Phil Kristensen (1946-2024)

[John Kwong]

Hi All,

Phil Kristensen, a long time local kart racer recently passed away and a celebration of his life will take place this Saturday at 1pm

https://www.evanjstrong.com/obituary/Phillip-Kristensen


For those that didn't know of Phil's karting exploits. He was an early member of the Calgary Kart Racing Club in the early 1960's. My Dad's karting career was from 1959 to about 1973 and raced many of the same classes against Phil. Some of the tracks that they raced on were the St. Albert kart track, one or two events on the Edmonton International Speedway, a kart track near the Alyth train yards in Calgary that only lasted a few years, a couple endurance events on the Calgary Stampede grounds, a one off event at the DeWinton WW2 training airfield as well as several parking lot tracks in Calgary. By the early 80's, Phil raced with the CKRC at the old airstrip next to Mount Royal College(1981-82), Deerfoot Mall parking lot (1982-83) and then at Kart Gardens. Back before Kart Gardens, kart racers had a rather nomadic existence of finding and racing on shopping mall parking lots with tracks laid out with pylons and this was before Sunday shopping was a thing.  Out of province racing included racing in the long lived, Pacific Northwest's Gold Cup Series, as well as, sprint and endurance racing at Westwood Raceway in Coquitlam, BC. Phil's karting career and involvement spanned nearly 4 decades. I got to race against the legend several times at our temporary track at Deerfoot Mall and at Kart Gardens International and Phil re-built my Yamaha motor a few times which kept us on track.
I knew Phil through karting and whenever I mentioned to someone that I raced karts, they would more often than not ask if I knew a guy named Phil Kristensen. Phil was "the karting guy." He was always there to lend a hand if you were struggling with a kart problem. He was a big supporter of the kart club throughout the many generations of kart club executives and all the changes of equipment as technologies evolved. His kart racing exploits were only rivalled by his technical knowledge. Having been a long time engine builder/ tuner as well as a skilled machinist and welder, there wasn't a problem with a kart he couldn't tackle. I am unable to be at his celebration of life but hope that this tribute gives some insight to an important pioneer of the local karting scene.

John K

[kart33]

Well said John, regarding Phil Kristensen. I started karting about 1986 at Kart Gardens by the airport, which became Airport Trail. Then we built on Race City land (Varsity Speed Park) until the City decided to build a recycling plant, we were there 13 years. Strathmore has stabilized the CKRC. Anyway Phil Kristensen was originally from Saskatchewan a key member of the club. Like you said if you broke something the day before the race he would take you to his garage and get you running for race day. He formed a relationship with Linda Emmick of Emmick Karts of California. When i started most of the karts in Calgary were Emmicks. Phil maintained the 2-cycle Yamaha KT100 motors. Phil was a top class racer and person, a perrenial Champion in the Yamaha class, and built most of those motors as good as his own motors. His garage is a clutter of kart stuff and time machines. I had the fortune of running across his path repeatedly at thrift shops and stores over the past few years. There is a laydown road racing kart in his garage that would look good on the wall of our tech building. They were raced on full sized road racing car tracks like Laguna Seca, Riverside, etc. As the name suggests the driver layed flat on his back with his head propped up on a head rest. He married Yvonne late in his life and has 3 kids. - Brian Grant