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(60 votes) Published: Jun 02, 2000 12:00 a.m. Viewed 1970 times
The way I got started was by calling the World Karting Association at USA (1) 704-455-1606, they’ll send you an information packet.
Enduro karts race at almost every roadracing circuit in America. One aspect of enduro karts that attracted me was the fact that races last 45 minutes instead of 30 for sprint karts.
The info will help you decide what class you’ll want to race in. Racing classes are determined by engine and weight, thus you’ll hear about Yamaha light, Yamaha med, and Yamaha hvy, or piston-port light & hvy, or 135cc controlled. Everyone who races in 135cc controlled has a 135cc engine and the kart and driver weight a minimum of 360 pounds (if you weighed 200 lbs and your kart weighed 200 lbs, this wouldn’t be a good class for you).
Suppose you do weigh 200 lbs, and you wanted to race a fairly economical engine, you’d want to look into the Yamaha kt100s. there’a a class called Yamaha heavy that has a minimum weight of 410 lbs - (wow).
Although racing karts have no suspension per-se, the chassis is still very sophisticated. There are front and rear track adjustments, front and rear ride height, front caster and camber, driver weight bias, tire pressures, toe-in and toe- out - some even have rear torsion bars. All these adjustments to gain the maximum amount of performance out of the chassis for cornering. Modern karts are also skinned in lightweight fiberglass bodies that are designed to lessen the air-drag for straight-line speed and provide light downforce for cornering. Modern roadracing karts weight approximately 195 pounds race-ready. Elite, Coyote and Margay are good karts.
Modern roadracing karts are driven by a toothed belt from the engine to a sophisticated disc-type centrifugal clutch that’s located on the rear axle - that’s right, one gear - don’t worry about shifting gears, you’ll have your hands full just trying to drive fast. Horstman and Burco are good clutches.
Today’s karts use special kart racing tires by Bridgestone, Burris, and Dunlop. These tires are very soft, and the result is that they stick like bubblegum in the corners, but only last an expert two 45-min races - luckily they only cost US $140 for a set of 4. Rookies can use tires for much longer.
There are very few enduro roadracing karts now that don’t have four wheel disk brakes. A typical brake system consists of two master cylinders. 1-front, feeding two individual calipers for the front, and 1-rear feeding 1 big caliper and rotor for the rear axle as a whole. Brakes are certainly a very important system on a racing kart. Enginetics, Hegar and MCP are good.
Sprint karts usually only have a single disk brake on the solid rear axle.
SAFETY EQUIPMENT
Kart racing is a somewhat peculiar form of racing in the fact that it’s a mix of motorcycles and automobiles. Sure they have 4 wheels and the handling and setup are similar to an automobile, but that’s as far as it goes. One of the most obvious signs of the motorcycle is the high-pitched screech of the two-stroke racing engine. Another more deeply rooted likeness comes from the fact that you wear your safety equipment on your person.
The most important piece of safety equipment is your helmet. The World Karting Association requires all racers to wear a Snell 85 or better full face helmet. There are many different brands of helmets on the market that fit this requirement. Prices range from $150 - $500. You’ll get what you pay for.
Although a kart racing suit is not required by the sanctioning body, they are highly recommended. Most suits are made of a type of nylon material, either Cordura, or Entrant. You’ll want to consider your options very carefully because one suit that costs $150 may offer considerably more protection than another suit that costs the same. Leather is another option that you may want to look at, many kart racers in Europe make leather their suit of choice. Generally, heavier is better. Suits start at $150 and can reach $350 for a custom, multi- colored masterpiece.
Gloves are mandatory, they protect your hands from flying debris kicked up by karts in front of you. You’ll see a few different types of gloves on the track. There are special kart racing gloves made by companies such as Burris which are leather palmed with a padded fabric back. The studded gloves for motorcycle roadracing are also popular. You also see Simpson autoracing gloves with the nomex back.
Many kart racers wear autoracing boots/shoes by Simpson and Bell, as well as a few other brands. They offer good support, a good no-slip sole, and good feel of the pedals.
A few other pieces of safety gear that you’ll see at the track are flak-jaks, elbow pads, neck collars, and nomex hoods or helmet skirts. Neck collars are mandatory for sprint karts. Flak-jaks are plastic vests that are designed to protect your ribs and internal organs in the event of impact with something. Elbow pads protect you from bruising since your arms bang against the seat and engine sometimes when you hit bumps while cornering.
Obviously race-preparation can be included with safety. If you have parts falling off your racekart while you’re out on the track - a front wheel for instance, that wouldn’t be very safe. Neither would a chunk of lead ballast for the guy in back of you. Never overlook anything during race-prep.
Racing karts have no rollbars and no seat belts. They can reach top speeds of 110 mph - often times within a foot of another competitor. Constant alertness is critical. Driving within your capabilities is a must: passing another kart under braking but spinning at the apex is a very good way to get T-boned; overcooking a fast sweeper and leaving the track at the exit is another good way to get an ambulance ride. We don’t even want to mention touching tires with another kart.
GETTING STARTED AT THE TRACK
So you’ve picked out a kart, an engine, a pipe, all your safety gear, loaded it up and are ready to set off to the racetrack. Wait, there are still a few other things that we shouldn’t forget.
Since kart racing engines have no onboard starter, you’ll need one of those, they’re hand held and electric powered. You’ll need a 5 gallon fuel can to mix your racing gas and oil in. You’ll need a small abc fire extinguisher (mandatory in the pits). Don’t forget your tool box either, and make sure and throw in a good tire pressure guage. Another thing you should never go to the track without is a stopwatch - especially rookies! Racing is a sport of time, and if you can’t keep track of time, you can’t tell if you’re improving. A pushstick is a tool that lets you push and steer your kart around in the paddock, your back can get quite sore bending over to push a 18’ kart around the garage area. Probably the last thing worth mentioning here is a kart stand, basically this is a folding framework about 30’ tall that you put your kart on to work on it.
