Indoor kart track ideas

I think its a great idea. I don't know what extra fees are involved, but I imagine if you were a league racer it would be worth the investment. I live too far away to be a regular so I've never looked into it further. I'm happy with my 135th place out of 50,000+ racers there

Just a business idea.. For leagues don't just rely on individuals..

Do what softball does....

Approach local business's and bars..

Have essentially a beer league for karting.. Have the league on the same night every week with; for instance "Cheers" Vs "Gary's Olde Town Tavern" at 8pm.. "Jim's Mortuary" Vs "The Cameltoe Inn" at 9pm.. Or several businesses at once. Thursday Night, Cheers, Gary's, Jim's Mortuary, and Camel Toe Inn from 8-10pm.. Make it clear that there is no bottle until after throttle..

Have a number of races between the teams ... Drivers who raced earlier will likely want to stick around to see how their team does. If drinks and food are available, somewhere you can observe the track and cheer on their team even better..

Each business (sponsor) is the "constructor" and scores points accordingly.

Each driver also scores driver points.

At the end of the season. Have a Showdown.. The top 2 teams, and the top "XX" amount points scoring drivers show up on the same night, or 2 different nights.. For the league finals..

Want to bring things up a notch?

Is there a college in the area that offers a broadcasting course? Approach students in that course, or the director of the course for students looking for experience.. Have them add track announcing to the races toward the, bar/rest/viewing area.. Students will likely work cheap offer them Free racing and a broadcasting reference..

I worked at Andretti's, as a mechanic, and race steward for about a year. This is what I have found out by working there:

1. 99% of the people that show up have no racing experience and don't care to learn of any racing pointers. Even when I would go over any type of pre-heat briefing like what the flags meant, most people weren't paying attention.

2. Don't use race karts as rentals. Karts are very fragile and when raced by very incompetent people, they are damaged very easily. People don't use the brakes to brake, they use the kart in front of them as the brake. We would regularly run out of tie rods, axles, wheels from crash damage. People also would try and mess with the governors and stretch the throttle cables out. They would also rev the karts while holding the brake, which would destroy the clutches.

3. Insurance is astronomical for running a kart track. From what I was told by a former manager, the rates were insane!

Make sure the facility is large enough for the entire track to have a proper width that encourages both passing and driving a proper line. There's nothing worse than having multiple sections of track that can't even fit two karts driving side-by-side, making passing a much slower driver literally impossible until it opens back up again. Preferably, the track would be no less than 3 karts wide at it's narrowest point.

Ian F wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Gas powered. See LVGP in Allentown, PA for what I mean.

Those are gas? A bunch of my region guys are going up there this Monday... I was debating on going...

Go! It's great. I was just there with my kids 2 weeks ago running some recon laps. See if you can top my 29.87. I was all proud I got under 30 finally and some fat bastard in dreads, atleast 60-70lbs up on me dropped a high 28. (only about a second off the all-time track record) So much for my hero FTD status... lasted all of about 15 minutes. I'm running a 3hr enduro there on Jan 12 early in the AM with a bunch of other club racers and track junkies.

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

Lap times at these places are an ego buster for sure. I'm a full second off the lap record at BIK and it's a 23-24 second course

I've seen gas kart places with scales, and handicap weight. So that heavier customers aren't at a natural disadvantage.

I have no ideas, but my Uncle owns this place

It's 30 minutes from me and I've never been there

Maybe I should go some day.

Zomby Woof wrote: I have no ideas, but my Uncle owns this place It's 30 minutes from me and I've never been there Maybe I should go some day.

If they allow real racing and have leagues... you should go. I swear all the stupid things I do over the winter in karts and on ice make me better on race day. Even if I'm totally wrong - they are a complete blast on their own.

My 13yr old lowered his chin and put a game face on. He got within a second despite the huge experience advantage I hold. We trash talked. He said "I'm coming for you old man and I'm 100lbs lighter" with a fat smile. That right there was worth the price of admission.

The electric carts in Tampa were centrally controlled with the employee in control of adjustable speed limits and stops. They also had fat steel cable for tie rods and the track was made with big plastic movable continuous barriers like shown in an earlier post. Seemed like good ways to keep things in control and minimize damage.

trigun7469 wrote: Indoor karting is a blast, I plan on going up to Buffalo in 2014.

Where is this?!

Indoor karting is one way to drive a person crazy by the way. I went with a group as a guest. Yellow flag came out and so I slowed. Some 15 year old pimply-faced kid took it upon himself to pass me under yellow. So I got back in front of him to get back into position and I got the penalty box by some girl with a flag. Kart rage.

