GoKart Challenge 2023 Wrap-up

The annual Karting Challenge program has been run and won for 2023 but not without some controversy which I will explain later. Overall the day was an outstanding success filled with challenges that students had to overcome throughout the day.

The day is divided into 3 main sessions for the day; Practise, Qualifying and Racing. Each GoKart team member who built the Kart all take turns within each of the sessions. The middle qualifying session separates the student drivers into the five races at the end of the day. The laps are accurately timed with transponders so that the fastest qualifying times for each driver and school goes in the first fastest race with the following four races run after the preceding one. The fastest driver in the Marist Teams was Ethan James (Year 10) with a 40.8 seconds who only missed out on the fastest lap of the day by 0.4 seconds, well done! There was a total of four schools competing on the day which amounted to 10 karts running all day. The competition is fierce but fair and it comes down to the students being consistently fast and ensuring they finish the race cleanly without being involved in any incidents. Each finishing place earns individual Karts valuable points which combine together to give the final result.

It came down to the last race to decide who won the day. The Marist College Red Bull Kart of Darcy Hotston, Lachy McKellar and Ethan James were very close to the Bray Park State High school team all day and in fact finished in a tie for first place.

Well done to the Marist College Shell Helix Kart with Ben Finn, Jack Lowe and Dan Rae who did very well achieving a fourth place. The Marist College Monster Energy Kart was plagued with a few problems and was further down the order but congratulations to Jordan Collison, Spencer Rainbird and Gus Watson for never giving up.

Our Major Sponsors for the day were again Onguard Safety Training. We thank Bruce Lewis and business partner Craig Heufel for their ongoing sponsorship of this event and look forward to their continued support in 2024. Safety on the day and leading up to it is of paramount importance and as such all Marist College Ashgrove students complete the Automotive Safety Module as part of their induction. In addition to this, driver training , racing etiquette and competence is taught. All PPE and procedures are enforced by staff to minimise the risk of injury on the day. https://www.onguardsafety.com.au/

A special thank you to Noone clothing for sponsoring the Team Polo Shirts on the day. This certainly made the teams look very professional and they certainly stood out as the team to beat this year.

This special event cannot run without the support, dedication and help from many people. In addition to our Sponsors, a very special thanks to Mr Adrian Gray for his efforts with the program. To all of our Grade 11 Certificate II Engineering Pathways students for conducting themselves in a professional manner throughout the whole day. To Sr Liz Dangerfield who accompanies us each year to the event to be on hand for any minor injuries that may occur across the day. We are always happy to say that her day is usually quite boring with limited patients due to the safety regulations in place. Thanks must also go to Mr Peter Gaiter, Mr Brian Dougherty and Mr Blair Whitlock who were essential track officials throughout the whole day.

Mel Noonan Creative for the professional photography on the day. To all of the teachers and students from the following schools; Sandgate District State High School, Mueller College and Bray Park State High School. And lastly, to Angela and Brett Formosa from the Ipswich City Dirt Kart Club who allow us to host the event each year with unlimited support, we thank you!

The whole event was a tremendous success and we look forward to doing it all again next year where we hope to achieve strong performances from each of our teams.

Andrew Devoy