Serious Business Karting (Rotax, Shifters, etc)

[G.Irish]

While karting at Summit Point yesterday Evan and I were talking about the prospect of racing rotax or shifter karts. The 4 stroke rental karts are fun, but racing something with 30 hp instead of 5.5 would be far more engaging (and exhausting).

So I've been looking up some info on the current fast kart options within a reasonable drive. Here are some things I came up with:

New Jersey Motorsports Park has a sprint kart racing series with rotax and shifter classes:
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-entry fees are under $100 for the weekend
-fields are 15+ karts
-6 weekends a year
-purpose built kart track
-open practice is $40 a day during the week, $65 on weekend

Oakland Valley Race Park in NY
-5 hours away from NOVA
-Can rent Rotax karts

VIR Kart Track
-open lapping days for sprint karts (run what you brung) on Sundays (8am-12pm)

So I figure a decent sprint kart setup would cost about $3500-5000. No need for a trailer, one could easily transport the kart in a SUV, truck, or minivan. If a couple of people pooled resources we could easily swing a kart, and it wouldn't be a challenge finding a place to park it, or getting a trailer to transport it. Call it a kartshare.

Let's say 5 people buy in. Each person would pay approx $800. We divy up the weekends/weekdays and schedule someone wants to drive. We could easily get 3-5 weekends per person and probably unlimited weekdays. At a practice day people could probably alternate driving sessions since realistically no one is gonna be able to drive at full tilt for more than maybe 2 hours over the course of a day.

$800 is about 2 track weekends in car not counting consumables. Once we buy in for $800, we could keep using the kart for at least another season, so really it'd only be $400/year.

Now there are details that would have to get worked out like who pays for tires and maintenance, who does the wrenching and how we pay for damage. But I have to think it would be pretty fucking badass. What say you?

[G.Irish]

Also note, the buy-in price might be even lower than I'd thought. Here's a clean looking 2008 for $2500 obo:

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Not that we should be aiming for cheap.

[Evan]

I like the idea. I have a hunch that 5 may be too many to manage logistically, but Im willing to go with it if there is that much interest.

a couple of other tracks worth mentioning
Sandy Hook Speedway (not that sandy hook) in MD. 1:45 drive from nova.
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Nicholson Speedway, Chestertown MD. 1:50 drive from nova
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The 4 stroke classes are more popular at these tracks (though they do have the 2 stroke classes) but they are good for variety and are close enough to go relatively frequently to get real cheap seat time. They are attractive to me since with family etc obligations its real hard to get away for an entire weekend.

[BLINGMW]

sounds like the kind of thing 2 people could pretty reasonably split, but yeah, would be fun. I would like to say I'm in, but probably not since these are all 6 hours away from me.
That being said, one guy brought something like this (sounded like a 2 stroke) and was running around the VIR kart track by himself for a few laps before our endure, and that thing looked pretty terrifying. Maybe too small of a track. :dunno:

[Kaan]

Is woodbridge kart club still doing events at summit?

wasnt there someone on the forum that raced the enduro lay down style? I'm sure they could give you more insight.

[G.Irish]

Is woodbridge kart club still doing events at summit?

wasnt there someone on the forum that raced the enduro lay down style? I'm sure they could give you more insight.

I think they are. Kristin was the one who raced with them. I kinda forgot about them but I think it could be cool to run a full-sized course occasionally. Would add to the pool of potential events to do.

[G.Irish]

sounds like the kind of thing 2 people could pretty reasonably split, but yeah, would be fun. I would like to say I'm in, but probably not since these are all 6 hours away from me.

You could at least come and do practice days at VIR.

[Evan]

Is woodbridge kart club still doing events at summit?

wasnt there someone on the forum that raced the enduro lay down style? I'm sure they could give you more insight.

we looked into them years ago, quite a bit different than the sprint karts unfortunately. conclusion was basically not my style
karts just work better on small kart tracks. When you have to lay flat as a board, use the skinniest tires possible, and drive WOT for all but T1, thats just not a good fit IMO.

now a shifter on a big track is a different story 8)

[Kaan]

beavrun still open? i think they had a kart track too

[Kaan]

oh fancy... its now the Pittsburgh International Race Complex lol

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[davej]

don't know how current, or if they are the class you're looking at but
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gives a state by state listing of tracks with kart programs.

