WHITBY FREE PRESS, DURHAM MOVES, APRIL 27, 1988, PAGE Ai BOB CLARKE waves the flag to begin the first race Saturday of the Whitby Kart Club at Family Kartways. Clark is again race director for the club and is aiming to increase membership. Free Press photo Whitby Kart Club is largest in Canada ' Karting in Whitby, as sport and business, has moved a long way since taken over by the Clark family 25 years ago. Family Kartways, located off Highway 12, has the largest kart track in the world with two miles of pavement and is home for the largest kart racing club in Canada. With the track and other recreation activities employing about 100 as the summer season gets -underway, it is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Durham Region and regularly draws many visitors from the Toronto area. Yet it now represents only about two per cent of sales in the larger Clark operation known as FKL (named after Family Kartways Ltd.), formed in 1982, that includes a plant in Ajax which manúfactures karts that are shipped all over the world. "We kind of fooled ourselves," admits Bob Clark, who operates the Clements St. plant, 'which employs 22, as well as kart tracks in Kitchener, Hamilton and Wasaga. "Five years ago we wouldn't have believed we would have all this." His father Richard Clark remains "very active" in the operation of the Whitby track he bought in 1963, about four years after it began as a dirt track. It was in 1963 that Bob, then 15, began part-time work there for his father, who was a kart racer as well as a stock car driver at the former Pinecrest raceway, once the hub of stock car racing in Canada, now the site of a subdivision in north Toronto. Bob Clark was one of the founders of the Whitby Kart Club begun in 1974. "There's only the three of us left," he says, mentioning Johnny Boyce and Brian Murdoch, the others remaining in the club from that founding group. The club offers competitive racing for members, not only at the superb Whitby facility but also in Kitchener and Hamilton. "The club has raced as far away as Windsor and Montreal and New York state," he points out, explaining that kart racing "is a stepping stone to bigger and better things." He mentions Scott Goodyear of Toronto, a former racer in Whitby, who now pilots Indy cars, and Paul Tracy, a former club member who now races Formula 2000 vehicles. Clark was club race director for 12 years, and membership at one time climbed te 300, making it the largest in North America. There are now about 150 members, which represents an increase from recent years, and Clark has just returned, after a few years' absence te look after other business, as race director. "'ve decided te come back and help reorganize," he says, mentioning he'd like te see a return to the high membership. "It has been growing in the last few years," he says. "I want te ensure the growth continues." Members must be minimum 8 years old to join, and Clark estimates 15 to 20 per cent of the current membership is female, compared tethe few girls during the club's earlier years. "I guess it's just because it's something te do, and the attitude today is different," he explains. At one time, most members were also from Toronto, but now about half are from Durham Region. Clark says club membership is usually the result of what he describes as a "three-tier" process. People visit the track and rent the karts, eventually getting their own karts and becomina part of 4.1 t*f4 '4) * Kartway's Fun Club, which has about 200 members who use the separate track at the Whitby location. "It's sort of the middle level between the visitor and racer,". says Clark of the "second tier." Clark says there's no real competition in the Fun Club, but those members who aspire to race then usually join the Kart Club, the "third tier." He notes that kart driving (race enthusiasts prefer the image of "karting" rather than the once often used term "go-karting") has also changed with the introduction of the displacement of the noisy two-cycle karts by the four-cycle karts which he says are quieter, safer, easier to maintain and, without figuring inflation, cheaper. Top speed on the new karts is about 50 kph, although racing models are faster and the "super-karts" raced in such locations as Daytona will reach 160-170 kph. the karting sport in 1957, with a lawnmower engine powering a homemade chassis. At any rate, California and Ohio are the biggest states for karting, says Clark. FKL, or more precisely, Clark himself, has also designed about 200 kart tracks. "It's something that came out of learning," he explains. "I had the chance because of the large track in Whitby." Clark also describes the Whitby facility as probably the best for training. For his chain of tracks in Ontario, known as Kartworld, Clark is now planning two additions this year, one in Etobicoke and one in Brampton. He recently received unani- mous approval from Etobicoke council to go ahead on that location, after almost ail .councillors climbed into the karts to take a spin and see what the operation is all about. "The biggest hassle is getting by the local government," he says f such a -lications again Clark's manufacturing company mentioning the quieter models as produces from 1,500 to 1,600 a god r e fo e wer commercial karts (the type rented a good reason for fewer at tracks) a year as well as 200 obections. bumper boats. nAs far as mater racing, it is "We just shipped two orders to one of the safest and cheapest Japan," he says, mentioning As a s previous orders for tracks in As a sport, Clark says karting Greece, Crete, Egypt, Saudi tenlds te be a "transitional thing," Arabia, Australia, Panama, Peru, maintaining interest for four to AaiAsKorea and Guatemala.e five years before participants "go South ore a nGtemala.e on to other things. 'We're just starting te teuch the "I enjoy it. I know it's my Pacific Rim," he says- business, but the competitive end On one business trip from has always been exciting to me, Belize to Guatemala City, t mechanical problems led to a .landing in El Salvador - at a GM saf ty military airport - and a brief stay in jail until explanations were made. . waMT g Øven The companys "most consis- d g tent" customer, however, is the General Motors of Canada U.S. president George A. Peapples will "You can count on a couple of receive an award of excellence million dollars worth- of orders in from GM and the Canadian the U.S. every year," says Clark. Safety Association on April 27. . The U.S. has 1,250 kart tracks, The award recognizes GM's compared to the 115 now in outstanding construction and Canada, and Long Beach, safety performance during the $8 California- and Mansfield, Ohio, billion expansion and modern- each claim to be the birthplace of ization in the Oshawa Autoplex. MEMBERS of the R & R Trick Team of Oshawa- Whitby showed their BMX freestyle skills recently at an Oshawa publie school. Scott Baker of Whitby is a team member. Free Press photo r Lie