How did you get introduced to Karting?

Ken Schilling · Joined: 01 Dec 2005 Posts: 1347

I've participated in two NKC road races at Buttonwillow on the big track. Both times the hosting NKC club offered a free test drive session on the track to anyone that "qualified" by being old enough and signed a waiver. Of course proper safety equipment requirements had to be met as well.

Obviously there needs to be someone willing to allow their kart to be used as well as a current club lead/follow driver.

This allowed non-karters to actually drive a real race kart on a real kart track and usually this at least "hooks them" by at least planting a seed for a future karter.
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The opinions I express are mine alone and do not reflect those of any organization of which I am a member.

Russ Kemple · Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 1:37 pm Post subject:

Mid-State Kart Club has two Arrive and Drive events each year. We pass out 500 plus "RIDE A REAL RACING Go KART" 5 X 8 index cards to people at our Mall show, Car shows. We work with the local Scheels, and Quaker Steak and Lube to pass out the cards. We usually get a few new members by doing this. Once you get them in the kart and taking a few laps they are hooked. We encourage the local Kart shops and any one with a kart to sell to show up and display what they have.

Jim Derrig · Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 2:24 pm Post subject:

Bob Ogden · Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 7:03 pm Post subject:

I needed to talk to a co-worker one day so I went to his cubicle where he had prominently located a photo of himself in his kart.
Started talking, found a couple of other guys in our group who raced karts.
3 weeks later I suggested to my wife that I buy a sport bike, and we "compromised" on karting.

Bottom line is that if YOU don't tell people at every opportunity about the sport, they aren't going to ask.

Kerry Matthews · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 12:39 am Post subject:

Grew up an open wheel/Indy 500 fan in Chicago. Wasn't exposed to a whole lot of racing as a kid. When I was about 13, my mother remarried, and my new stepbrother had a kart. A Fox frame with a B/S 8 hp motor. I had a Yamaha Mini Enduro at the time, and was more interested in 2 wheels than 4 at that point. But I did enjoy getting to drive it on occassion. As a teen, I used to race concession karts in suburban Chicago. Even flipped one over one day.
Fast forward 25 years, and I'm living in Lake Tahoe. I stopped by a friend's house, and his friend, Dave Schilt, had an 80 shifter in the back of his Toyota pickup. Asked if I'd be interested in coming along to Reno to run the kart... I didn't need to be asked twice! That day changed my life! As stated above, I was hooked! I knew that racing required a budget, which I didn't have at the time. But I knew that when I could afford it, I was going racing! 6 years ago, my mother passed, leaving me the family business to run. Now I had a budget. Bad... a racing junkie with a bankroll! Uh oh! Started sprint racing TaG's for a season, then was talked into checking out road racing with NCK @ Thunderhill. Took advantage of their 'Bring a friend, and both race for $100 each' deal. That's all it took. Tried to sprint & road race for a season, but gave up on sprint racing, as it was too hard on my body. Been loving road racing ever since! I own a restaurant, and have posted pictures of me racing in it. I get comments from people all the time. I also show some of my customers the videos I have of racing, and most think we're insane. lol Rarely will you find me in anything but a racing t shirt, so I'm asked all the time if I race. Most people are surprised when I tell them I do 105 mph on tracks like Laguna Seca, Sears Point, Portland International, Daytona... Even better are the videos. Other than putting someone in a kart, in kart cameras do more to sell the sport than anything.
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Tony Herpolsheimer · Joined: 17 Aug 2011 Posts: 52

Oddly enough, my first time driving a kart is a couple months away.

The first exposure I had ever had to a kart was when I was pretty young, and the family and I found a coffee shop that had hundreds of magazines. I mean stuff you never knew existed kind of rags. My dad found a karting magazine of some sorts, and I remember flipping through it. There were some cool pics, interesting articles, ads, etc. The thing that got me hooked right then was then I opened up a center fold of a 250 super kart on a track. My jaw dropped! That was the coolest thing I had ever seen! I have no idea where that magazine went, but I know exactly where that picture is!

Over the years I ran into some YouTube videos, hear it mentioned when watching an Indy or F1 race. Look them up from time to time. But late last summer I found a heck of a deal on a kart, and bought it. After throwing up a posting on this site, I was able to find someone who was willing to show me the ropes. Now, I'm almost set for a track day at Gratten in April. I'm hoping to not only really see how fun these things are, but also get as much information as I can so I can get to some tracks this summer and get a few races under my belt.

