The sport of karting originated in America in 1956 when a long term hot rodder Art Ingles built himself a small car frame to provide himself with the smallest, economical form of racing car available. For a power unit, he mounted a West Bend two cycle 2 ½ hp motor on it and the very first KART was born.
Wherever Art drove his little car he found himself being watched by an army of onlookers. People kept watching as Art put his car through its paces, and queries about the new vehicle were numerous. With so much interest in his sole machine, Art felt sure that commercially built cars of similar design would sell, at least in and around Southern California.
In December of 1957, the GO KART CLUB of AMERICA was formed. The G.K.C.A. formulated rules and regulations and with the publicity given to these rules and the dimensions etc of the new Karts, a new chapter in the history of Karts was commenced.
The first recorded article on the new American sport of Go-Karting appearing in an NZ newspaper was an article entitled, “Who’ll Go Karting”, which appeared in the “Auckland Star” of June 15th 1959. This article really started something. Two weeks later, the “Auckland Star”, June 29th 1959, published a follow-up article, giving a very much fuller description of the Karts, the engine sizes, a description of the Azusa track etc.
The article also announced the formation of N.Z’s first Go Kart Club. The Auckland Mini Kart Club commenced in July 1959, at Parkinson's farm in Mangere, Auckland, not far from the international airport with 8 members and 5 Karts under construction.
From this announcement onwards clubs were formed all over the Auckland Province, using the Auckland clubs Kart plans and regulations.
On the 19th September 1959 – the New Zealand Amateur Go Kart Association was formed. This body was later changed to the New Zealand Kart Federation with a registered constitution and in 2002 became KartSport New Zealand.
To promote this new form of motorsport, Don Sinton teamed up with John Stevens and his son Jack Stevens in December 1959, to drive a kart Auckland to Wellington and then on down the South Island to Dunedin. Between Auckland and Wellington, they covered some 550 miles and started up two clubs on the way. Their total elapsed driving time was twelve and three-quarter hours at an average of 38 mph. In doing so, they broke the world Karting distance and enduro record set on 17th July 1959 in the USA.
The most sought after kart of the day was the Suzakart - a Sincart with the choice of Suzuki engines, 50 cc 4.5 HP 8000 rpm, 150 cc 9.5 HP 7000 rpm, all with 4-speed gearboxes.
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