The Garioch family are used to going fast.

For years Bevan Garioch travelled the country racing ski boats before turning his hand to karting seven years ago so his entire family could enjoy a sport together.

“When I was racing ski boats we travelled to all parts of the country but moving to Mackay meant that we had to travel too much to race every time,” said Garioch.

“With that in mind I went looking for a sport that we could all enjoy as my two sons were at the age when they wanted to get involved in some form of motorsport – so karting it was.”

At next weekend’s Queensland Championships, to be held in the family’s home town of Mackay, Garioch and one of his two sons, Justin, will take to the circuit to race against each other in the Clubman Heavy category.

However, at 46 years of age Bevan Garioch openly admits that his main focus is on taking out the Clubman Over 40s title.

“It is always good taking on the boys to make life interesting around the dinner table, while I can stick with Justin most of the time he seems to be able to move things up a gear during the bigger events,” said Garioch.

“I only started racing karts when I was 39, so to be able to race against guys who are of a similar age rather than a heap of youngsters is always good.

“Remo Luciani (who has 50 state titles to his name) will once again be the favourite for next weekend, it will be nice to renew a battle with him and hopefully defeat him.”

Drivers and mechanics will begin to arrive in the Mackay region early next week ahead of qualifying on Friday July 2, heat races on Saturday July 3 and the championship finals on Sunday July 4.

In excess of 300 entries have been received for the championships where they will compete across 15 categories catering for a variety of ages, weights and engine capacities.

The Mackay Kart Track is located on Bell’s Road, Palmyra (just south of Mackay).