News             50 years of Karting! 1959-2009!

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Only 2 months 'til the first race of 2010!

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3/3/2010 - GVKC had a pretty good February. No, we weren't racing, but we did get quite a bit done in preparation for the next season. Over the past month, we firmed up the 2010 race schedule, finished and published the 2010 Rulebook, did some promotional activities and conducted the annual membership meeting. We even have the web page for the points standings updated and ready for the racing to begin.
A big Thank You goes out to everyone that participated in the Eastview Mall show on Feb 19th and 20th. During those two days, they distributed over 200 GVKC brochures and talked with countless people about karting. There were several karts on display including 2 cycles, 4 cycles, Kidkarts, and even a vintage kart available for people to view. Interest was high among the mall visitors with many of them saying they wanted to come out to see what goes on at the track on a race day. Many (most) weren't aware that this was available so close to them and other's were not aware that this sport is not just for kids and that a lot of current karters left high school decades ago! Some were interested in coming to the membership meeting being held on Feb 28th. In addition to the karts on display, a video loop was played showing some of the racing from last season. A couple specific thanks go to Jeff Stark for his work in getting the event to happen in the first place and to Todd Clicqunoi for his help with the planning and being an overall good guy. 
I'll take a break here to mention that Jeff and his son Joshua will be heading out to Kershaw N Carolina later this month to participate in the Gold Cup National race on the 12th - 14th. Good luck guys!
I'd have to say that the Membership meeting on the 28th was one of the best ones I have attended. I saw a lot of new faces as well as some that I haven't seen in quite some time. The meeting started off with Bill Glitch giving a bit of track history and then went right into the plans for the coming year as well as an overview of our intentions to have Avon Kart Speedway be a place where racers and their families can come to compete in a friendly environment. The emphasis here was to have fun and not to get so wound up about the championships to lose perspective. The BOD members each gave a short self-introduction with a description of what they do for the club. We also discussed the need for members to step up and volunteer for race day responsibilities as well as participate in the monthly work days we are planning to have this year. 
There was a good discussion about racing in the rain. The Challenge series and the Batavia club members will be racing in the rain if needed this year. With this in mind, the BOD thought that we should bring this up for the members to decide if GVKC should also race in the rain. After discussion, a vote was held and the result was that GVKC would not be racing in the rain. What this means is that if it rains on a day when the Batavia club is attending, they will be racing for their club points. If GVKC members wish to participate, they will have to pay an entry fee to the Batavia Club since the event will be sanctioned and conducted by their club at that point. GVKC club points will be distributed per the rainout policy posted in the 2010 rulebook.
The results of the membership meeting were quite successful this year. Many people were encouraged enough by what they heard to sign up as members for 2010. In fact, we had 48 members sign up on Sunday! We had 7 new members sign up and also had a good contingent of Oval racers show up to hear what we had planned and were pleased by what Bill & Sandra Barkley have been putting together for the 2010 oval series. If the meeting is any indication of what to expect for 2010, then it looks to be a banner year for GVKC - if we all work together, we can ensure that it is!

2/2/2010 - I have some more news today. The Annual membership meeting is planned for Feb 28th at 11:30am. The meeting will be held at the Avon VFW which is at 5480 E. Avon Road (Rt 5 & 20 east of Avon). We will have information to share about the upcoming sprint season as well as the new Oval races planned for 2010. As an incentive for joining GVKC at the meeting, anyone who does so will be entered in a drawing for a free clone motor! In addition, display plaques will be included with any memberships purchased at the meeting. The plaques are used to mount the finishing position tags that are awarded at the end of each weeks event. Members wanting plaques later in the year may have to purchase them separately. If you know of anyone interested in finding out more about karting, invite them to this meeting.

Work continues on bringing some special events to the 2010 GVKC schedule. A vintage karting event is being organized for July 30 & 31st and a Celebrity race is in the works for July 25th. More info and possible events will be announced as they become available. 

GVKC will be presenting a kart display at Eastview Mall on February 19th & 20th. Jeff Stark (585-352-4688) and Todd Clicquenoi (585-545-4004) are organizing the event. Please contact them if you would like to help out by manning the display or to see if they are in need of help or materials. 

There is some good and bad news coming out of the Batavia Kart Club recently... First the bad news ..... for reasons beyond their control, there will be no kart racing at the Batavia kart track in 2010. The good news is that the club has elected to stay together and is planning to have a 10 race schedule in 2010. They will race at a few NY tracks this year - and have asked to have 6 events at the Avon Kart Speedway. We have welcomed them to come and race with us on selected Sundays throughout the coming year. 

A lot of effort has gone into reviewing and updating the GVKC Rulebook. Work is almost complete and final review will take place shortly. Look for the 2010 rule book to be posted on this web site early next week.

Remember.... Most People that don't like Karting have probably never heard of it. Spread the word and let people know about the best kept secret in motorsports!

1/11/2010 - Its a new year! Hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday season. Plans have been taking shape for the 2010 race season. The 2010 schedule has been posted and includes all of the verified events for the coming year. There may be more to come, but we haven't finalized plans for them yet. This years schedule includes 16 club races with the best 12 counting for championship points. 9 events are required to receive awards.

