the track can be reached by email at info@CameronMotorsports.com.
