BATHURST Kart Club members were welcomed inside the Erebus Motorsport garage yesterday during the team’s Bathurst 12 Hour preparation in a chance to get up close and personal with the world of professional motorsport.
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Erebus recently approached the Bathurst Kart Club asking if junior karters would be interested in being inside the Mercedes garage on the Thursday before the annual endurance event.
It was an invitation the club wasn’t going to hesitate in taking up.
The Bathurst juniors got to meet up yesterday with the team’s V8 Supercars recruit Dave Reynolds and take a trip around Mount Panorama with the driver.
Bathurst Kart Club president Mark Dunbar said having his members get the opportunity to chat to a driver of Reynolds’ stature added to the excitement brewing at the growing club.
“They’ve been excited since Erebus Motorsport rang up and asked if they could get a couple of local karters to come down. The thing is, Dave started in karting as most racing car drivers have, so the kids are just over the moon about it,” he said.
“Hopefully, in the next eight months or so, we’ll have our own track in Bathurst, so you can imagine the impact that will have for us and our club.
“Our club is growing every day bigger and bigger and the excitement’s getting greater and greater.”
The Bathurst 12 Hour has built a reputation for fan accessibility in the lead-up to the event, as could be seen when fans were walking up and down pit lane yesterday taking snaps of the cars being prepared for racing action starting today.
Erebus team owner Daniel Klimenko said having the Bathurst contingent around yesterday was a pleasure and part of the community culture his team has built up over the years.
“We’ve got a bit of a history with grass roots communication with the fans and competitors,” he said.
“We all started in the paddocks. Very few of us turn up in V8 land straight from nowhere. You’ve got to end up in a tent in the middle of nowhere and work your way down to the main bubble.
“Sometimes you get caught up in the business down here, so it’s good to touch back to the grass roots competitors because it reinvigorates your own desire.
“You see what they’re putting in and you don’t whinge so much. You stop complaining about things that aren’t that bad.
“We have a thing with our academy where we don’t like to throw money at kids. We like to give them advice and direction.
“We like to help them get rides, put them in touch with teams overseas. They’re the things that young kids don’t get – the opening of doors.”
