Getting Started in Karting: What NOT to Do
I have been racing go karts at the club level for five seasons. Getting to race regularly has fulfilled a childhood dream, but it didn’t start that way. My first attempt to get into outdoor kart racing was fueled by youthful exuberance and can serve you all as a cautionary tale.
I’ve always been into going fast, from racing bikes down the steepest neighborhood hill as a kid, graduating to dirt bikes, yard karts, and quads. Watching Formula 1 racing, I learned about go karts and how they were the entry point for the greats like Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher.
During college, I worked as a cashier in an office supply store for extra money to get some kart racing under my belt. But I had no knowledge of the intricacies of racing, the class structure of karting, or even any real idea about the local go kart tracks around me.
Don’t Research Kart Engines and Chassis
So, I did what everyone will tell you exactly not to do. I went on craigslist and searched “shifter kart” having no idea that “shifter karts” are one of many classes of competition karting. I just thought every competition kart was called a shifter kart.
I had only raced in a few sessions at indoor tracks like Velocity 17 and GPNY. Rather than join a rental league at one of those and build a network of people that might know what they wee doing, I grabbed a buddy of mine who was hands on with cars and motorcycles and we drove from northern NJ an hour to Long Island to look at a cheap shifter kart posted on craigslist.
Standing over the go kart, we had no idea what we were looking at, but the owner demonstrated that it ran by bump starting it on the street and taking it for a little rip. I cringe now to think of a competition kart being driven on the street, let alone the potholed streets of Long Island, but we were pumped up.
Don’t Learn the Regulations at your Local Track Before Purchasing Gear
Next, I bought a helmet and a cool black Sparco suit, gloves, and shoes. This was more because that stuff is freaking cool than an informed decision based on safety regulations and requirements at my local track. I didn’t know what those were. I did know there was a kart racing track at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in central Jersey.
On a Saturday morning, I packed up the go kart and gear into my mother’s Ford Expedition and drove an hour down there with my cousin and brother. We were crestfallen to discover there was no karting practice when we arrived. No one picked up when we called to confirm the practice schedule, but we’d been too excited to wait. Oh well.
Don’t Plan Out Your Trip to the Karting Circuit
We regrouped the next weekend and drove 1.5 hours in the other direction to Oakland Valley Race Park (OVRP), a track in Cuddebackville, New York. Their hours were clearly posted, so this time we nailed it. We arrived at open practice and lowered the shifter kart on its ancient tires directly onto the parking lot with no stand. Then we bump started it and got out there!
Soon I was blasting through the gears for the first time and trying to navigate the circuit on an expert level shifter kart that could catch even a seasoned vet out with the amount of speed and power it puts down. It was probably the most fun thing I had ever done in my life, which flashed before my eyes several times.
Trouble came a few sessions later when the kart would not fire up no matter how many times we tried to bump start it. With no clue how to really diagnose or work on anything, we were lucky that OVRP has a shop onsite with the friendly and knowledgeable Tim Hannen on hand. He looked the kart over and determined it had a carb problem that they could fix.
He also looked at us like we were crazy when he noticed the tires were mismatched, hard as rocks, and turning blue from age. He said we needed to replace them right away and asked which tires we wanted, to which I replied with a shrug.
“Where do you race?” he followed up.
Unsure how to reply, I ventured, “here?”
Don’t Set Yourself Up to Keep Kart Racing
It’s not surprising that I did not continue racing that shifter kart and ended up selling it after it sat unused in my garage for years. Looking back, I now know most places don’t have a large shifter kart class, so it’s not the easiest to get started with. And Tim was asking where we raced because different clubs have different rules about tires. We just had no clue about any of this, and we were intimidated and too focused on getting there and acting normal to ask anyone.
The lesson here is, don’t be like college-aged me: A for effort and enthusiasm, but F for forethought.
For some ideas on what to do instead, which I learned the second time I got into karting five years ago, look out for part two coming soon.
