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May 22, 2021 Vintage Speedway and Karts, by Ben O’Malley

Spectators @ Illabo Motorsport Park
May 22, 2021. Photo by Ben O’Malley
Saturday, May 22, 2021 saw Gasworks Motorsport Inc host the Bob Blacklaw Tribute Meeting — a combined Speedway Kart and Vintage Speedway Event held at Illabo Motorsport Park, followed by a dinner at the Junee Ex-Services Memorial Club.

A couple of firsts occurred at the event:

  1. We held the Karts & Midgets heats before lunch and then held the other Vintage Speedway category heats after lunch
  2. The new “Winner’s Dias” was used to present the awards to the Junior Karts winners
  3. The Junee Can-Do Recycling Trailer was borrowed so we could collect single use cans and plastic bottle to raise extra funds
  4. We experimented with videoing some of the event, including a “Live Stream” to Facebook
  5. Kyla, Gaswork’s youngest, and only female, Kart Driver debuted with her first public drive
  6. Our members helped Dylan, a young volunteer with Gasworks Motorsport Inc, to raise over $2,100 for Multiple Sclerosis research, as he mother, Miranda (who also volunteers with us) has this horrible disease

New Event Format

Illabo Motorsport Park
May 22, 2021. Photo by Ben O’Malley
In the past we have mixed Karts and Vintage Speedway vehicles through the day’s program, but having two distinct classes of vehicles using the track inter-mixed through out the day has created some interesting “discussions” over when the track should be watered and if any re-grading or levelling should occur.

As a trial, at the May 22, meeting we decided to spilt the program in two — with the Speedway Karts and the Vintage Midgets having their runs in the morning before we broke for lunch and then the remainder of the Vintage categories ran after lunch.

Initial feedback has indicated this is a popular format and we’ll run with it again at out August 7th meeting

Winner’s Dias

New Winner’s Dias @ Illabo Motorsport Park
May 22, 2021 Photo by Ben O’Malley
Thanks to the generous support from one of our sponsors, MPF Engineering, Illabo Motorsport Park now sports a Winner’s Dias, which was used to present the trophies to the winners of the Junior Division of the Sapphire Coast Kart Club.

A few of the seniors have hinted, with tongue in cheek, that they’d now like to be present trophies and to have an opportunity to stand on the Winner’s Dias.

 

 

Junee Can-Do Recycling Trailer

Junee Can-Do Recycling Trailer
@ Illabo Motorsport Park May 22, 2021
Photo by Ben O’Malley
Thanks to Junee Business and Trades were able to borrow their new Junee Can-do Recycling Trailer to collect empty single-use plastic soft drink bottles and cans so they can be taken to a Return and Earn depot to help Gasworks Motorsport Inc raise a few extra dollars to enable us to continue to host Vintage Speedway, Karts and Motorcycle events at Illabo Motorsport Park.

It may only be 10¢ per can or bottle, but every cent helps us… and it’s amazing how quickly those bottles and cans gather and build the dollars up!

We have booked the Junee Can-Do Recycling Trailer for the remainder of our events in 2021 and for all our events in 2022, so keep an eye out for it — You can’t miss the bright orange 🙂 — and place your recyclable bottles and cans in it to help us raise some extra funds.

Video from the Day

Illabo Motorsport Park May 22, 2021
Photo by Ben O’Malley
As another trial, we had a young volunteer, Levy, come along to grab some video footage of the day.

We used an iPhone 6s to film some of the event and looking at the raw footage, we are impressed with the quality. We are currently working to editing this footage into a short film that we’ll post to the Gasworks Motorsport YouTube channel when it is complete.

We also experimented with a Live Stream to the Illabo Motorsport Park Facebook Page. This was filmed with an iPhone 11 and again we were very happy with the video quality — even if we didn’t realise at the time that we had NOT turned off the Rotate Lock on the iPhone so the video is sideways — We know for next time 🙂

For our first attempt, we are pleased we got it streaming live and then it actually saved to our timeline. But we are aware we need a better microphone system when “interviewing”

view live stream »

Kyla, Gaswork’s youngest, and only female, Kart Driver
debuted with her first public drive @ Illabo Motorsport Park

Kyla, Gasworks Motorsport’s youngest, and currently only female, kart driver
@ Illabo Motorsport Park May 21, 2021
Photo by Ben O’Malley
At the young age of 12, Kyla, is currently Gasworks Motorsport Inc’s youngest, and only female, Kart Driver!

She has been attending Vintage Speedway events at Illabo Motorsport Park, with her grandparents Dick and Estelle, since we commenced operations back in 2014; now her mother Nicole also attends.

Kyla had her maiden run at Illabo Motorsport Park on May 22, 2021, in a “prototype” kart. She was the only Junior Driver in the Gasworks All-Sorts Karts Division on the day, so her first few runs where solo — a daunting prospect for a young lady! But she handled herself extremely well, having five runs in total. For her final run, she was joined by one of Sapphire Coast Kart Club juniors.

read Kyla’s story »

Supporting Multiple Sclerosis Research

Miranda and Dylan Peters with Kerry Phelan
@ Illabo Motorsport Park May 22, 2021
Photo by Ben O’Malley

Dylan Peters, is a 16 year old volunteer with Gasworks (Flaggy at Illabo Motorsport Park), as are his mum, Miranda (Catering), and dad, Ronald (Flaggy & Committee).

Dylan volunteered to run 100km in the month May for MS as unfortunately his mother, Miranda, has this horrible disease and won’t be able to heal from it.

  • What is Multiple Sclerosis?
    Multiple Sclerosis is a disease where there is damage around the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord the symptoms of this disease are very dangerous like impairment of speech and blurred vision there are many more dangerous symptoms with MS unfortunately.

Luckily, Miranda is doing very well but there are some people out there that aren’t doing so well so this is the reason Dylan was running the 100km to show his respect towards these people and his mother.

Gasworks Motorsport Inc offered to sponsor Dylan’s efforts by sharing 25% of our 50/50 raffle takings. Half the raffle takings go to one lucky winner, and normally Gasworks retains the other half to go towards our operational costs. This time the winner received $110 as a prize, Gasworks donated $60 to Dylan’s run and Gasworks received the balance.

Other generous members of Gasworks Motorsport donated over $500 to Dylan’s cause — enabling Dylan to raise at over $2,100 towards Multiple Sclerosis Research — which was quadruple of his initial goal!

read Dylan’s original post seeking sponsorship »

read Dylan’s thank you message »

Gallery by Keith Nicholls

Don’t forget to check out the Gallery by Keith Nicholls of Impact Photography.

Keith captured highlights of the action from the Bob Blacklaw Tribute Meeting at Illabo Motorsport Park; as well as the Tribute Dinner held later in the evening at the Junee Ex-Services Memorial Club.

view Keith’s Gallery »

Gallery by Ben O’Malley

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