Equal karts are key. I'm a regular at my local track. When they opened up their new outdoor track, the cars were very well balanced and equalized. Went back a few months later, and I had two turd karts that were off just enough to make it frustrating when I just couldn't keep up. 3rd kart was dead on and I set FTD.

I concur with designing a track that promotes passing. On Track Karting in Wallingford CT has a few pretty good passing zones. Setting up the zones for passing out of a turn tends to be less crashy than multiple lines into a turn.

As one of the quicker drivers, it's frustrating when I'm in a packed race of slow folks, but, what can you do to keep it fun for everyone? I just avoid the nights where I know it will be packed. I think the solution is to offer unlimited races. The faster drivers are more likely to purchase those, and I just sit out when I think the race is gonna be extra crashy.

Keep the prices reasonable. For $50, I want ~30 min track time.

plance1 wrote: Indoor karting is one way to drive a person crazy by the way. I went with a group as a guest. Yellow flag came out and so I slowed. Some 15 year old pimply-faced kid took it upon himself to pass me under yellow. So I got back in front of him to get back into position and I got the penalty box by some girl with a flag. Kart rage.

Just do what they would do in Nascar... Stop your kart on track wait for him to come around than throw your helmet at his kart.. Seems reasonable; In Nascar there is little to no penalty for that...

Sarcasm people!!! for those not sure of the intent of my post!!!

DukeOfUndersteer wrote: I worked at Andretti's, as a mechanic, and race steward for about a year. This is what I have found out by working there: 1. 99% of the people that show up have no racing experience and don't care to learn of any racing pointers. Even when I would go over any type of pre-heat briefing like what the flags meant, most people weren't paying attention. 3. Insurance is astronomical for running a kart track. From what I was told by a former manager, the rates were insane!

For the benefit of your insurance rates and customer satisfaction (customers who give a E36 M3).. Have a short written test.. Tell them before the briefing there is a written test.. If they don't get 90% they will not be allowed on track and will forfeit their entry fee. That should make them pay attention... Also, make the test relatively easy... If someone happens to fail.. Tell them there is a retest fee of lets say 5$ which allows them to not lose their entry fee... But they have to sit thru another briefing...

drsmooth wrote:

plance1 wrote: Indoor karting is one way to drive a person crazy by the way. I went with a group as a guest. Yellow flag came out and so I slowed. Some 15 year old pimply-faced kid took it upon himself to pass me under yellow. So I got back in front of him to get back into position and I got the penalty box by some girl with a flag. Kart rage.

Just do what they would do in Nascar... Stop your kart on track wait for him to come around than throw your helmet at his kart.. Seems reasonable; In Nascar there is little to no penalty for that... Sarcasm people!!! for those not sure of the intent of my post!!!

Seriously, do you think I'm that immature? That I would do something like that? Do you think two wrongs make a right? I can't believe some of the people on here.

Im kidding. I waited til the little punk came back around and I rammed him into the tire barriers! Lesson learned twerp!

1) Bowman Arrow karts feel a lot like a real racing kart. There is no substitute so far. If you have a mix of 6.5 and 9 hp engines you can ballast light drivers to x lbs and heavy drivers to y lbs.

2) If you've got any way to get elevation change, use it. That includes being creative with the parking lot on good days.

3) Indoor karting is addictive. Your job with prices & schedules is to get your clientele hooked and keep them strung out. No "first-timer" fees, ever. Seriously, I'd have a $-10 license fee - ten bucks off your first race for a lifetime license. You can then have them pay the normal price for racing afterwards. It is better to have someone drive their first 3 races for $50 than to soak him for $20 for a license, then $20 for a race, then never have him come back.

4) Your license list is your marketing list! Send out frequent "free first race for a friend" specials. Once again, get 'em hooked, keep 'em hooked. 4a) Not all of your specials have to be advertised. Have someone who's got some business sense in control whenever you're open. If a regular mentions that his boss is trying to find a good place for the Christmas party, and you make the five-grand deal for it, he needs to get some racing on the house.

5) Offer addicts cheap track time on your slow nights. You'll learn soon what day people don't want to go to the kart track, so make that one "Student discount night". Once again, get 'em hooked, keep 'em hooked. 5a) If a timeslot is so poorly attended that not even the student rate fills it, then there's no sense paying people to be there for it.

6) Get people to sign up and prepay for racing. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. A prepaid league will get people to go to almost every race. Your championship schedule needs to have a drop or two in it.

