93 FireHawk 968

Lewis;

I was at RP in Englishtown on Saturday and Sunday and did notice a few new drivers. All were from Oakland Valley. There are quite a few disgruntled families looking for another track. Luckily for me, RP is 30 minutes away and neighbors have complained about noise but they've managed to keep the drag strip, MX and go kart tracks fully operational with strong local support.

They do not run any form of Rotax program. I understand the Rotax programs are not very popular on the east coast.

I hope your local track does work things out with the neighbors!

Joe

ltc

Thanks Joe.
Just hoping to keep the karting thing going with my son until he can fit a Skippy car and then at 18 take the seat in the Cup car at PCA DE's.

Roscoe

I have done Skippy 3 day and adv 2 day (my first race will be in OCT.) There was a 14 yr old at my 2 day in Tremblant that was pretty quick (spun several times if I remember though). The kids that run in the National Series are even younger....Start em now!

mikew968

What is the name of the track shut down and where is it? My understanding all is well at F1 Boston outdoor... is that true?

FWIW There is a country club style outdoor kart track being built as we speak in Cincinnati.


Mike

ltc

He's still a bit short/small for a Skippy car unfortunately. Maybe next year I'll drag him down to Lime Rock and get him fitted.

ltc

I just came back with my son from Tuesday night practice at F1Outdoors. No noise complaints tonight; the wind was blowing away from the houses towards the track.

mikew968

ITC:

So F1 outdoor has a problem if the wind blows the wrong direction?

gums

Anybody have a link to the Englishtown facility? I've never run my shifter there and I'd consder practicing it there. Also, what's going on at OVRP that people are upset? I've not been there at all this year.

ltc

If the wind blows from the track towards the houses owned by the neighbor(s) who complain, then the phone starts ringing, someone from the track drives over to the neighborhood with the sound meter, takes a reading and if we're 10dB over ambient, black flag.

It's a bizarre situation, since we're already running secondary mufflers and downpipes in addition to the standard Rotax exhaust, there is a $500K soundwall recently built.

It gets fairly regular coverage in the local newspapers and town meetings.

It may get worse in the fall when the leaves drop........

ltc

OVRP was sold last year and the new owners have not gotten many compliments.
The track is one step above a parking lot and tends to beat up equipment.
The nicest tracks appear to be F1Outdoors and BeaveRun within driving distance....one is one hour from my house, the other is 10 hours from my house.

There is talk of a new kart track being built in CT this fall, opening next season.
Fingers crossed.....

mikew968

I will be buying a kart soon and need to decide between a rotax 2 sp and a 6 sp shifter. Any ideas?


Thanks, MIke

gums

I've always considered OVRP to be a bumpy track. It took me a long time to get the seat and padding right on my shifter. I'm curious about Englishtown.
Mike, simple choice. Rotax is less maintenance and not as hairy to drive. Still plenty of fun though.
Shifter is physially brutal and way fast. As with cars, do you prefer formula fords or champ cars?

BrandonH

Sigh. Karting takes a lot of commitment; most facilities are compromises, none are very close to major cities. As crew chief for my 13 yr old I've been in the last 12 mos to Shawano WI, South Bend IN, Avon NY, Daytona, Charlotte-Lowes, Chesterton MD, Sandy Hook Md, in addtion to home tracks OVRP and Raceway park here in NJ. In fact, I'm just walked in the door from a 9 hour day test & tune at Oakland Valley, with the sunburn to prove it.

A word on OVRP: yes the paddock is crowded and an unchocked kart stand will roll away, and the track is narrower than they are building today. But it is a very challenging track and I would bet if anyone cared to do the research, that there are more national champion juniors from OVRP than any other eastern track. Check out Will Tenney, Bijon Spinazzola, Sage Karam from '05. Marco Andretti called it home just six years ago. OVRP also has a good kart shop on premises, does rentals and runs the fullest schedule of anywhere I've been.
Englishtown (http://www.racewaypark.com/) is run by a group of great hardcore enthusiasts, but it literally _is_ a parking lot, with no elevation changes and missing such niceties as electronic scoring. (meaning qualifying is old fashioned grid-race format starting with drawing a number from a hat)

Bill, Nicholson Speedway in Chestertown is one of those fabulous club-run places with a tidy but very short road course. The culture there is predominantly 4-cycle, the karting tribe that identifies w/Nascar as opposed to 2-cycle karts which see affinity with euro road racing. We will be there next on the Sept 2/3 weekend for the fifth race of the WKA MD Sprints Divisional. http://www.nicholsonspeedway.com/

I've heard great things about F1 Boston outdoors, but haven't made it up there yet. Sorry to hear about the noise issues but it was a bold move building near Boston. I've been to the indoor track a dozen times and RJ certainly does it right. They don't seem interested in sponsoring WKA races yet, so it is still a club race format. However they were sponsers at the WKA national race at Charlotte so maybe that will happen. <edit, actually now that I think of it, with the noise issues I assume they will never be able to run a nat'l event there>

The new track in Millville NJ is supposed to include a kart course so that could be great news for us mid-atlantic folks...

Geo

Just out of curiousity, what was your opinion of Avon?

That was my home track for 10 years. I haven't been there in 10 years so I don't know anything about it anymore. At one time my lawyer was part owner, but I don't know if that has changed.

Anyway, I'm just curious how the place is holding up.

BrandonH

I'll wager it is totally unchanged since you saw it last! It looks like a setpiece from 1965.

We spent 2 days there last year learning the track prior to the Northeast Sprints finals, one day in the rain, one dry. The track managers were very accommodating, I mean over the top hospitable and we had a great time.

Then in the race several weeks later, my son had his first divisional win so it has a special significance for us. The club atmosphere there is similar to the Maryland tracks; very laid back and low key, with lots of volunteer support.
We would've liked to race there again but this year all five races of the divisional series are run at OVRP.

It's a great little track. Beautiful surroundings, the tight Monza turn is a unique corner. It's also surprisingly fast, since T1 is flat, at least in the junior karts. The corner leading on to the front straight is unforgiving; we bent several tie rods crashing there in practice, and I flagged that corner one of the race days and there was a lot of carnage including one complete flip.

We still have '05 GVKC t-shirts which we wear all the time!