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ekartingnews.com is a great site. what tracks are close to you? there are a lot of national sanctioning bodies as well. Look up florida winter karting series, if you have time go down there and watch and ask questions.
Depending on what level you want to race at karting can be more or less than racing cars. I remember showing up at a kart race with a 20' trailer , AC, two karts, and thinking how much fun it would be, next thing i know 53' trailers are coming in, people have 4/5 karts 4/5 engines, tuners, etc.... its a fun sport and also some great racing.
Thanks. Honestly, the EKN site confuses me even more with how many series there are. I'd want to do something more regional and less pricey just for the fun of it. If I was going to pay thousands a weekend I'd just get back into SCCA or something. CMP is nearish to me, which I know has a kart track.
Thanks. Honestly, the EKN site confuses me even more with how many series there are. I'd want to do something more regional and less pricey just for the fun of it. If I was going to pay thousands a weekend I'd just get back into SCCA or something. CMP is nearish to me, which I know has a kart track.
How old of an "adult" are you?
Many smaller clubs will run masters class. Usually these classes are 30 or 35 and over and will run at a slightly heavier weight than the regular Sr. class structure which is just 15 years old and above.
looks like CMP has a small race series on their site that only had 4 race dates in 2018 but I'd call the track and see what other options they have. It doesn't look like they offer any masters class however, so you'd have to run in Sr.
GoPro Motorplex is one of the top karting facilities out there and isn't too far from you, they have both their own club series but also attract national level series as well.
You really need to figure out where you want to start. Cheapest way to get in is to run Briggs LO206 4 strokes and go have fun. It's about as close to a spec class as you can get. Motors need to be sealed, very little you can do to them at all other than bolt it to a chassis, learn about chassis setup and go. The downside is that they aren't that fast, the upside is 206 fields are growing all over the country and there's always going to be someone to race with.
I'm not a 4 stroke guy myself so personally I went air cooled 2 stroke. For us in the midwest the Yamaha KT100 is still the engine of choice. Most of the air cooled 100cc guys are switching to the IAME KA100 engine. It's starting at the pro ranks and trickling down into club racing. I think 2019 is the first year that there won't be a Yamaha class in any pro series as WKA finally dropped it completely. CMP and GoPro seem to favor the KA which would be a likely place to start for entry level 2 stroke.
From there there's TAG karting which are 125cc water cooled. Everything gets faster here (35-40hp vs say 16-18 for the 100cc air cooled) but also gets more complicated and more expensive. finally the top of the rung is 125cc shifter karts, what you'll find is there's just not much shifter racing at the club level so I'd suggest, despite the alure, not even considering this option.
I'd call both places and get their opinion on this stuff too, but hopefully that gives you something to start with.
How does one get into karting these days as an adult? Are there national organizing bodies like NASA and SCCA for road racing? Googling is not showing me much except some arrive and drive facilities like GoPro in NC. I'm near the TN/NC border and want to get back into racing something cheaper than cars (hopefully).
Look at the year’s track schedule for the tracks you like to go to. If they do any karting it will be scheduled, local to you, and something you can easily check out. As an example (in the DC area) Summit Point has several events throughout the year for Woodbridge Karting Club, Woodbridge is an area south of the city. It’s hard to randomly find this stuff on the web.
Thanks for the help. I'm 29, so not very old but would feel old surrounded in teenagers. I may give the GoPro place a shot first. I DE the 981, but that's very far removed from actual W2W as you all well know. I appreciate the detailed answers.
Quick update on my sons progress - last week he raced his first national event called Challenge of the Americas. 6 race series in three cities. Fontana, Tuscon and Sonoma. Round 1 was held at Fontana and was wet most of the weekend. Zachary did great in the wet being his first time on rain tires. Saturday was his first podium ever! Sunday was one better with pole position and a second place finish - led a bit on the last lap. Lost by .095 seconds. Did a great job all weekend!!!
Karting is about ready to start here in the midwest hence I spent the last couple weekends doing final prep on the "new" (to me, it s a 2018 chassis) kart so that hopefully I can get a little testing in before season starts on 3/31 at New Castle. Only thing left at this point is to assemble the backup engine now that I have all the parts back from the machine shop and then mount a couple sets of new tires.
I'm ramping cardio training as my last effort to be better physically prepared this year, I got within 3 lbs of my target weight so I'm happy with that. We are planning on 14 race weekends so it's going to be a busy race season. Hopefully I can still get the GT3 out for some track fun too where time allows.
Awesome. Yeah, Midwest guy here too. I hope to get to concept haulers motor speedway here soon. And they have the faster karts there for rent (4-cycle, not 2, but still pretty serious).
And hopefully the 2-mile track in Quincy, IL will be happening again June 8-9.
A little while back we raced the last two races of the ROK Challenge of the Americas series points race at Sonoma (simraceway). Got a second place on Saturday and got the big first race WIN on Sunday. Zachary's first win!! So special!
My son is dying to Kart, I want to give him the opportunity to try it but don't know where to do an arrive and rent scenario in IL or WI??
Nice shop Andy!
If you were near SoCal area I could set you up but afraid I cant help with your area. Check with local karting tracks in your area and they more than likely can recommend teams to use. Hope it works!!
Chris: under the Nash "tent" this year, how's that experience been?...other than the obvious success
We've struggled with my nephew this year. Built him a kart to run at the front end of the field and have been struggling with confidence to make passes, using too much brake and boiling the brakes off of the thing, then alternatively when telling him not to use the brake getting sudden tendency to lift half way down each straight to make sure there's not too much corner speed for the next turn. We continue to try to adapt our coaching style for him. He drives the cleanest lines out there, he really has great fundamentals and can run quick single laps on his own but the race craft continues to need some work.
Weather has been the second biggest struggle for us in the midwest.
My brother and I both have been competitive and running up front and having a blast.
Chris: under the Nash "tent" this year, how's that experience been?...other than the obvious success
We've struggled with my nephew this year. Built him a kart to run at the front end of the field and have been struggling with confidence to make passes, using too much brake and boiling the brakes off of the thing, then alternatively when telling him not to use the brake getting sudden tendency to lift half way down each straight to make sure there's not too much corner speed for the next turn. We continue to try to adapt our coaching style for him. He drives the cleanest lines out there, he really has great fundamentals and can run quick single laps on his own but the race craft continues to need some work.
Weather has been the second biggest struggle for us in the midwest.
My brother and I both have been competitive and running up front and having a blast.
sending you a PM - understand one thousand percent what you are going through - we are facing similar challenges - racecraft cannot be taught, or at least very tricky to do so.
12-13-2018, 02:32 PM
