Vale: Col "POP" Grother

VALE: Colin 'Pop' Grother

Central Queensland Karting pits will be not quite be the same with the passing of one of the sports most passionate and loving people – Col ‘Pop’ Grother.

Col Grother, who has supported Neil and John from when the Grother family entered the sport in 1992, passed away on Saturday March 30.

Neil Grother was a member of the Bundaberg Kart club whilst a youngster and travelled far and wide competing with major success on the more common Dirt tracks in the 70’s with his father Col as a mechanic and mostly for support. After a several year absence from the sport for the birth of Neils only son John the family decided to get back into Karting for a sport the whole family could enjoy.

The family would race every weekend between Gladstone, Bundaberg, Rockhampton and always with Pop coming along for the ride. When John’s racing started to get serious with further travel required, Pop was called in as a driver to the further events such as CIK and Ford Kartstars.

Pop was always on the fence for every one of John’s laps with his stopwatch and would often come back to the pits and read out every lap identical to the onboard lap timer.

Pop was widely known in the sport as one of the kindest and most gentle people and always being to see the good in a situation. He grew particularly fond of several karting families and always looked forward to seeing them at the Championship events John would be racing at.

The response from a post on facebook by John following the passing of his Pop was quite overwhelming for the family with hundreds of messages of support which has helped the tight family over the past few days.

After a short battle with Cancer and being cared for by Neils brother in Brisbane for the last few weeks Col passed in his sleep on the 30th March. A funeral service will be held in Bundaberg at the Bundaberg Bible Chapel (110 Mcarthys Rd) at 1.30pm on Monday the 8th.