Mildura Kart Club

Mildura had it’s first taste of “Go-Karts” in 1960 when a “KART” appeared at the Mildura Sporting Car Club with a few bits of steel with four wheels and a steering wheel with a motor attached. The bug soon caught on and many more karts “appeared” almost overnight.

Membership grew rapidly with almost all Sporting Car Club members purchasing or making their very own “Go Karts”. Members would travel away to compete at other tracks and very soon they built their own dirt track then sought affiliation with the Governing body.

In 1972 Mildura Kart Club applied for and was granted their very first OPEN meeting. This meeting was granted for the long weekend in June, the Queens Birthday weekend and to this day, has always run on the long weekend in June.

This meeting was staged over a one day race meeting until the mid 1980’s when the Club applied for and was granted a TWO DAY MEETING to be held on the long weekend in June.

This meeting is one of the most prestigious meetings run in Victoria aside from the Victorian Open and attracts drivers from all over Victoria, South Australia and regular visitors from Queensland.

Mildura has bred many States Open and Closed Title holders, a National Title holder and two place -getters. We now boast 3 “Driver of the Year” for Victoria winners.

They being Neal Gathercole who won in 1995, Gary Dickinson who won in 1999 and Scott Ferguson who won in 2000 as well as many other Open Title meetings winners have come from our “small” country club.

We have also bred and groomed a current “Young Lion” driver and V8 supercar driver. They being Rick and Todd Kelly who both drive for the Holden Racing Team and K-Mart Racing team.

We are proud of our drivers and what they have achieved. We are very isolated in Mildura and in order for our drivers to achieve what they have achieved, their families have had to make many sacrifices.

There are 8 Life Members of which 4 are still actively involved with the Club.

The Life Members are:

Bill Jory, John Dowson, Phil Sedgmen, Harry Toole, John Dyson, Les O’Connor, Ross Gathercole and Genevieve Gathercole.