As you review the schedule, you will also notice that we are planning to have weekly races on the Oval as well. Briefly ... the plan is to conduct the oval races on Saturday mornings, starting around 9:30. Sprint practice will Start immediately after the Oval races are completed (somewhere around Noon). We are introducing the 4 cycle "Clone" motor to GVKC via the oval. The clone is becoming very popular around the country and we hope to capture some of this enthusiasm right here at the Avon Kart Speedway. Bill and Sandra Barkley have been working hard researching the engine and the rules being used by other area tracks that are running the clone and have developed a rulebook to be used for racing them on the oval. They are also in process of setting up shop to supply chassis, parts and supplies for track-side support. The rules have been developed to be compatible with other tracks in the area. To control costs the motor will be restricted to a predominantly stock condition. The racing should be close and fun! Bill also had a request to allow the flatheads to run on the oval and he is making allowances for that, but his main focus will be the clone. 

Like last year, the NESS Regional races will be combined with the Oswego/GVKC/Cherry Valley Challenge series. This 5 race series includes 2 races here, 2 at Cherry Valley, and 1 in Oswego. WKA bonus points can be transferred to a WKA National series. The Challenge series offers a year-end payout based on finishing position and number of average entries in each class. Unlike last year, the series races will not be counted toward Avon club race points, but GVKC bonus points will be awarded to members participating in each Challenge race. 

Everyone understands that the economy is tough right now - that's one reason for getting the clone class up and running - to give people the opportunity to get into kart racing as affordably as possible. Unfortunately, the costs of overhead at the track keeps creeping up. This, along with the necessity to have enough funds to maintain and improve the facility results in a modest increase in the cost of club racing in 2010. After a lot of discussion, the BOD has decided not to raise the cost of membership for 2010. Instead, the Associate Membership has been eliminated. For 2010, we will have either members or non-members. Jr drivers will be required to have an adult member as their sponsor. Membership allows free pit passes for all GVKC races at Avon Kart Speedway (for the entire season, this is a $240 value for just $90). In addition, the member's entry fee for the 1st class is increasing from $25 to $30, additional class entries remain unchanged ($20). Non member entries were increased by $5 for both the 1st class and additional classes. Saturday practice fees were unchanged. I will have the 2010 Fees posted shortly - as soon as I can get everything updated and uploaded to the site. 

There will be more info to come as people remind me of things I forgot to put up here ... or if new information comes along. If you have comments or suggestions for the BOD, call or email anyone in the contacts list.

That's all for now.

11/30/09 - I forgot to mention that Mike McManus still has some DVDs available  chronicling the 2009 season. There is video and pictures from every event of the past season. The running time of the video is roughly 43 minutes! Mike is offering the DVDs for $7 if you pick it up at his house in Marion, or $10 if you want him to mail it to you. He gave me his home address, but I figure it's better if I just post his email address for you to contact him and make arrangements to get one. Here it is ....mwmcmanus@yahoo.com  Here's his phone number if that would be easier.... 315-573-3873. Its really a cool video showing virtually everyone that ran a kart at the track this year. It also has shots from the Challenge series - both home and away!

11/27/09 - It's been a while since the last update. Hope everyone had a good time at the awards banquet a couple weeks ago. I plan to have pictures up shortly from the banquet. Stay tuned.

Seems like everything is happening at warp-speed lately - or maybe I'm just getting old. Wasn't it just a little while ago that the race season ended and now - just Yesterday - we celebrated Thanksgiving! Where did November go? 

Bill and Sandra Barkley have been using their time to work on developing a set of rules and a class structure for racing the clone engines on the oval in 2010. Many of you may have seen his email about the testing they have been doing this month. All told they ran over 1600 laps and had only one problem - the stock muffler broke off about 400 laps in. This isn't really a problem since the plan is to remove the muffler and replace it with a header to get the heat away from the driver's shoulder. On the end of the header will be a small muffler. This muffler has been specifically selected so as to keep the RPMs down on the motor. Even with the muffler, it turns around 5700 RPM and produces similar lap times to what we were seeing with the stock animals during the fall series. There has been a lot of interest within the club and several people went out to the track the day after the banquet to try out the kart. The object of the clone classes is to provide a very inexpensive way for people to come in and get involved in the sport of kart racing. The rules package is written with this in mind. Bill has been reviewing rules from other tracks racing the clone as well as the AKRA (American Kart Racing Association) and is trying to come up with the best fit for Avon. At this time, it appears there will be 5 classes. There will be a light and heavy for both Jr and Sr drivers and there was a request to have a flathead class. More info will be shared as it becomes available. 

My wife has been doing most of the score-keeping for the last year or so and as a thank-you (at the banquet) she received a bright yellow shoulder bag that has "I Love Kart Racing" written on the side of it. She was happy to get it and takes it to her work every day carrying whatever it is that women carry around in those big bags all the time. She told me an odd thing happened the other day. One of the company recruiters dropped by her cube and while there, happened to notice this not-so-subtle bright yellow bag sitting next to her desk and as a result, asked her about kart racing. As it turns out, he was quite interested in learning about it and has a child that may also be interested in trying it. I hope they do and I hope they have a great time karting. The main reason I'm mentioning this is that it shows how any one of us can help promote karting and maybe stop it from being the best kept secret in racing. You might not think so, but a lot of people might be interested in what you do for a hobby - and if they knew that something like this was available locally, they might just want to get involved too. Try it out at some of the holiday parties that you may be going to in the next month or so. You may be suprised at just how interested other people become. Now is a good time to let people know about karting - so they have plenty of time to get ready for the 2010 season should they decide to try it out. We can all help promote karting and as we all know - bigger fields usually means bigger fun! 

John
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