Jinba Ittai Go Kart Challenge 2014
21 November 2014 / Story by Graham Fletcher Photos by Mel Keller & Guy Coles
Founded by the Illawarra Chapter’s Peter Feutrill in 2013, the Jinba Ittai Go Kart Challenge is now a hotly contested annual event.
A strong crowd gathered in the prefect sunshine for the event with RPM‘s cheer squad, led by Ron and Bridget Gallop, wowing us all with their enthusiasm and their pom poms. Teams travelled from far and wide to compete for the bragging rights of what was to become an epic battle between ambition and ability. At the end of the day no amount of sledging was going to win the title, it was and should always be, down to a team effort.
Bryan Shedden (Illawarra) led a strong contingent up from the South consisting of Peter Feutrill, Phil Reid, Kim Ranger, Jill Feutrill and Jan Gibson. Mark Gray (Hunter) brought the hopeful from the North including Karl Mittman, Chris Rhodes, Wendy Parsonage, Lynda Gray and Andrew Mulyk. Guy Coles (Sydney) headed west with Gary Nobrega, Adam Rumjahn, Steph Katz, Joey Fong and Mel Keller. The host team, headed by Lesa Bunn (RPM), featured Jason Atkins Graham Fletcher, Ray Legge, Tammie Hotz and Sandra Duric.
After team photos, the ladies hit the track. First casualty was Kim Ranger who pushed the accelerator cable so hard that it broke and she had to retire with only 7 laps complete. Lesa Bunn pushed so hard that she decided it might be quicker to do the shortcut via the 4WD track and this didn’t prove as effective a first thought. Meanwhile, RPM’s Tammie Hotz casually cruised around the track and won the timed event by 2.492 seconds ahead of Sydney’s Steph Katz.
Next on the circuit was the men’s Race 1 and this was not going to be easy for any driver. Sydney’s Adam Ramjahn muscled the kart around the track to set the best time for the day so far with an electric time of 52.360 seconds and took race 1 by .191sec from yours truly. I on the other hand, managed to beat Sydney’s Guy Coles (Racing legend) by .249sec in a convincing show of skill, tenacity and plain good luck.
The second ladies’ race was epic with Joey Fong from Sydney deciding that Lesa may have had the right idea and tried out that 4WD track. Again Tammie cruised comfortably to win the second race by a clear 1.081 seconds. Lesa stayed on track for second place, .098 seconds ahead of Steph. All of the ladies came off the race track with sore arms and huge grins. Joey looked a sight as she entered the shed, covered in twice as much mud as Lesa and muttering something about hitting a wombat in the nearby bushland.
Race 2 for the men proved to be a classic with yours truly not wanting to lose again to the young Adam Ramjuha from Sydney. During the race, minutes felt like hours as the lead changed by miniscule amount and this reflected the passion for racing that all the contenders have. Exhaustion turned to elation when I entered the shed to see that I had produced one off lap time of 52.102 (no short cuts) and beating Adam by 0.258. Adam in turn had beaten Guy into second place by 0.577 seconds. The race for number 1 was going to be decided on thousands of a second and all contenders waited for the results to be loaded into the computer. Gillian Fletcher (RPM) and Pam Estreich (RPM) were very helpful and much appreciated timekeepers.
Bridget Gallop and hubby Ron played a deserving role in the presentations of awards as their enthusiasm throughout the entire day was outstanding. Lesa Bunn, head of the host Chapter was called to the Podium to present the perpetual trophy for 2014 which as we now know went the best team for the day. Guy Coles accepted the award again for the Sydney Chapter (2nd Year in a row) having led a marvellous team effort closely followed by RPM, Illawarra and Hunter respectively. Done and dusted for another year it was time to relax at the local RSL were many a story and a good meal was enjoyed by all. Thank you to everyone who put in the effort (supporters and drivers) and to those who travelled a long distance to make this event such a success. Congratulations to Sydney on the win and putting up their hand to host next year’s event. Hopefully this event will continue to grow in strength from year to year.
