Max builds a karts history

Andrew Mathieson
THE Findlays have always believed family that race together, stay together.
And build together, too.
The family name has been synonymous as one of Geelong’s largest commercial builders since 1987.
With an annual turnover of up to $20 million, Max Findlay and Associates has built Waurn Ponds’ Reading cinema complex and is at work on Torquay Central shopping centre.
Max followed his father Val Findlay’s footsteps into construction and now Max’s son Andrew is doing likewise.
Between the business, all three generations have still found the time for gokart racing.
The parallels have ensured they’ve always remained a closeknit bunch.
For 57yearold Max, his strongest memories are of his mum scorching around the track and breaking her leg during a Ballarat race.
“There was a problem with the steering wheel when she was going around the track and it unscrewed,” he recalls.
“The kart when straight ahead and she hit the fence.
“My father wasn’t there that day and, because we had a brand new Montesa motor, my brother was pretty keen to try it, so we didn’t bring her home that day – we left in her hospital.”
Gokarting has been in the Findlay’s family blood ever since Max’s older brother, Russell, first asked his parents for a kart.
The entire family loves racing.
They attended the inaugural meeting to formulate a club in 1960 at the rear of Geelong motorcycle agent Alan Hinchcliffe’s store in Moorabool Street.
Max, then 11, was the youngest person there.
Alan sold popular Hornet karts and could barely keep up with demand, Max recalls.
“Karting was very popular in those days – obviously it was a lot cheaper to get into it. Now it’s a lot more sophisticated.”
Back when Max was a boy, karts worked on twostroke motors.
Val and Joyce now have a memorial trophy named after them.
What would be one of the biggest races on the karting calendar initially honoured Val’s contribution.
He collapsed and died at a race event in 1969.
The best drivers from all parts of the country and some from New Zealand attend the event, this year to be staged on August 4 and 5 at Corio’s Beckley Park track.
“It’s fantastic the club has kept this event alive for such a long time,” Max remarks.
“It was quite a surprise when the Geelong club decided to name the event after my father.”
Andrew also had a pretty decent crack at karting and occasionally still races.
“He’s always ran a pretty close second because he hadn’t won an Australian title but he was always up there,” Max says proudly.
Max was no slouch, either.
He took out his first serious race in the 1963 Victorian Open Sprint Championships at Seymour.
“I blew all the city kids away,” Max smiles.
“I eventually got third outright, having spun out after I think the head may have swelled up.
“Either that or a lack of concentration.”
A month later, Max won the Australian junior titles to prove it was no fluke and later a New Zealand championship.
“So I hit the scene in a big way,” he reckons.
Max was itching to jump in his first kart but was forced to wait.
Boys were not allowed to drive until they were 14.
But Max broke the rules and raced unlicensed in bush towns to make up the numbers.
It gave him a distinct advantage down the track.
“I was probably as big as I am now when I was 12,” he laughs.
“So I was a good weight and I probably looked like I was 14 back then.
“And it wasn’t policed the same.
“I was very good then, although you probably can’t say that now.”