Manawatū's notorious wind will power competitors at this week's Blokart World Championship and New Zealand Open competitions in the province.
Locals may curse the prevailing westerly, but the 125 contestants will relish the conditions.
Among them is Christchurch man Terry Helm, who was on Monday practising at the Manawatū club's track in Sanson, home to much of the competition.
"You only really have two major controls, a main sheet and a steering wheel," he said.
"[To slow down] you turn into the wind, or you come on and powerslide on the grass, stuff like that. Brakes are over-rated."
There are two classes of racing - one where the blokarts aren't modified and one where they are. There are weight divisions for each.
"So everyone has slightly different rigs, but the beauty of it is what's called one class - everyone has a restriction.
"It doesn't matter if you've got the big bucks. It makes no difference. It's down to cunning and good sailing," Helm said.
Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Speeds at Sanson's tight course might hover around 60 kilometres an hour, but are expected to increase when racing shifts to Ōhakea airforce base for a couple of rounds of the world champs.
There, competitors will race up and down a 1 kilometre stretch of tarmac.
Tony Francis, from Mackay in Queensland, Australia, is expecting fast racing at the air strip, predicting more than 80 km/h, among other challenges.
"If a plane comes in, the siren goes off, everybody goes off and lays their karts down, let the plane come in.
"We're not on the main runway. Apparently we're on the auxiliary runway and the taxiway parking area - a very big area.
"We can't leave anything behind because it gets sucked up into the jets, so we'll have to do an emu parade and pick up any bits left behind."
Francis and his wife of 51 years, Kate, race at their local club, along a 2 kilometre-long and 200-metre-wide beach.
Kate Francis said there had been the odd spill too.
"I've had a substantial one - too much wind, when I'm so light. You just have to be careful when a big gust comes.
"I just got out of control when a big gust came and it just lifted me right up and into another kart," Kate said.
Sailing on land has been around for a while, but blokarts were invented at the turn of the millennium by Paul Beckett.
Since then he's travelled the globe to world champs and his Mt Maunganui firm has manufactured about 15,000.
Their lightweight design has replaced heavier equipment previously used.
"That's part of its longevity is that you can come in with the first model or you can buy a new model and they're still competitive," he said.
"They last really well... They need to be pretty robust to do the speeds we're doing in them."
The fastest recorded racing speed is about 130 km/h.
It's unlikely that will be broken over the next week, but for many of the competitors, such as Andrew Davison from Australia, the buffeting winds of Manawatū will feel speedy.
"We're 300 miles away from the sea on the other side of the Great Divide, so it's not very windy there. If we're lucky we get 20 knot, 30 knot winds, but that's the exception rather than the rule," he said.
"I'm a bit of a beginner too. I'll probably come last. I just hope I don't."
Manawatū Blokart Club president John Anderson said competitors were aged 18 to 78, and some were coming from as far as Denmark and the Caribbean.
The club was particularly proud of being able to race at Ōhakea, he said.
A couple of days of calm are forecast, but the Manawatū spring is seldom gust-free and racing is only cancelled if winds drop below 10 km/h.
