Search for go-karts draws blank

GONE KART: Young driver RonanMurphy and his Praga go-kart which was stolen from the Hawke's Bay Karting Club's Roy's Hill raceway a fortnight ago, along with a trailer and six other club karts. The teenager's grandfather is now offering a reward for information leading to recovery of the stolen property.

The global reaches of social media seem to be fighting a losing battle in the hunt for seven go-karts which were stolen almost two weeks ago from Roy's Hill race track, near Hastings.

But it's not stopping a victim's grandfather Kevin Murphy who has launched a reward with a special number to contact with information about the whereabouts of any of the machines which disappeared, along with a distinctive enclosed, custom-built racing team trailer, and six other club-training karts on the night of July 25-26.

Mr Murphy, grandfather of budding racer Ronan Murphy, the son of four-times Bathurst 1000 winning motor-racing driver Greg Murphy, believes there must be innocent people who have some knowledge of what happened to the go-karts.

"It's out there all over social media, nationally, internationally," he said. "It's gone viral, even people who know nothing about karts are sending it on, but we've heard nothing ... Yesterday he said he's offering a reward, and anyone with information can call 0273-862131, or call the police.

They included a Praga go-kart being raced by junior driver Ronan, and six training karts used by the Hawke's Bay Karting Club in its Have A Go-Karts introductory programme.

The purple-and-yellow racing kart had a Junior 125 Rotax Evo engine, the other karts did not have starters, and the steel-side Murphy team trailer had a yellow, black and green KartSport sticker on the upper right rear, and the number 51.

The club karts were taken from locked containers used for storage at the raceway. Thieves cut through locks to remove the karts, probably early on the Sunday morning, hours before the start of another club race day.

Another burglary attempt followed two nights later, but was possibly interrupted, when several driver-training karts were removed from storage and left on the grass where they were discovered by a security officer.

Hawke's Bay Police tactical crime squad member Senior Constable Pehi Potaka said police are investigating reports about which direction the trailer may have gone.

"I would have liked to have thought we'd have something definite," he said, "but the reality is ... nothing."