KEY OUTCOMES FROM THE NKC CONFERENCE IN SYDNEY

The National Karting Council (NKC) of the Australian Karting Association (AKA) met in Sydney across the weekend.

Throughout the weekend, the NKC discussed a number of points on the agenda including two clashes of significant events on the 2013 calendar.

The preliminary schedule for the 2012/2013 Rotax Pro Tour included an event on the same date as the All Ladies Race Day in January and another in Geelong on June 29/30, which clashes with the Queensland State Championship.

The All Ladies Race Day has been held annually on the January long weekend since 2007 to raise money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation, at the iconic Lithgow City Raceway in New South Wales. It is now a nationally recognised event and in 2013 will be supported by the the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport’s Women in Australian Motorsport program.

During the conference, the NKC negotiated with the state bodies in question regarding the above-mentioned dates and have resolved the following:

The Rotax Pro Tour event scheduled to be held at Melbourne’s Todd Road circuit on January 26/27 will remain unchanged;
The Rotax Pro Tour event scheduled at Geelong on June 29/30 will be moved to another date. The final date for this event will be notified as soon as possible;
Pending the date that the Geelong event is moved to, the events scheduled for Cooloola Coast in June and Ipswich in July may also be altered.

“It is very unfortunate that the scheduling of these events have clashed but in the best interests of the sport nationally, the alteration for the Geelong event will need to be made,” said National President Craig Denton.

“This clash appears to have occurred due to the fact that the Rotax Pro Tour dates have never been incorporated into the National Events calendar. The solution for the future is to have these dates submitted to the NKC annually thus avoiding these conflicts.”

The NKC was also provided updates on the progress of the implementation of the New Management model for the Association. During this update it was confirmed that the National Advertising has commenced and that the process will see the board members appointed on December 8/9 2012.

An update on the future engine project for the Cadet, Rookie, National and Clubman engines was presented. The tenders for the National and Clubman engine close on October 31 while the tender documents for the Cadet and Rookie engine will be available within 14 days.

In a significant development for the younger members of the community the NKC have established a steering committee to look at a road safety initiative for children aged five to seven. This program will be led by a sub-committee chaired by Karting NSW CEO Steve King with Media & Marketing Manager Lee Hantschek, Queensland NKC co-delegate Steve Pattel and Industry representative Drew Price.

The NKC will next meet on December 8/9 in Adelaide when the next cycle of tyres will be approved for the period 1st May 2013 to 30th of April 2016.

The full minutes from the meeting will be distributed to the State Associations in the near future.