News             50 years of Karting! 1959-2009!

Kart Racing Most Sundays - May thru October!
Saturday 7/4 - Track is open for Practice  - 
Sunday 7/05 - Track is Closed

6/30/2009 - A lot of racing has taken place since the last update. We were anticipating a good field of Oval Racers from the Rebel Series on Fathers day. Unfortunately, very questionable weather came into play and prevented most of the Rebels from traveling out of fear of being rained out. We were happy to see the Rebels' Clark family show up and try out our track and appreciate their effort to be here despite the weather. Hopefully we can get something set up later this year so they can give it another try. For more information about the Rebel series and what they're up to, visit www.rebelseries.com.

Even with the threat of bad weather we were able to complete a full club race event that day. We had a full field of red-plate animal racers on hand and Adam Cornell took home the top spot with Ryan Bavineau a close second. The Gold-Plate class had McAndrew Gamrod besting the field followed by Tyler Orlop. 

On Saturday, 14 GVKC members traveled to Oswego to race in the WKANESS/Valley Challenge series races. The weather was beautiful all day. The races were very well run and the racing was good as well. Everyone had a great time ...... well except maybe for the woodchuck that got hit on the back-side of the track causing a Red flag condition...... and then there was the guy who's window got smashed by a flying E-Z up - and he was even having a good time up until then. Some of the best racing was in the Yamaha Sr Supercan class. The class had about 10 well-matched karts with good, close racing the entire day. Check WWW.WKANESS.Com for final results.

GVKC race #10 was run on the 28th. Another Sunday and another threat of rain..... what's new? We managed to dodge another bullet by getting the last race in just before the downpours started. The best part of the day was watching our biggest field (6) of Kid Karts that we've had in a long time. We welcome our newest kid karters... Jessica Brest and Evan Fish  - hope you have a blast! We're glad you're here! All of these kids are really experiencing the fun of driving a kart - and you can tell by seeing the smiles on their faces as they come off the track after a heat. On the other hand, I am getting disapointed in watching the 4-cycle jr classes struggle to find balance between being club members and being competitors. As the season goes on, we're seeing more protests and allegations of blocking and rough driving within both the Red and Gold plate animal classes. We (the membership) have had several discussions about acceptable practices of racing and passing etc but unfortunately there is still quite a lack of respect for others' equipment and their positions on the track. In other sports the referees dictate just how rough the game is allowed to be played. Up to this point, I think GVKC has been somewhat lenient. Lets face it, nobody likes to be the bad guy - and if they do, then maybe they shouldn't be a ref (or a cop or a judge etc)...... but at some point a line needs to be drawn for the benefit of the majority of the members. If people don't feel like the races are being directed or run fairly, or they end up taking their karts home in a basket due to no enforcement of the rules, or worse,- someone gets hurt.....it may not be long before they lose interest. It is for these reasons I suspect we will see a lot more black flags in the future - at least until everyone gets accustomed to what is acceptable and what is not.

As mentioned above, the track will be open for anyone wanting to practice on Saturday the 4th of July. It will be closed on Sunday and is not available for rent. 

Look forward a few weeks and we have the big July 25th and 26th weekend...On Saturday (7/25) Avon hosts the 4th WKANESS/Valley Challenge race and on Sunday, we celebrate 50 continuous years of racing at Avon. We are working on having an oval race that day along with a regular Club race (With trophies for the Jr class finishers) and will also be having a Chicken Bar-B-Q ($8/plate). Everyone is invited - come out to race or come out to eat or come out to watch, but just come on out!

6/15/2009 -  The WKANESS/Challenge Series races went off without a problem at Cherry Valley Kart Club on Saturday. GVKC had nearly 20 participants show up to compete. we had great weather - tho we did get a sprinkle late in the event. Thanks to everyone that showed up and helped strengthen the sport of Sprint Karting in central New York.

This Sunday, we have a special event coming to GVKC/Avon Speedway. Here's the news straight from the organizer himself... (I stole this off of 4cycle.com)

"Fathers Day 6/21 Genesee Valley Kart Club in Avon NY. will be welcoming the Rebel Series to their 1/7th mile asphalt oval. This will be the first time ever that the Rebel Series goes to asphalt!!! So come give it a try with us! Because as I always say (And this race means it the most probably) You don't know if you don't go!!!
Remember as always all are welcome, and there is no membership fees. So all are encourged to come join us for a day at the races!!!"

Mike Clark - Great Lakes Rebels www.rebelseries.com

GVKC plans to incorporate the Rebel heats right into our normal race program. This will give them plenty of time to make adjustments between heats. I plan to find a spot as near to the fence as I can so I can watch "The Greatest Show on Dirt" attack the asphalt for the first time. Anyone that attended the oval race we had last year can attest to just how fast things happen in this style of racing. These guys are bad-fast on the dirt, so I can only imagine how fast they can be on the asphalt! Normally, spectators are free at the Sprint races at the Avon track. Because of the location of the oval, the best location for viewing will be from the pits so there will be a pitpass fee for those that want to be nearest the action. To read more about the Rebel series, visit the link above.

Saturday, June 20th the track will be open for practice from about 10am till 4pm or so. It is open for both Sprint  and Oval racers. Racers typically take turns sharing the tracks so everyone gets enough seat time throughout the day.

I won't be able to get much more updated this week due to being sent out of town starting tomorrow. I will try to get the points updated later in the week, but may not be able to until after our next race.

6/7/2009 - There's been a lot of racing since the last update. I try to be more punctual with the updates, but it's been crazy-busy lately and I guess I just ran out of both time and energy... In any case, We did host the 1st WKANESS race of the year last weekend. The event was coupled with the Oswego/Cherry Valley /Avon Challenge series races. I was a bit worried that we wouldn't be able to get all the races in, but things went off without a hitch and the event was completed by 5pm. We had 16 classes, but the event was so well run, that we got all the races in with time to spare. The next WKANESS / Challenge event will be held this Saturday at Cherry Valley Raceway. You can check out their web page for more information and directions. GVKC will not be racing at Avon this Sunday, so it would a good opportunity to get out and try a new track this weekend.
The past two Sundays have been club racing-Sundays. Last Sunday was another cool day with highs in the 60s. We had a pretty fair turnout considering that  many members raced in the Regional event the day before. 
Today was rather special since we had the racers from the Batavia Kart Club visit us. What a riot! Batavia races mostly with the Briggs World Formula engine. They brought over a couple classes of the WFs and looked like they were having a good time getting accustomed to their new environment. I must say that (after today) I have found some people that have tested the plastic blocks in the hairpin even more than me! I think everyone went home in one piece and were none the worse for wear. I hope they had as much fun as it looked like they were having. As part of this exchange program with Batavia, we will be going to race at their track on August 23rd. I encourage GVKC members to go out to support that race - they certainly put forth the effort to come here. 
We have been doing fairly well this year as far as getting people out to the track, both from the standpoint of racers and spectators. It seems that every week I'm hearing that we have one or two new members signing up. Some of the bigger clubs around the country might not think it's such a big deal but if all of our registered racers showed up to race on a Sunday, we would have over 50 entries. Hopefully we can keep doing things that interest people enough to want to become involved and then do the right things to make them feel like they are being treated fairly and want to stay involved. We're trying and will continue to keep trying to do even better.
On a final note, I want to mention that this is the last week that the Muschawecks will be racing with us. They are moving to Texas in a week or so and we wish them the best of luck. For the last 3 or 4 years Kim and Barry have been driving up from nearly Pensylvania each week to let Chance and Logan race with us. It will be odd not having them around and they will be missed...... 

John
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