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Four karters decided to sit out Sunday's racing rather than having to pay a $50 fine for not being there on time.

Scott Barnes said he planned on racing and he takes his kart along with those of his wife Ashley Betts and fellow karter Jason 'Skuzzy' North, but it wasn't meant to be after his trailer blew a tyre.

"I drove down to pick up Skuzzy and my tyre blew on my trailer."

He admitted the rule is all karters who want to race have to be at the track by 10:30am. Those who show up before 11am face a $50 fine.

"This happened at 9:30am. I texted Jason and Alex (Roque) the president that I might be late. I had to go home and get my other truck. I called the vice-president, Steven Panchaud. He came and helped us by putting a kart in the back of his truck."

Barnes said: "We got there 20 minutes late. Alex decided he was going to charge us the $50 each, which is unfortunate because it would have been a great race day. There would have been eight shifters and one TAG."

Barnes felt like the rules should have been relaxed because of the circumstance and because he let people know right away what had happened.

"They were going to charge us $50 each, including Steven Panchaud, he vice president, because he came to help us."

"We thought that was ridiculous so we decided to put her karts back in our truck and went home. It wasn't about the money. It could have been $1, it was about the principle," Barnes said. "They could have have had nine karts instead of four.

He added: "Rules are rules, but you've got to bend them for people. We would have been the first ones there - and we're always the first ones there. We get there early and help set up the track. It could have been a great race day."

Roque was not able to return a phone call by press time.[[In-content Ad]]

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