Racing under lights brings a whole new dynamic to the fast-paced sport of karting.
Racing under lights brings a whole new dynamic to the fast-paced sport of karting.
Karting under lights isn’t unheard of, but it doesn’t happen all that often.
Drivers and spectators will get the chance to experience the extra dynamic at a special meeting at Apparelmaster Raceway on Alley Rd tomorrow and Saturday.
The event is being organised by Auckland’s Richard Bethune, the Rotax engine distributor for New Zealand and Australia, who was also part of an “under lights” event at Baypark in 2019, as well as events at Hampton Downs and another kart track under the Australasian Auto-Sport Alliance sanctioning body.
The most recent opportunity to race presented itself about a month ago.
“So in a month, we went around three tracks, Hamilton, Tokoroa and Te Puke, and the Te Puke club were by far and away the most enthusiastic,” he says.
“So I went to them and said, ‘If you want to do a meeting, this is the weekend I want to do it, and how about we bring the lights in and do something completely different?’”
Prior to the 2019 meeting, Richard believes the last night meeting in the North Island was in 2014.
“Dunedin runs an annual one, and I used to organise that up until eight years ago when I moved to Auckland. I just think a night meeting is a really cool thing to do.”
A full range of classes will be on the programme catering to a range of ages, from 6-year-olds up to the senior classes.
“For the kids, we’re [leasing] them a different engine type that they don’t normally get to run under Kartsport rules, so that’s really gone down exceptionally well.”
The 6 to 9-year-olds will get to use a Rotax Micro Max and the 9 to 12-year-olds the Rotax Mini Max.
“I think we’ve got close to 30 entries for those two classes, and we’re hoping for a little over 100 [in total].”
Night kart racing was held at Baypark in 2019.
The meeting will start around 3.30pm tomorrow, with practice taking up the whole of day one and the later sessions after dark.
“So we’ll get a couple of rounds of Friday afternoon on the track from 3.30pm ‘til 10pm, so we’ll get a couple of rounds of practice under the lights so they can see what racing under lights is all about. Then on Saturday at 12.30am, it all starts again.”
The format will be different to the normal Kartsport New Zealand format.
“They’ll qualify for grid positions for heat one, and the best lap time for heat one sets the grid for heat two. An accumulation of points sets the grid for the pre-final, and the three of those races give you the starting grid for the final.
“We are giving them a good distance - most kart races are about 14 laps, but we’re giving them 25 lap finals under lights.”
Racing once the sun goes down adds a different dynamic.
“Your perception of braking distance changes, and some drivers find that a really good thing. Others find it quite unnerving that it’s a bit slower.”
He expects the first taste of driving under lights to be “a bit clumsy” for those without experience.
“But by the second and third run, they’ve usually got the thing sussed. But that’s why we don’t really want to give them a lot of practice. This meeting is not about drivers hoping to get Formula 1 drives. This is genuinely - it’s the end of the year, let your hair down, have a good time, really enjoy yourself and do something completely different, which is racing under lights.”
Racing classes will include 12-15 juniors, Senior Rotax Light karts, Senior Rotax Heavy and the geared Rotax DD2 karts.
“They have an extra eight or nine horsepower, a two-speed gearbox and front brakes, so they are quite a lot faster.”
