[Dom Callan]

Before you buy a shifter, rent one and see how your body holds up.

The stickier tires and higher g’s do not play nice with middle age. You may find it too physical.

In comparison, at 48, I find x30 on competition tires a bit more strenuous than I’d like to admit.

[Dom Callan]

Do they make smaller gas tanks for cadet karts? I know a guy who did that on his adult kart to save a few pounds.

[Dom Callan]

Aargh. You make it sound so accessible. I do love the howl of a two stroke spinning at 15k rpms, but the logistics are so damn complicated (or expensive).

[Dom Callan]

Thanks for all the feedback and thoughts. I think it’s going to take a few more sessions to decide if I really want to commit to 2 stroke ownership and racing. I do agree that lo206 would be a great way to cut my teeth in racing for all sorts of reasons. The local situation being what it is makes it less appealing, sadly.

[Dom Callan]

Thanks for the insight. Believe it or not, the gentleman running the f-series at eTown was quite explicit about TAG or bust. There just isn’t enough participation apparently to support additional engine options for our area. The Sunday race had only 7 guys for masters tag. This isn’t the “gearup” race series, as far as I can tell. That series does seem to be more serious. As far as club racing, there doesn’t seem to be any. Maybe in NJ the f-series (state championship?) is sort of lower key, with f-series gearup being  more for the faster folks?

What’s interesting is that the tag karts didn’t feel much “faster” than the iame 100 engine I have experience with. What makes it harder are the stickier tires, at least to me.

[Dom Callan]

 

Gene,

Just for fun, I took a look at the race results for the TAG masters race held at Elizabethtown on Sunday.

7 folks total.

The top two were neck and neck at .3s difference.

The number three guy chased the leaders by himself with a 6s gap.

the next two guys were duking it out 13s off the leaders but .8s of each other.

the last guy to finish was 23s off the leader. It looks like #7 had to bow out after 5 laps sadly.

The important bit from a “Can I race here?” Standpoint seems to be “how fast should I be able to get around the track?”.

Well, the top 5 all posted a best laptime of between 42 and 43 seconds. The last two guys posted 47.8 and 48.6 best lap times.

So, I’m guessing if you can be anywhere in that range, you are good to go racing.

With my almost complete lack of skill and experience I think my lap times on practice day were around 45s. So, I guess this means that it would definitely be possible for someone with my level of experience (almost none) to be able to participate and have fun without being a total speed bump.

https://www.race-monitor.com/Results/Session/6129588

 

 

 

[Dom Callan]

If your kart has the capacity to be restarted (like an electric or pull starter) you could get going again.

The rentals are TAG but they don’t have the electric starter unit battery installed. They crank them over at the start with one of those battery powered thingamabobs.

[Dom Callan]

https://youtu.be/lhwEO_xWENg

Ouch. I am recovering from yesterday (sore and bruised but limbs still attatched).

Couple other things:

The rental and kart ownership is the expensive bit. The track time is not expensive. I believe it was $10 at the gate to get into lot and $35 to use the track for the day.

The day begins at roughly 9am and goes to 4 or 5. They then have 10 minute sessions by class. (Cadets, then teen racers, then older folks, and then also the folks on the 4 stroke rental karts). In the morning they might combine classes to maximize track time (i.e. Senior and rentals together).

Couple of things to note: different engines will run together in practice so you might be in a tag kart on track with folks in Yamaha or Briggs engines. So clearly speeds are going to be different.

at first I thought you weren’t supposed to pass people. Turns out that it’s fine to pass, just do so sensibly. There’s no restriction as to when or where you can pass but generally folks were cautious.

The seniors are very well behaved and careful, the teens appear to be generally really good drivers and are a bit scary to watch because they run very aggressively.

my day started miserably because the local rule is “if you stall you are done”. If you stall your kart, you will be watching other people go by until the checkered flags drops. My first session ended in turn 3 and my second was a bit better (made it one full lap before stalling out behind a rental Briggs). So really, you don’t want your engine to cut out.

Skill levels are quite varied and I don’t think anyone new to karting would feel uncomfortable.

If you make a day of it, it’s basically an all you can eat buffet of driving. I personally had reached the point where I basically was physically destroyed by about 2pm.

it would appear that the best way to go is to own your own kart. The rental tag kart was fun but fit is an issue. They run huge seats so you are going to be bouncing around in there. My knee and the gas tank had an ongoing argument that my knee lost. Fortunately the rental people have a trailer full of gear so I was able to get a knee pad and I was able to borrow a second rib protector to try to widen my girth a bit.

Since the OP was wondering about buying a kart, FTR has karts for sale from about $2500 to about $6500 used. I know almost nothing about karts so can’t speak to wether these prices are good, bad or indifferent.

Bring lots of water. There is a concession stand that makes burgers and the like, but h2o is $3 a bottle at the track. Next time I will visit the local Wawa before coming.

the track is fun but bumpy in a couple places and you definitely don’t want to clip the red dome marker bumps.

The rental karts don’t have transponders so you have no clue how your lap times are. I could see folks flipping through their mychrons so I assume if you own a kart, the infrastructure for that sort of data exists there.

It was nice to meet Wade (thanks for stopping by and introducing yourself).

Final thought, bring one of those sams club foldable chairs or something.

Anyways that’s all I can think of. Have fun.

 

[Dom Callan]

Ok have spoken to Keith at full tilt. Basically he runs an arrive and drive  plus performance rentals/storage/service. My general understanding is that he will rent or sell you a kart, store it, prep it etc. They will be at the track and for a fee can provide all the support you might need.

There’s basically two series, gear up and the state championships. He says the primary difference is that the state is always at either englishtown or Millville and that there’s 10-11 races a year. Gear up is 7 races and further afield.

he says that both series are for anyone, regardless of age and skill. it does not sound very complicated. Sign up, pay, qualify, race. If you are too slow they’ll figure something out.

both Keith and the other gentleman who runs f series expressed that the only game in town is 125cc tag or shifters. There’s just not enough folks to have other classes.

lepoard and x30 are the primary engines with lepoard being the economical option.

more to come if I learn anything else

[Dom Callan]

Will do. Fingers crossed on weather for Saturday….

[Dom Callan]

Ambrose,

OVRP appears to be about 2.2 hrs which is not far at all, really. Looks like an amazing facility with racing for all ages. It’s definitely on my list to explore. Thanks for the heads up. Have fun next week and good luck in the race.

[Dom Callan]

Yep. Already planned and reserved a tag for the 6th and 26th. I’ll be speaking with the owner to get a sense of how to approach this.

from what I gather they will basically a) sell or rent you a kart, b) storage and trackside delivery, c) tech support on race days etc.

so now I just need to find out what this all costs, what neophyte race series we (my son and I) can run in, and how much of this my wife will be able to tolerate.

[Dom Callan]

Gene,

Am in same boat as you. The only thing I could find that seems to fit the bill is through full tilt karting at the englishtown raceway. I am headed there Saturday to speak to them and go round in circles on their tag kart. They seem to run more than just arrive and drive services.

I will ask about racing leagues etc. for us older farts (I am 47) and will let you know what they have to say.

 

[Author]

Posts