[Anonymous]

You have two national series, SKUSA Pro Tour and USPKS which cover both sides of the Missisippi. USPKS is mostly east and Pro Tour is mostly west. Those will be some of your toughest fields. You’ve also got various Rotax series with high competition and Florida Winter Tour as well.

[Howie Idelson]

The Los Angeles Karting Championship LAKC is one of the best. Monthly races at CalSpeed where the track configurations changes each month, 200 plus karts and some of the best masters drivers in the country. It’s like a monthly National championship.

[J.R. Ybarra]

I second the motion on So Cal and the Los Angeles Karting Championship…here’s a look at what you will see on a monthly basis.

 

[Capo di Brianza]

Thanks for the answer Ybarra, but to be honest I am not positively impressed with the video you posted. Is that the best track in the LA area ?

First, it’s a parking lot, not a purposely built track. There is a huge difference to a proper racing circuit with a decent asphalt and rubber accumulation, not to mention the safety factor. Second, only 4 karts in a class?? Looks like this race specifically was close, but I believe a competitive class must have at least 15 entrants.

 

[J.R. Ybarra]

Well not sure where you get there were only 4 karts in the class? you must have missed the start secondly while it is a track that is located within a parking lot the circuit is far more challenging than it might appear. Third, the caliber of racing and quality of drivers is quite impressive and many of our racers have proved themselves nationally and internationally. If you happen to take a visit to So Cal I would encourage you to stop by and sign up for the arrive and drive “Super Series” and watch how incredibly difficult and competitive it is to race at this circuit.

[David McDowell]

Capo,

I have driven many different tracks and the so cal track is just as good as any of them. You are to focused on its location and forgetting the fact that it is a purpose built sprint track that gets used everyday of the week. It is not assembled and disassembled after each event. There is also and advantage with it being all asphalt in that you do not have to deal with mowing the lawn and damaging your chassis when you go off track.

 

You will be looking for ever if you want to club race and consistently have 15 racers in your class.  In our club with out non-members showing up our numbers vary anywhere between 4 and 18, just depends on the weekend.

[Rob Hogenmiller]

Also planning a comeback in racing after a 12 year lay off. What class has the top drivers these days? Is it still shifters and rotax? – Rob Hogenmiller

[Daniel White]

If I could choose a place to live based on karting options, it would be southern California.

If it was east of the Mississippi, it would be the Midwest (it seems to be the heart of the karting industry) or central Florida (winter karting mecca).

[Anonymous]

Top classes these days are Rotax Senior, TaG Senior, and S1.

[Jim Derrig]

Weather counts.  Up here in the Pacific Northwest (think Seattle) we have world-level drivers but if you won’t put up with driving in the rain, you’re looking at a 4-month-long season.  We can and do race all year, but you have to be willing to get wet.

[Anonymous]

On a regional and national level, you will see big field, but club racing is harder to find a full grid.

SKUSA Pro Tour and USPKS both pull in around 40 for their TaG Sr. classes.

[Larry Hayashigawa]

SO CAL ROTAX CHALLENGE has argueably the most competitive Masters karting in the US

So Cal has two strong series with relatively large Masters grids:  LAKC has already been mentioned, the other is the So Cal Rotax Challenge.  This year the Masters class started off big time with 14 entries for the first race and 21 entries for the second race.  There is coverage on this race on ekartingnews.com home page.

The So Cal Rotax Challenge races are spread across 3 different tracks in Southern California and in the past So Cal Masters grids have had 2 or 3 Rotax National Champions in attendance.

Come race the So Cal Rotax Challenge and get your butt run over by most of the grid.

Larry

[Cory-Milne]

id say California would be your best bet the most tracks geographically, and tons of quality drivers. Theres a reason I fly from colorado to california to race its because all the top drivers come from cali.

[Bjork Denil]

F1 outdoors track near boston

NHKA series in the north east utilizing new hampshire motor speedway road course and F1 outdoors.

the winter ofcourse limits the season, but kart shops migrate down south during the winter along with the karts.

 

other tracks much nearer to NYC are ovrp (oakland valley race park), new jersey motor speedway. There is lime rock park road and kart course in between NYC and Boston

 

 

 

 

[Capo di Brianza]

Guys, thank you very much for your responses. Looks like California and Florida are the best places.

Any opinions on NYC? I am googling it but only found rentals.

[Jim Derrig]

“Looks like this race specifically was close, but I believe a competitive class must have at least 15 entrants.”

Capo, no matter where you go you’re probably going to be disappointed with the participation level, which is no where near what it is in Europe.  Two reasons.  First, the U.S. is a huge, spread-out place without the population density you see in Europe, so there just are fewer people close to the local kart track.  Second, karting is to US motor sports as football (soccer) is to US ball sports–just not very popular, and nobody really can say why.

 

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