AKA press

Kart racers from various parts of the country will descend on the Albury Wodonga Kart Track this weekend to compete in the Jason Richards Memorial event as a part of the Rotax Pro Tour.

The event will honour former karter and V8 Supercar star Jason Richards (right, EDGE Photographics) who tragically lost his battle with cancer last December at just 35 years of age.

Series promoters, International Karting Distributors (IKD), have received the support from Richards' wife Charlotte to conduct the race meeting and present the Jason Richards Memorial Award.

Richards who started racing karts aged eight at the Nelson kart track in his homeland of New Zealand competed for eight years and won 35 championship titles.

After advancing to cars, the likeable character would often return to the various karting circuits both in Australia and New Zealand to give back anyway he could to the sport which provided him with so much joy.

In 2010 Richards competed in several Rotax Pro Tour karting events in order to boost his race fitness and to have some fun while he also was a supporter of the annual end of year charity enduro held in Victoria each year.

"Jason was always a fantastic supporter of not only the Rotax Pro Tour but karting in general and his loss has touched many of us in the sport," said Rotax Pro Tour's Ian Black.

"We wanted to honour him in a very special way, which is why we have chosen the Albury Wodonga venue given his close link to the Brad Jones Racing team that is already based there.

"During the weekend we will be presenting the Jason Richards Memorial Award, which will not necessarily got to one of the front runners in their respective category but more so someone who has shown some of the traits that made JR such a popular competitor."

Jason Richards in action during a charity event in Melbourne in 2006 pic - AF Images/Carruthers

A total of 130 entries have been received across the six categories – Rotax Light, Rotax Heavy, Junior Rotax, Rotax Over 40's, DD2 and DD2 Masters for this weekend's event.

Practice will be contested on Friday ahead of qualifying and the heat races on Saturday.  The pre-finals and finals will be contested on Sunday from 9am.

There will also be a dinner and fundraising event at the Albury Wodonga Kart Track from 5pm on Friday.  At this dinner there will be V8 hot laps, merchandise, karting equipment and a number of other items auctioned off to raise funds for the Richards Family.

The Albury Wodonga Kart Track is located on Sheathers Road, off Maloney drive, five minutes from the centre of Wodonga.