When you arrive at the racetrack you’ll purchase a paddock pass at the gate. This is your insurance policy for the weekend - hopefully you’ll have something else to compliment it. Once you find a spot in paddock and unload all your gear you’ll have to go to registration and decide what you want to do. Roadracing clubs often have a testing day prior to the race weekend. This is great for rookies to get a little seat time before raceday. These clubs also have novice schools that you can attend for free where you can learn a great deal about the sport from expert racers. After you get all your paperwork it’s time to get your kart teched. Don’t get nervous, if you read your tech manual and did all your prep work right you’ll breeze right through, don’t forget your helmet and pass. If there’s anything wrong the official will tell you and you’ll just have to go fix it and try again.
So you swallowed your pride and went to the novice school with a few other racers and even a couple of spectators and it was worth it. At this point you’re going to be either totaly lost or ready to go. Totally lost means that you didn’t do your homework before you got to the track. On the other hand, nobody expects you to have all the answers your first time out. If you still have any questions, about setup or anything, ask your instructor, or a racer that you’re pitted next to. It’s hard to find a kart racer that won’t help.
You learned what a entry, apex and exit are, what all the flags mean, you maybe walked around the track, or took a ride in a pickup. They explained other protocols associated with the club as well as the track and now you’re ready to take a few laps. OK, fire it up - clutch at 10K? - shut it off if it’s not close. If everything’s looking good then hit the track, but take it easy. Rookies should take a lot of laps carefully exploring the capabilities of the kart and themselves. It makes no sense to blast into some corner and spin and stall the kart and spend the rest of the session standing behind the barriers when you could be out on the track PRACTICING! You’ll improve faster if you nibble your way to speed rather than gobble your way to broken equipment or worse, bones.
I think I’ve gone about as far as I dare in this segment, except to say, use the stopwatch.
WHAT DOES IT COST ?
Kart racing, although it’s probably the most affordable type of autoracing, it is by no means cheap. Many would-be racers have probably bought a $1000 kart racing package from a retiring veteran, only to spend twice that competing in a handful of races and jump ship at the end of the season, discouraged.
Someone who is thinking about getting into autoracing should know from the start that it’s a high-tech business and many of components on the racer need to be serviced regularly. Some of these parts are more expensive to service than others.
Obviously, a person who wants to start racing karts will need to come up with a fairly sizable chunk of change just to get fully equipped as we’ll see below. Like I said above though, to do it right, it usually costs more to race a full season than it costs to buy the equipment.
Let’s have a look at the equipment that you’ll need to get started. The costs are estimates, but are reasonably accurate.
Rolling chassis w/ clutch (used) $1100
Engine (Yamaha KT100s race ready used) $550
Exhaust pipe $50
Drive belts (2) $60
Tach & temp guage $125
Seat $100
Wheels (2nd set) $90
Starter $140
Gears, ea. (good to have >1) $50
Tires (set of 4) $150
Pushbar $25
Kart stand $30
Fuel can $10
Fuel, 5 gal $30
Spark plugs (5) $20
Fire extinguisher $20
Stopwatch, air guage (0-30 psi) $40
Miscellaneous parts & hardware $100
Helmet $200
Suit $200
Gloves $35
Racing shoes $100
This list should get you to the front gate of the track with nearly everything you need, assuming that you have some way of getting the kart there. You’ll also need a reasonable set of metric and SAE tools to work on your racer with.
AT THE TRACK
So you show up at the track with all your racing equipment perfectly prepared and ready to go. The first expense you’ll encounter this weekend will be a paddock pass, this is your ticket to the raceway for the weekend. In the WKA, the pass also carries up to $10,000 insurance in the event of you getting injured. Paddock passes are around $20 for the weekend. Entry fees come next, If you’re like me, you’ll enter two different races (1 Saturday, 1 Sunday). Figure on $40-$50 per class. A quick enduro kart racer will use up a set of tires in a weekend of two races, maybe more if you have a handling problem. I takes a rookie considerably more time. New tires are usually a must to win races. 4 tires run about $140-150. Some racers use a chemical called ’Bite’ or ’Formula V’ to soften used tires back to near-new traction. It works.
Fuel is something everyone has their own opinion on. A formula a lot of racers use is 2.5 gallons premium racing fuel(Cam-2), 2.5 gallons 87 octane reg unleaded, mixed with 40 oz 2 stroke racing oil. That formula will run you about $28, and should last a weekend.
Many racers participate in testing days. A lot of tracks have a pre-weekend test day the Friday before the race weekend. These test days usually run $30-60 for roughly 5 hours. Money well spent.
Other than travel and lodging, the only other thing I can think of at this point would be wear and tear. A good approach to the engine work is to have two engines and stagger the rebuilds for the two so you always have 2 engines at the track and one is always fresh. Having engines freshened is basically a new piston, ring, hone, and carb. kit. You shouldn’t have to pay more than $150 for a freshening. Full rebuilds that include cranks, bearings and connecting rods are considerably more expensive ($450).
Axle clutches should be looked at once a year also - you could figure on $300 for that service.
If you keep your nose clean and refrain from collisions and off-track excursions, you can see that a few sacrifices, a big tax refund, and a few paychecks saved away can get you into what may be one of the last motorsports where winning has more to do with what you have, rather than what you bought.
I hope that any of you interested in racing karts have found this series of articles informative as well as helpful in making a decision to go racing wheel to wheel where nearly all top autoracers got their start.
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