South West Kart Club

This plaque is located opposite Airport Rd at 26 Grayland St.

The South West Kart Club, based at the Cobden Racecourse Reserve, was formed in August 1992 by district people who had raced previously at Geelong and Ballarat.

The first meeting was held at the Cobden Hotel where a decision was made to build a first-class bitumen track specifically for go-kart racing. A plan was drawn up with the track being 973 metres in length and eight metres in width.

Foundation members included Shane McPhee, Bruce Rankin, Peter Duynhoven and Ian Templeton with Russell White joining soon after.

After much hard work from members and the local community who were right behind the project from the start, the track was finally ready for racing in March 1996. Since then, it has enjoyed rave reviews about its plentiful passing positions, great layout, long straights and the ability to cater for large fields.

Club days are for members to come together and race each other, within classes, in a relaxed friendly environment for trophies presented at the conclusion of the day’s racing. The club also offers open race meetings that can be accessed by karters from across the country. These days are extremely popular and attract many enthusiasts to Cobden.

Sprint karting is for people of all ages and is very much a family-friendly environment. Children can practise from six years of age and start racing at the age of seven, and there is no age limit for the senior classes.

Outstanding karters have included Chad Sullivan who was voted Senior Karter of the Year in 2003 and 2004, David Albert won the same award in 2005, and Kyle Rethus took the honours in 2013 and 2014. These awards are voted on by officials at open race meetings throughout the State.

Club life members are Shane McPhee (dec), Russell and Linda White, Ian White (dec), David Albert (dec), Ingrid Baxter (dec), Chris Place and Peter McDonald.

Karting has a strict set of rules and regulations to ensure maximum fairness for all competitors which helps promote the ability of drivers and keeps cost to a minimum.

All karters must hold a Karting Australia licence to compete. An annual fee is required to hold a current licence.

Input is always welcome from members. It can be directed through any committee member or by attending the monthly meetings.

Karters compete in classes on race-day. This means that you race with karters of similar weight (and sometimes age). Classes consist of Cadets (7-12 Years), Juniors (12-15 Years) and Seniors (15 years-plus), all in various weight divisions.

The facilities available at the Kart Club came to the fore when BlazeAid volunteers used the area as a base when supporting the Cobden and district community after the St Patrick’s Day fires in 2018.

Across the Cobden camp, 669 registered volunteers completed 5600 volunteer days at properties impacted during the fires.

BlazeAid coordinator Chris Male made special mention of the Kart Club facilities: “Thank you to everyone who assisted and made it possible to have such a great venue and so much support.”