7 Years in the making the Calgary Kart Racing Club will be racing on their own track in Strathmore in 2015

2015 Feb 05 Track-Overhead-shot-Oct22-2014

North Star Raceway (Oct 22, 2014) Photo Courtesy of CKRC

Here is an interview with John Kwong President of the Calgary Kart Racing Club (CKRC)

Velocity said, “Congratulations on your new Kart track in Strathmore, myself being involved with oval racing at Race City this is a great accomplishment. How long have you been working on this?”

John Kwong said “This track was built in a year & a half as of today, but the under taking of finding a new location was 7 years in the making.”

Velocity asked “But to be able to find a motorsport friendly location is a great thing, how were you able to find Strathmore?”

John Kwong said “Essentially it was through a connection in the club, the Secretary of the club, Nathan Bartley of Northstar Construction. They were doing some work for the Town of Strathmore who mentioned they might have some land that would work for us. The difficulty has been to find the combination of land & a situation conducive to us going there. Not just for an approval process but also affordability. Not very many places lease land & that’s what we have worked out with the town.”

Velocity said, “So that was 7 years in total?”

John Kwong said “Yes. The searching for a location took most of the time. Once we found a location it was a year to approach the town & get the development permit in place, the actual construction took about 4 months. We are still not done but the big machine, primary work is done.”

Velocity asked “So how many members are in your club?”

John Kwong said “About 125 members: 50% are between ages 8 – 15. At the age of 15 you are a senior or adult racer. Mostly male racers but more and more female racers are getting involved.”

Velocity asked “Was there a key group that was able to get this up & running for you?”

John Kwong said “The club executive & core group of hardcore members who had resources, time & strong backs. We have a very diverse group of club members with varied resources that helped with the construction effort and all share the same passion for kart racing.”

Velocity said, “Being a motorsport nut myself & volunteer for a lot of events, I was looking at your schedule, is there a National event?”

John Kwong said “For this year, no. We don’t want to do anything too big in our first year of operations at the new facility and need time to work out any logistical issues. We still have our track manager, Fred Causer. He is going to be an integral part of working on the logistics of the new facility. We certainly want to host a regional or national event in the future and have designed our new facility to be able to host larger events.”

Velocity asked “Do you still have work to do on the track?”

John Kwong said “Mostly finishing touches, we moved a lot of dirt around so everything is a little muddy. Most of the work left to do is on the paddock & pit space areas. The racing surface is ready to go and we even have concrete apex curbing installed already.”

Velocity asked, “Can you use volunteers for that?”

John Kwong said “Yes, we always need help; we will be organizing work parties once the snow is gone for the remaining work. Right now, all the fencing is up; our scoring system is in, magnetic strips are in the track and our fencing around the pre-grid area is completed. Still on the To-Do List: we have a scale shack we disassembled from our previous location that we have to reconstruct, we have to move/re-assemble our grandstands & have them inspected and the installation of power to our facility. I think when you are building a facility like this you are never really finished as there are always improvements you want to make along the way.”

Velocity asked, “For someone new getting into it, you are going to be at the World of Wheels & the Calgary International Auto and Truck Show this year.”

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John Kwong said, “Yes, 3 days at the World of Wheels and then 5 days at the (Calgary International Auto and Truck Show). These two tradeshows give our club good exposure to the public before our season starts. One other program we use to entice people into our sport is “Try-A-Kart’, where members of our club volunteer with 1 or 2 program directors to coordinate these events. We try to do a Try-A-Kart event once a month during the racing season, weather permitting of course. Try-A-Kart allows the public to experience a real racing kart for a small fee. These are better Karts to drive than what any general rental kart facility might have, these are real race karts. The program includes: an hour-long classroom session & 3 on track sessions. So far, it has been a great way to entice new members into the club. Now
that we have the new track, we have had many people who did a “Try a Kart’ session now wanting to get their own kart to race with the club.”

Velocity said “I can see that it would not be a bad investment with Race City closing.”

John Kwong said, “For sure, it was surprising with the axe hanging over our heads for the last couple years that our club actually grew. We only knew we would be going to Strathmore late in 2013 but the club never suffered through all of it. We expect a resurgence of interest from past and new members for this year.”

Basically the kart club built and managed Varsity Speed Park. Through the years we had other user groups that rented the facility. Allen Berg Racing School had a kart racing school. We also rented to the Alberta Mini Road Racing Association, who use the smaller racing bikes & the Rocky Mountain Motard Club. Both clubs are coming with us to the new facility. With open communication & cohesiveness everyone knew what was going on & that this was really going to happen.”

Velocity asked, “So for getting into the “Try-A-Kart event”, what type of an investment would a parent be looking at?”

