It is no secret that when it comes to football, cricket and a host of Olympic sports ranging from rowing to mountain biking, Tasmania has some of the best venues in Australia.
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What may not be so well known is that in terms of venues and facilities, the same can be said for karting.
A state with a population of just half a million has no fewer than four tracks - at Richmond, near Hobart, Archerville, just outside Launceston, Australia’s oldest at Burnie and Smithton’s built for the 1996 Australian championships.
Archerville has also hosted national titles four times, most recently in 2008, capping a colourful history dating back half a century.
Situated sufficiently far up Pipers River Road to be out of earshot of its Turners Marsh neighbours, the land was originally donated by the Archer family in 1966.
The original dirt track was upgraded in the early 1970s to provide the 770-metre bitumen track that remains today.
It is owned by Launceston Kart Club which has a loyal membership of about 75 who pay annual dues of $200 plus a licence fee of the same amount.
Ages range from six to 70-plus driving karts which cost anywhere between $3000 to the $10,000 top-end TAG 125cc models capable of 140 km/h.
Club president Stuart Lee is an affable chap whose motor obsession even stretches to his day job with RACT Insurance.
“If you built this from scratch it would probably cost between two and three million dollars but now in terms of complex and facilities it’s the equivalent of anything in Australia,” Lee said.
“It’s such a family orientated sport.
“I took my son to a meet recently and there were 16 drivers on the grid and they all had their fathers watching.
“Karting families really stick together.”
The point is borne out by Troy Stone, a Launceston driver practising in his TAG 125 whose parents were both members of the club.
“I reckon I first came out here when I was a couple of weeks old. It’s in the blood,” he said.
“It is a family sport. I go away for weekends with my parents and I’m 24.
“The feeling you get in a race is pretty hard to describe and one you keep wanting to feel.
“As for the venue, we are pretty privileged to have it.”
It is common knowledge that countless top drivers in a multitude of motorsports started out in karts.
A scroll through the Karting Australia honour roll reveals such names as Daniel Ricciardo, Mark Winterbottom, Marcos Ambrose, Russell Ingall and Jason White, those subsequent careers extending to such diverse motorsport branches as F1, Supercars, NASCAR and tarmac rallying.
However, keen to prove that not everyone who races karts is destined for those heights, I accepted the club’s offer of a few laps with the sort of inane grin deployed by Homer Simpson when faced with doughnuts.
Squeezing into a seat so low to the ground that your butt could give an accurate ground temperature reading, you head off around the 770m powered by the same size engine you would normally use to keep your grass short.
But mowing the lawn has never been this much fun.
Even inside a tight helmet with a chilly breeze blasting at my face, it was impossible to get rid of the Homer-doughnut grin.
With each lap confidence grows in line with wheel temperature, enabling experimentation at corners with ever tighter race lines and more extravagant exit slides.
Braking with the left foot takes a bit of getting used to but the growing confidence soon limits use of the brake to just the end of a couple of straights.
Much like Launceston’s Supercar venue Symmons Plains, the city's karting equivalent is deceptively undulating. Both look reasonably flat at first glance and only really reveal their topography from a driver’s seat.
However, the real extra dimension comes when other racers are added to the equation, especially if they happen to be teenage offspring eager to upstage doddery old Dad.
Watching another craft darting around your peripheral vision is uncannily like the battle scenes from Star Wars, Top Gun or Firefox, although Luke Skywalker never had to explain Darth Vader’s sudden trip to A&E to his mother.
That’s a bad analogy because Darth ended up being his father which means Luke would actually have been explaining to his own grandmother. OK, Tom Cruise never had to tell Mrs Kilmer why young Val would be late home from flying school. Yeah, that’s better.
Ultimately, paternal instincts just about over-ruled genetic pride and we emerged unscathed but the thought of sharing the track with 15 rivals all trying to take the same line through corners is pretty daunting.
A membership of just 75 suggests there is plenty of room on the Archerville track for newcomers.
As Stone pointed out: “It can be expensive but it doesn’t need to be.”
Launceston Kart Club stages four open race meetings per year plus a couple of club days and come and try sessions.
Karting Australia is holding a “Get started in karting” day for interested 6-14-year-old junior sprockets in Hobart, priced at $195 which includes a free 12-month licence on Saturday, November 26.
Details on all the above are on the LKC website, Karting Tasmania’s Facebook page or phone the affable Stuart on 0400 793921.