Excerpt from historical Club Newsletter Why me? He’s a good talker that Mark Cowley, I mean he wouldn’t take no for an answer would he? Also he is a bigger than me. (Most of our cadets are bigger than you Garth!- Ed). That was last clubday and I said OK. So here I am writing a few pages. Well, for me it all started back in 1960 in Te Awamutu of all places. I was working for the Para Rubber Company and I was basically on transfer. It was the first branch that I had managed. I ended up playing first division soccer in Hamilton and it was there that I was approached by a member of my team to see if I could find some wheels and tyres suitable for a ‘go-kart’. I did some enquiries and found that sizes were available from Firestone and Dunlop in 16” X 4” knobbly rears and 12” X 3” ribbed fronts. As they were mainly racing on dirt and farm paddocks these were ideal. At the time in Te Awamutu, I lived next door to an engineer who saw the wheels one day and enquired, “what are they for?” I told him and two months later I had a kart in the garden shed! My wife at the time, Gail was not very enthusiastic! Next what do I do for a motor? Someone suggested the local mower/chainsaw shop. Around I swooped and the owner, a guy called Mac said “out in the back shed there’s an old chainsaw and with a bit of work it might go”. In the shed there was a twin cylindered IEL Chainsaw motor (185cc) with no pipes, etc. I went back the next day and it was all clean and looked a bit different, Mac looked quite pleased with himself when he said “and it even goes too”. I was chuffed! A new starter rope, a bit of gas, a few pulls and away it went! I let it idle for a while then gave it a burst; there was smoke everywhere, but what a roar, two open exhausts– WOW!!! The next challenge was to find a clutch! Next door to the chainsaw shop was the local motorbike shop and it had a huge store full of bits. I left if with them as I knew both the owners, everyone knows everyone in Te Awamutu. Three days later I got a phone call to say that they had solved the problem. I went around and there was the motor fitted with a BSA 4 speed gearbox. The motor drove back to the gearbox and then from the gearbox to a sprocket on the axle. They had made two exhaust pipes about 12 inches long with no baffles. It was no noisier than a modern open kart. Clubdays in Te Awamutu where held on one of our club member’s farms at Pirongia in an area of his property that was not suitable as farmland. After three weekends work we had the tack shaped out and covered in limestone. The Waipa Club (as it was known) consisted mainly of farmers and some townies (as I was known). Clubday started after milking in the morning and most people were home for milking in the afternoon! On a good day, we would have maybe 20-25 karts attending. They came from other clubs such as Te Kuiti, Cambridge, Hamilton, Te Aroha, Huntly, Matamata, Kinleith and Tokoroa. One of the members from the Cambridge club was a rep on the road and covered the whole area, so he organized the weekends when you had racing. We had quite a choice, every club being only an hour away at the most, so we had a different track to race at every weekend. It was in the mid 1960’s that things progressed a little and we had our first sealed tracks in the area. They were in the two timber towns of Kinleith and Tokoroa. It was around that time that karts themselves progressed. Five inch wheels and tyres appeared and of course more modern Karts. Along with those came the imported McCulloch engines: Mac 10’s, Mac 20’s and the occasional Mac 101. The occasional West Bend motor put in an appearance, but not for long. Karts showed up in different towns: Palmerston North, Wellington, Hamilton and Auckland areas. One or two different makes made an appearance in the South Island too. It was in 1964 when I was transferred again, this time to sunny Napier, a nice change after the wet climate of the Waikato. My kart was sold after a few years’ enjoyment and karting was given a break for a while. Soccer became the main interest again. The Napier City Rovers coach turned up in my shop requesting my appearance at the next weeks training session! I turned up, as he was another person who was bigger than me!!! Once again, karting poked its nose in, this time in the form of Brian Lawton wanting the Para Rubber Company to sponsor him kart wheels and tyres for a drive around the North Island in 1967. (The History Report by Mark Jenkinson in the September 2012 newsletter refers to Brian Lawton’s drive around the North Island also- Ed). I made some enquiries and wheels from Ward Engineering in Palmerston North were obtained, along with tyres from Goodyear and Dunlop in Wellington. I might add that Brian Lawton had a big second hand shop in the Main Street of Waipawa. He was the driving force behind the Waipawa Kart Club. Brian also had a good-sized workshop out the back of his business where he made a few Flexi Karts including karts used for North Island Championship meetings. The first kart that I owned in Hawke’s Bay came from Brian’s workshop. My daughter Kae was now old enough to race. She found a kart, a not too old dart chassis with a Mac on it that was OK for a first kart and it … Continue reading Life Member Garth Schlierike reminisces on the 52 years he has been involved in karting.