I would like to take this opportunity to thank the club for giving Carole and myself the honour of becoming life members of the Taranaki Kart Club.

I started karting under the guidance of the late Mr Johnny Callendar who still holds some NZ Karting records. One being to drive a 250 Villiers Kart from North Cape to Bluff to publicise karting. The kart I had belonged to a friend of mine who went back to England in February 1956. So I used his kart for approximately 9 months. It was a 250 Empire Star BSA. We ran it on aviation fuel we used to buy from a rural aviation pilot. There was no decibel meters in those days, so megaphone exhausts were the bigger and noisier the better, and when the cam cut in was just like the modern expansion chamber in performance. I raced at Rotorua's Speedway o the old Taupo Road. Wanganui's Airport, Palmerston Norths Rugby Ground, even Wellingtons Basin Reserve. Hamilton's Rukahia Air Port and the air strip at Te Kuiti.

I took up karting again in approximately 1985 when I bought a gear box kart belonging to a member of staff at W R Philips, Waiwakaiho. This introduced me to modern karting because I completely missed the era of McCulloch engines. I now have the Dart Mc Cullogh vintage kart which belonged to the late Andy Fleming which I am restoring. I am trying to track down a vintage gear box kart but there are not very many around any more.

Some twelve months after I started karting again I was asked if Carole would be interested in running the shop, which was by then situated in the corner of the basement of the old club house. Twelve years later she gave up the shop to a younger person. Approximately two years later the new club house was purchased and the shop then shifted to the new site.

I gave up active karting in the mid 1990s due to a stroke, moving into the role of flag marshaller and scrutineer. I have noticed a big change in karting in the last couple of years. I will always remember the time I have spend in karting but now that I'm retired (65) I've taken up Car Club racing which I can share with my son John. We are running a 1984 Starlet with 4 AFE front wheel drive motor running North-South instead of East-West. When we are not running that I'm running Model Trains in a 6 x 4 meter shed I've had built just for the job.

Scrutineering karts is really a finishing off of a career that started at Ardmore the year Stirling Moss raced there. In those days the car clubs throughout the country provided the scrutineers for the cars to be raced at the Grand Prix. Under the watchful eyes of the Chief Inspector Mr Fordy Farland myself and 5 other local members sat our tickets for scrutineering single seater sports cars, and saloon cars. I have scrutineerred racing motorbikes under Johnny Calendars supervision at Wanganui at the Motua Garden Circuit and the present Cemetery Circuit and the airport circuit at Bell Block. Both Carole and I are going to miss all the excitement in the future. We both wish the club all the best for their new track extensions and the future of the club.

Alan Bryan