7) Friday and Saturday nights need to be packed. Once you're at capacity, then start raising the full-price Fri/Sat rate.

8) Control your overheads, in both senses of the term! A "Little Hitler" race director with an itchy ejection finger is a great way to lose a league driver. While you need to protect your equipment and avoid lawsuits from injuries, indoor karting is where racers try out new moves in traffic and sometimes they don't work. Paying people to stand around is a waste of talent and money, as is building a commercial kitchen to serve ten hotdogs and a cheeseburger a day - get the local pizza joint to deliver when you're busy enough to have a wait to race.

Where is the Cameltoe Inn? I might want to check it out...

The more I think about it, I really like this idea. It would give the league some identity rather than a bunch of guys that just show up to drive.

drsmooth wrote: Just a business idea.. For leagues don't just rely on individuals.. Do what softball does.... Approach local business's and bars.. Have essentially a beer league for karting.. Have the league on the same night every week with; for instance "Cheers" Vs "Gary's Olde Town Tavern" at 8pm.. "Jim's Mortuary" Vs "The Cameltoe Inn" at 9pm.. Or several businesses at once. Thursday Night, Cheers, Gary's, Jim's Mortuary, and Camel Toe Inn from 8-10pm.. Make it clear that there is no bottle until after throttle.. Have a number of races between the teams ... Drivers who raced earlier will likely want to stick around to see how their team does. If drinks and food are available, somewhere you can observe the track and cheer on their team even better.. Each business (sponsor) is the "constructor" and scores points accordingly. Each driver also scores driver points. At the end of the season. Have a Showdown.. The top 2 teams, and the top "XX" amount points scoring drivers show up on the same night, or 2 different nights.. For the league finals.. Want to bring things up a notch? Is there a college in the area that offers a broadcasting course? Approach students in that course, or the director of the course for students looking for experience.. Have them add track announcing to the races toward the, bar/rest/viewing area.. Students will likely work cheap offer them Free racing and a broadcasting reference..

If you make the $10 off your first race contingent on their passing the license test the first time, you've just killed two birds with one stone.

Of course the standard business stuff like location, visibility, accessibility, etc apply. Obviously you'll wind up in a warehouse in an industrial/business park, but you want to make sure you're not too far away from population and traffic centers that it's considered a hassle to get there.

Man, now I'm thinking about the ice/roller hockey place near me. If it goes out of business, it would be pretty ideal to convert to an indoor kart facility. It has two rinks, with bathrooms/mechanical systems in the middle, and the spectating area is upstairs - birdseye view. Convert it to run the track between both sides, maybe an elevation change and an over/underpass, and you'd get great vantage points for spectating and the possibility for an interesting and pretty damn long layout. Convert the existing locker room area to the garage, and there's a gym and some other tenants in the front of the building that could be re-purposed for merch, etc. Oh, did I mention there's a bar upstairs overlooking both of the rinks? Yeah.

chaparral wrote: If you make the $10 off your first race contingent on their passing the license test the first time, you've just killed two birds with one stone.

You'll never make back all the money you'll lose by instituting something so stupid as a test at a recreational kart facility.

Zomby Woof wrote:

chaparral wrote: If you make the $10 off your first race contingent on their passing the license test the first time, you've just killed two birds with one stone.

You'll never make back all the money you'll lose by instituting something so stupid as a test at a recreational kart facility.

This.

I don't even bother going back to our local kart track (outdoor, gas karts, 45mph), because they can't be bothered to keep all the karts relatively equal.

And it's literally 3 miles from my house.

Some ideas I've seen and would do at my own track (if I had one) Licenses. Have different levels of licensing based on talent level and/or track time. Personally, I hate sharing the track with no talent hacks just out to ride around. If someone causes problems, yank their license. Many tracks don't have the room to race with little or no passing areas. I'd also look into maybe having a league or race series where people could actually bring in their own karts, like an indoor WKA. There's also money to be made selling karts and parts. I'd be likely to race more often if I owned my own kart. I really like the way the Go Pro Motorplex in Mooresville operates. Track is open almost every day year round and full blown race karts use the track along with the rental karts (not at the same time). Garage space is available at the track, so you wouldn't even have to haul the kart back and forth to the track. Just wish that place was around 15 years ago. http://www.gopromotorplex.com/index.cfm

chaparral wrote: 7) Friday and Saturday nights need to be packed. Once you're at capacity, then start building a second track

You cannot raise the rate. It's already too berkeleying expensive for 80% of the population. Gotta go wide.