Hello to all our members,

News Update Well to say we had a summer would be an understatement and our non-summer impacted on a number of planned events so seat time this year has been limited for many. We were forced to postpone the Vintage Festival due to the seriously bad weather and flooding in the Hawkes Bay during March, however we are now moving ahead and have confirmed with Kartsport Hawkes Bay and Kartsport NZ that we will be holding the festival on the Thursday and Friday of the Blossom Festival weekend with some limited track time also available on the Saturday based on the meeting programme. The track will also be available to us on the Wednesday for practice. Alan has let us know there will be a dinner on the Friday evening, and we have also arranged some prizes so getting your entries in early will help with the Friday evening event. Alan will let us know when the entries open and this will be forwarded onto you. We have looked into all avenues on how and where to hold the 2023 Festival having had to cancel the 2021 & 2022 Festivals and this is the best option we could come up with given what else was available on the Kartsport NZ calendar.

From members feedback we did not want to link the Festival into the Tony Wallace Memorial meeting given the status of this meeting for VKNZ and our members. Meetings for 2023 had to be applied for and registered with Kartsport before June 2022 so hence our challenge. Kartsport Christchurch have expressed their interest in holding the 2024 Festival in March so following discussions between them and VKNZ we can now confirm the 2024 Vintage festival has been added to the Kartsport calendar for the weekend of March 9th & 10th .

Kartsport The Kartsport Conference of clubs is being held in August this year in Palmerston North rather than September as in previous years. As per previous years we will be sending two representatives to the conference where we will have the opportunity to present our case on any issues and also be fully updated on Kartsport’s plans and initiatives moving forward. Obituaries

Over the last couple of month’s, we have lost VKNZ founding and life member Mark Jenkinson who made a huge contribution not only in the establishment of VKNZ but in his ongoing support and advice, he will be missed by many. We also send our commiserations to long time members and club supporters Honk Perry and WayneWe also send our commiserations to long time members and club supporters Honk Perry and Wayne Billing on the recent passing of their wives. On behalf of the VKNZ member’s, we have passed on the club’s sincere condolences to all the families.

Membership Fees With costs increasing across the board the Committee is looking at new membership fees for the coming year to help us maintain our bank balance. The membership structure has also been reviewed and we will be introducing a family membership which has previously been requested by members. The details will be released in the near future. Log Books If you are looking to get a Logbook for your kart you will now need to go through the VKNZ site to get the process underway. Again, with increasing costs for processing the logbooks the fee has been increased to $40. The change of ownership fee has also been increased to $40.

Vintage Project - gathering of vintage history Vintage are working on a project to record the history of vintage karts as used in NZ so the committee is putting a call out to anyone interested in supplying pics/info regarding their vintage karts to be collated into a “book” celebrating vintage karting in NZ.

We are also interested in info/stories on how/when clubs or tracks began. If you would like to contribute towards recording the early history, or have a query please contact on THIS EMAIL ONLY --- vintagekartbook@gmail.com In closing That’s it for now, see you at the festival. In the meantime, stay safe and well as winter starts to kick in and in case you get cabin fever this is a great time to service your trailers and gear.

Article added: Thursday 22 June 2023