16th March 2013

Ross is kart crazy: From that first drive, life has been all go, go, go-karts - From the Sunraysia Daily

(http://www.sunraysiadaily.com.au/story/1367095/ross-is-kart-crazy-from-that-first-drive-life-has-been-all-go-go-go-karts/?cs=12)

Track Star: he dreams of getting out on the track and taking his go-kart for a spin. (Pic: Sunraysia Daily)

FOR 40 years, Mildura’s Ross Gather­cole has been racing go-karts at the Mildura Kart Club next to the airport.

When he was a teenager, he used to laugh at Brian Thomson, the then club secretary, for driving those “little noisy cars” around the bitumen­ track.

“He gave me a drive and I was hooked,” Ross said.

“I was about 19 and up until then, football and cricket were my main sporting pursuits, while watching motor sport on TV was also an interest for me that I’ve continued with ever since.

“Touring car racing with Peter Brock, who was the main man to follow back then, and in recent years the Kelly brothers have been a great interest for me watching their progress from go-karts through Formula Ford and into the V8 Supercars.

“When I could afford to buy my own go-kart, having borrowed Brian’s­ for a couple of years, I got hold of a second-hand one and fitted it with a 125cc Victa motor mower engine.

“It was not very fast, but it did the job for a couple of years racing locally against other drivers using similar speed-rated equipment,” Ross said.

“We never used to win much back then, it was just for a bit of fun,” he said.

“When I got rid of that engine, I acquired a 100cc McCulloch racing engine.

“They were the real thing in go-kart motors at the time and went a lot quicker than the Victa,” Ross said.

“That started me on a winning streak locally and I decided to head down the highway to the Bendigo Country Titles meeting – an annual event that attracted drivers from all over Victoria and some from NSW.

“All-up, around 300 competitors.

“Back then, there were around 15 different classes from sub-juniors through to seniors – the class I was in.

“It was called the ‘Stock Box McCulloch – straight out of the box it came in from the factory and there were no modifications allowed,” he said.

“It was a level playing field and it was up to how well you drove the car and the set-up of it.

“I got flogged,” he laughed.

After racing here in Mildura against five or six drivers, to line-up in the big smoke of Bendigo with at least 30 racing drivers – Ross wondered what he’d struck.

“When I got back to Mildura the drivers here had a bit of a go at me and so I decided to ‘race away’ a bit more often,” he said.

“It paid off for me, as the following year I went to Bendigo again and won the class I was in.

“I raced around Victoria for the next 30 years.