Ty Williams · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:38 am Post subject:

I was and still am a huge Formula 1 fan. I also grew up as a blue collar kid watching the Indy 500 on TV and listening to my Dad's stories of drag racing back in the 50's when he was teenager. My Dad past away in 1998 the year my son was born. The night before his fatal surgery he held Carter for the first time, he was 3 months old. He was always afraid he would drop him because of his bad arthritis(sp) but for some reason wanted to hold him that night. Fast forward 6 years and I was talking to my best friend Jeff about a F1 race and he told me I should get a Go-Kart. I said what in the (bleep) is a Go-Kart. He said it was a mini Formula type of car that most racers start on. He heard about a little track in Kerman that you could take them out to and practice for a small fee and I would love it. So a few months later we bought one. A few club races later and I was hooked, but how would I continue to keep this up with a 6 year old and a 2 year old at home? I got it, I will secretely by my 6 year old son a kid kart and it will be a father son deal. It will probably scare the crap out of him and he will only go a few times anyway. I put him in it on a Saturday in December the next day he won the Kid Kart B Kerman Kart Club race, and I've never looked back since. The past seven years with my son and my family has been irreplaceable. I owe that to Karting.

On a side note, the Kerman Kart Club has program on Saturday Pracitce at lunch time, any new driver to the sport can show up and pay a small fee and get into an old kart and try it out. Ron and Glen work really hard on making sure that there is atleast some type of go-kart out there for anybody to try. All in the name of helping the club and the sport to try and grow. Pretty cool.

Jeffory Mott · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 11:24 am Post subject:

Got out of the army in Feb 1970 and returned to Detroit. Was at a party when I met Gary Kolpe, who was a friends cousin. I was always a racing fan and Gary mentioned he raced "Enduro" karts. I asked wtf? He explained and offered to help me get into racing. I bought his used Hornet laydown with a Komet motor and off we went to Mid Ohio. Never saw a track this close before. The Dismores were there and they gave me a few trips as well. First time on the track, headed down that long back straight, got scared and nailed the brakes going into the turn and took a long ride on wet grass off the track. LOL. I was hooked. Gave it up after kids and mortgage payments came around. 30 some years later.at age 58 after having a triple bypass, I began an internet search on karting. Saw a race was scheduled at Barber Motorsports Park. Living in Tallahassee now, it was only 5 hours away. My understanding wife said go, have fun. I did and was amazed at how far the sport had come since hockey puck tires and chain oilers. Bought a used laydown and started racing with Southern Kart Club. Economic factors have temporarily stopped my racing but I will be back.

mike wallace · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 3:45 pm Post subject:

My brother and I decided it would be a good father son project so we went to Summit Point Raceway one Sunday and watched a race and decided this would be fun. The problem we found is that it was difficult to find info on organized kart clubs. We joined the WKC and WKA and bought some used Tag and Jr Tag karts and went road racing. We jumped in without doing much research because it is very hard to find, this was a costly mistake and almost discouraged us from continuing. You need to keep in mind that we are real newbies to karting and the lack of businesses in the east that cover karting are hard to find. I believe we mad a big mistake by joining road racing over sprint racing for our kids. After 2 years both of our sons lost interest in karting because in road racing there are long stretches without racing, unlike sprint were it is racing all day. The one thing that kept us racing is that the WKC is a very friendly karting group so us two dads upgraded to Shifters and have not looked back. The sport definitely needs a better marketing program because it is way to hard to get info on how to get into karting without blowing a ton of cash. The fun finale races at the end of the day is a great start, because if you get a prospective karter at the track talking to other racers and he has a opportunity to get out on the track he will be hooked.
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Chris Hegar · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 5:03 pm Post subject:

My parents made me race so I won't do drugs cuz drugs are bad. I don't like racing but it's better than doing drugs I guess. OK thanks, bye.
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Jimmy McNeil · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 5:54 pm Post subject:

I find it hard to believe you dont do drugs

Benn Herr · Joined: 18 Jul 2001 Posts: 1580

Rick Fulks · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:13 pm Post subject:

My parents made me race, so when I grew up, Randy could have one more guy to beat - haha!

Years ago, our local Barnes and Nobel used to carry karting magazines. I know of several karters who stated that was their first exposure to the sport.

Rick Fulks

Lawrence Doty · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:43 pm Post subject:

What's a sportsman? Most sportsmen that I know carry guns.
Seniors start at 55, 65 or 75????
Sprint track...Blank stair from newbie

For someone starting out new there are way too many classes and engine configurations to figure out. A good club will have all this layout on there web page so that someone with no karting experience can figure it out. There should also be an explanation of chassis types Kid/cadet/full size. Most web sites are set-up for experienced karters and the newbie section, if they have one, is way to simple. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground.
I got the Grandson started by taking him to an arrive-n-drive. We spent 8 hrs on the road that day so he could spend less than 10 mins in a kart, but it was worth it to me just to see if he really wanted to do this. Buying all the stuff just to find out he didn't like it after 2 laps wasn't an option for me.

Just my 2cents...
I think clubs should push the L206 and PRD fireball engines for newbies. Having a single engine that can grow with you is very attractive and easy to understand, to someone just starting out.

Tyler Meyers · Joined: 29 Jun 2011 Posts: 10

I was introduced to karting by someone that ended up becoming a good friend of mine that works at a local kart shop. I was doing my research and on top of the information I got he invited me to a couple club events so I could learn the format and see how things went and he even had me pit with him for my first few races so I had help along the way. It made it so much easier to learn and without that help I probably would have never got started.