[G.Irish]

don't know how current, or if they are the class you're looking at but
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gives a state by state listing of tracks with kart programs.

Ah thanks Dave, found a few in there that I didn't know about in Ohio and NY. Another 2 tracks I forgot about are the new Atlanta Motorsports Park and Middle Georgia Kart Track (although both are a long ass haul).

[G.Irish]

For the sake of discussion, let's say 2-4 person split, with Evan and I already in. Who would be interested in such a deal?

For 3 person deal buy in would be approx: $900-1500 (~9 weekends per year)
For 4 person deal buy in would be approx: $600-1100 (~7 weekends per year)

I'll have to compile a master list of available events but figure in about 7-9 weekends of kart use per person, and weekday use whenever you wanna work it in. At that rate you're racing a very fast kart for $100-200/event + consumables (tires = $150/set), entry fees, and hotel.

Other miscellaneous costs would be kart suit (under $200), helmet, shoes and engine rebuilds every 25-30 days of run time. I'll do some research to get more accurate numbers.

[Kaan]

G you guys aren't looking for short round folks... You don't want to be a pro seat adjuster in karts.

Not that I have the time

[G.Irish]

In all honesty we might have to get different seats anyway. The seat should be pretty snug so you don't break yo ribs.

[Sully]

Was the $100-$200 per event in addition to the initial buy in?

What is the plan for transport? Could it be a small enough enclosed trailer to set up a sleeping shelf for camping?

I could be interested in several months to a year depending on where I end up after graduation and what style of kart you choose. Seems like a fairly cheap way to get a racing fix.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

Edit: ignore my sleeping shelf idea. Could easily camp in car/truck/tent. small enclosed might be good way to keep everything stored though.

Sounds like most events are a single day thing anyway

[G.Irish]

Was the $100-$200 per event in addition to the initial buy in?

Nah, that was just the buy-in cost spread out over each event.

What is the plan for transport? Could it be a small enough enclosed trailer to set up a sleeping shelf for camping?

My thinking is that it would be stored in someone's garage until the next person wanted to pick it up and head to an event. I have enough room in my garage for it right now.

You could use a small enclosed trailer, a small open trailer (like Maeng's tire trailer), a truck bed, van or SUV. With the SUV you might need to take the wheels off though, that's the only vehicle that might be a stretch.

I could be interested in several months to a year depending on where I end up after graduation and what style of kart you choose. Seems like a fairly cheap way to get a racing fix.

Sweet! Over the the weekend I'm going to try to compile some more details.

[G.Irish]

So I was taking a cursory look at schedules and putting together a spreadsheet of all the 2014 events. I had forgotten about Englishtown Raceway in New Jersey, and there's a new kart track in North Carolina (GoPro Motorplex). Just between those 2 and Pitt Int'l Raceway I'm up to 50 events. It looks like we're going to have plenty of options.

[Evan]

Some ideas to consider:

Its probably best that everyone has their own consumables. So buy/keep your own wheels/tires, brakes, gas (+oil) that you throw on when you use the kart. Keeps us from trying to divide consumables cost which gets messy. Tires and wheels are cheap and small enough that it shouldnt be a big deal to keep your own. This would also let you 'rent' consumables from somebody if youre only racing once or twice.
You might need your own ballast weight too and possibly seat.

If you dont have a truck and a garage, storage and transport are going to be challenging. would have to work out an arrangement with someone who does.
Or you double up with someone who is already racing that weekend, and split classes with them (if they arent doubling up themselves). ie- one person runs Rotax, the other TaG.


G what are you finding as far as karts for sale? Last time we looked into this IIRC it was hard to find good karts for sale locally.

[G.Irish]

Yeah I think having your own seat, wheels/tires, and brake pads would be pretty easy. Gas would probably be easier to do at the track. We'd have to split the cost of top end and bottom end rebuilds, I'll need to research how often that has to be done.

I've been looking mostly on the ekartingnews classified section. Seems like the volume is pretty good:

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Here are a couple of Rotax/Tag packages for a decent price:

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