Karting in the Maritimes

The origin of Kart Racing in Atlantic Canada is still uncertain, though races date back to the Sunny Brae area of Moncton, NB and the 1970's. The track was a paved loop inside a quarry which was apparently quite unsafe, as this was before the days of the all-important ASN Canada rule book and its regulations. A safer solution for Maritime karters had to be found, and it was.
 

Mitch Devison, one of Nova Scotia's up and coming drivers, celebrating a club win (Photo: Paul Delaney)

By the late 1970's and early 1980's, the Atlantic Motorsports Karting Association (AMKA) had been formed in Halifax and it was holding karting events. Pictures have been found of their original track in Hubbards, NS, dating back to 1983. Hubbards was safer than the Moncton quarry track, but the layout was very elementary. It was nothing more than a bean-shaped oval with lap times in the 15 second range. Maritime karters were safer, but still craving better facilities.

The Championship Kart Racing Association (CKRA) in Moncton, NB was formed in 1984 and offered an alternative, running races in the parking lot of College Communautaire de Dieppe, in Dieppe, NB. The popularity of karting at that time had started to build, and a Maritime Championship was already running. A Maritime regional race back then was quite the competitive affair as fields were limited and drivers had to qualify just to make the field for a main event.

In 1988, as part of "Train Days" in Moncton, CKRA organized a downtown street race with the front straight running under the city’s Main Street train bridge. It featured some of the biggest fields ever seen in Atlantic Canada, and over 40 karts lined up for the Senior feature race that weekend. The race was run again in 1989, and was a popular spectacle in the Maritimes.

By 1990 or thereabouts, CKRA had raised the funds needed to build their very own kart track. It was named Champlain Motorsports Park, and is still used by the club today. Its five-turn track features Senior lap times of 26-27 seconds. AMKA had also moved to a new track by that time, racing at the Scotia Speedworld oval. Its six-turn kart layout was devised using a unique blend of the oval and paved infield, and it is considered by many to be one of the most difficult tracks to master in Atlantic Canada. Races have been running there ever since, giving Maritimers two successful karting tracks and organizations in CKRA and AMKA.

Until 2001, Prince Edward Island karters could only race by driving out of province. CKRA in Moncton was the closest club, and some even made the trek to Halifax to run at AMKA, but that all changed when the Island Kart Club (IKC) was formed. Using the Burlington Amusement Park gokart track, home to this year’s final round of the Maritime Pro Kart Challenge, IKC had the longest and trickiest track in the Maritimes. Races there became quite popular, and many karters began to run both IKC and CKRA championships.
 

Gerald Caseley (PEI) leads Nick Thebeau (NB), Cory MacLean (NB) and Aaron Kennedy (NB) in Senior Light at Round 2 of the Maritime Pro Kart Series (Photo: Danny LeBlanc)

Popularity of kart racing had continued to rise, and a second club was formed in Fredericton as racers tired of the commute to Moncton. In 2001, New Brunswick International Kart Club (NBIKC) was formed. Like the club in Nova Scotia, NBIKC utilized a speedway oval for their races, but unlike AMKA, they remained on the oval - which was mostly dirt! Chicanes were formed around the track and the design resulted in a very fast layout. Two races into the 2003 season, however, the club had a hairpin paved into the infield, as well as a piece of track running through the middle of the infield, creating the road course design that is still used today. In 2005, the club dropped the ‘International’ part of its name and became simply New Brunswick Kart Club (NBKC), the Maritimes fourth karting entity.

In the beginning, AMKA and CKRA had only three divisions: Junior, Senior, and F100, but as membership grew Senior Heavy was also introduced, and Senior was renamed Senior Light. Both clubs added Junior Sportsman when younger karters began to turn out in numbers, which later became Novice. By the time NBKC and IKC joined the fray in 2001, all four Maritime clubs ran identical classes: Novice, Junior, Senior Light and Senior Heavy. F100 was a recognised division for the Maritime Championship into 1990's, but later dropped down to a Club division only, still running today at CKRA in Moncton. The Rotax Max Class has also reached the Eastern coast, introduced as a division at IKC in 2005.

Maritime karting has certainly come a long way from the days at Hubbards oval and Sunny Brae quarry, yet Maritime club kart racing remains a cost-friendly way of doing what all Canadian racers dream of: racing real race machines for points in a real racing championship. For the more serious racer, the Maritime Pro Kart Series is now their showcase with each Maritime kart club hosting one round. Karters from three provinces regularly compete for the chance to be crowned Maritime Champion.