John Kwong said, “Currently, for the Try-A-Kart events we have two cadet karts for 8-12 year olds which would cost $75, three 4-cycle karts for the 13 year olds and older for $100 and for the driver’s with approved experience there are three 2-cycle karts for $150. For those wanting to jump right into kart ownership and depending on their budget, there are a few options separated by age groups and motor type. At the age of 7, a driver can practice & get their minimum number of laps done, so they are qualified to race when they turn 8. 8 to 12 Year olds run a Cadet kart, with a restricted Briggs & Stratton LO206 motor. These karts can range from $1500 used – $4000 new, depending on what brand of kart you buy. Even though they look basically the same, there are different chassis brands that charge different prices.
All of the 4-cycle classes we run use the spec Briggs & Stratton LO206 motor. That same motor runs a different restrictor for Junior 2 (13 to 15 years old). Junior 2 class drivers can do down the 4 stroke path or the 2 stroke path which is RotaxMax. The 4 cycle motor is going to give different power curve characteristics than a 2 stroke motor will with the 4-cycle kart being more beginner friendly.

We are starting a new program in 2015 for 5-7 year olds, which we call Kid kart, which will allow aspiring race drivers to start even younger now.”

Velocity asked, “So you can actually combine the different classes at the same time?”

John Kwong said, “Yes, the classes are mostly segregated by age & then by motor type. We only combine classes if there is only a few in each class so the raceday is more efficient. Average race entry count at our club events is around 65 entries divided amongst seven classes. I personally race 4 stroke Senior, Rotax Senior & the Shifter class. I have been racing mostly two classes on each raceday and have been doing this for a long time. When I am up to it, I do all 3 classes but 1 is more than enough for most people.”

Velocity asked, “A lot of great racers came from kart racing such as Paul Tracy, Greg Moore & locally Cameron Hayley. Any other new names we should be looking out for?”

John Kwong said, “Parker Thompson has moved into cars this year, he is from the Red Deer area but he started with our club. Stephan Rzadzinski I think was racing USF2000 and now CASCAR is from Edmonton but raced at our club.”

Velocity said, “I remember watching Chris Perris who came from the mini road racing club and was racing with the Calgary Motorcycle Racing Association (CMRA). He was unbelievable on a bike, passing guys where no one passes, he had skill & didn’t have fear, and it was exciting to watch. Same thing with a car that’s where it comes from it is great to watch someone young move up the ladder.”

John Kwong said, “Now that we have a permanent facility the opportunity is certainly set up for that to happen.”

Velocity asked, “How long has the club existed, I remember there was a track over by the airport years & years ago.”

John Kwong said, “Actually it started a lot earlier than that; my dad was racing karts locally in 1960, that’s just after the time when go karts were invented by a fellow in California. Kart racing spread quite quickly and both my Dad & Mom raced. My Mom raced for a couple years, my dad raced from 60 to 72. I started in 1981 when I was 14.”

Velocity said, “The club definitely has great history to it.”

John Kwong said, “The club has been fairly nomadic over the years using whatever they could find. They used to have a track down in Alyth by the train yards for a couple years. They would race in mall parking lots before Sunday shopping. The first track we had during my career was next to Mount Royal College on the old Air Strip by the Armed Forces Base, then we went to Deerfoot Mall for 2 years & then Kart Gardens International from 84-99. Then homeless for a year, we raced on the Race City oval: we used pylons & made a road course. Then in 2001 we built Varsity Speed Park and were there until 2013.”

Velocity said, “Just looking at the picture of your track it looks amazing.”

John Kwong said, “Thank you. It is our dream come true. As enticing as the photo is, it does not show the elevation changes.”

Velocity asked, “Do you have the elevation changes like you did at Varsity?”

John Kwong said, “More so, from highs to lows, the surveyors said there is a 30 foot change in elevation. It is quite pronounced, when you are there on the track, it is like, wow!”

The aerial shot used was from a GoPro lens which is slightly fisheyed and with this curvature you can’t see; there is blind corners and all sorts of tricky details. It is very technically challenging, much more so than Varsity Speed Park was.”

Velocity asked, “Is there anyone you want thank?”

John Kwong said, “A big Thank you to the Town Council of Strathmore. We couldn’t have done it without North Star Contracting Inc who are a major sponsor, Sagelink and Tundra Solutions were other donators to our cause. Whissel Contracting helped out with equipment & operators for scraping the track. Varsity Chrysler has been a long time supporter of the club & of course the namesake of our previous facility. As well, Cardel Homes invited us to have a demonstration race event at the Quarry Park & Polish in their parking lot the past 2 years.

For more information go to: http://ckrc.com/

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