View Full Version : Karts & Kart tracks
rf360m
04-28-2008, 06:37 PM
Hi all! Does anyone know of any really good outdoor kart tracks within an hour or two of NYC? I'm looking for something where I can race a shifter kart. (Unfortunately I can no longer afford the SB weekends as the latest price increase has made it too expensive. :( - so I'm looking for an alternative.
Thanks for any info.
dalyduo
04-28-2008, 08:08 PM
Julia Landauer and her family did a lot of racing here. Have no first hand experience but might be worth checking out. http://www.ovrp.com/ovrp/pages/home.asp
Also might be worth talking to Ari or Yuri at GPNY as they probably know most of the shifter kart tracks in the area.
OLDMAN
04-28-2008, 09:38 PM
Englishtown, NJ?
OLDMAN
rf360m
04-29-2008, 10:20 AM
Thanks for the ideas! I will check them out. :)
PT Cruiser
04-29-2008, 09:41 PM
When I lived in New Jersey (up until 2002), I would from time to time drive up to Oakland Valley Race Park and rent a shifter kart for Saturday practice as a way to get the rust out between Skippy races. It was a fun track, and pretty well run. At the time, Mike Doty was the person managing the Kart Rentals. It took me two hours to get there from central Jersey, so it's probably only a bit over an hour from New York, not counting traffic issues.
If you do run there, get a Rib Tech -- the first time I ran shifter karts there I lasted less than 15 minutes before I had to quit, and it was three months before I could get out of bed without serious rib pain.
XVeeRacer
05-01-2008, 08:50 PM
Check the F1Boston site. I believe they have an outdoor track either in RI or near the MA-RI border. Might just be close to 2 hrs. from NYC.
Correction- F1 Outdoors in East Bridgewater RI
OLDMAN
05-03-2008, 09:13 AM
F1 Outdoors is in Massachusetts.
Bob
tom goodhart
05-09-2008, 01:15 PM
Englishtown, NJ is a good track (although somewhat bumpy) set in the parking lot behind the drag strip. 1 fast straight and lots of hairpins. You can rent TAG's there from Full Tilt Racing, but I've had trouble getting a good fit and wound up with some broken ribs.
http://www.racewaypark.com/
rf360m
05-09-2008, 01:22 PM
What would cause broken ribs? Is that from crashing, or just driving the kart? I went karting at the track at VIR last year without any special gear and didn't feel any rib pain from that. It was only a 30 minute session, so perhaps that's too short to really get sore?
tom goodhart
05-09-2008, 01:32 PM
Not from crashing, driving the car in bumpy corners the car skips over the bumps and each time it loses and gets grip again it jars you.
When I lived in New Jersey (up until 2002), I would from time to time drive up to Oakland Valley Race Park and rent a shifter kart for Saturday practice as a way to get the rust out between Skippy races.
If you do run there, get a Rib Tech -- the first time I ran shifter karts there I lasted less than 15 minutes before I had to quit, and it was three months before I could get out of bed without serious rib pain.
I would recommend rib protection anytime in a kart as I cracked one of mine at GPNY on Tuesday. Dumb move and I am paying for it at the moment. Rib protection would have saved me a lot of pain.
For a video of a shifter kart at OVRP (http://www.ovrp.com/ovrp/pages/home.asp), check out this post by Sydude (http://www.teamjuicyracing.com/forums/showthread.php?p=17431). You can see how you can get banged up just completing laps. :stunt:
What would cause broken ribs? Is that from crashing, or just driving the kart? I went karting at the track at VIR last year without any special gear and didn't feel any rib pain from that. It was only a 30 minute session, so perhaps that's too short to really get sore?
PT Cruiser
05-09-2008, 10:02 PM
What would cause broken ribs? Is that from crashing, or just driving the kart? I went karting at the track at VIR last year without any special gear and didn't feel any rib pain from that. It was only a 30 minute session, so perhaps that's too short to really get sore?
Karts have no suspensions, so every little bump in the track delivers a serious jolt. And the karts develop some pretty serious cornering forces as well. It takes some time to learn to drive the higher power karts --especially shifters-- smoothly, and before you learn to do so, the sudden transitions as the kart hooks up and breaks away can be pretty rough. When I took Mike Doty's shifter kart school at ORVP, I was in pretty serious rib pain within 15 minutes, and had to quit the day early (I hadn't heard of rib protectors at that point). It was about 4 months before I was up to karting again. Even then I was NEVER able to do more than about 45 minutes in a shifter kart on any given day before I felt I needed to stop for qa week, or be out with another 4 month rib injury.
That being said, shifter karts at ORVP are a WILD experience. Between the speed and agility of the karts and the high ratio of corners to straights, there isn't more than one place on the track where you go for more than a second without braking, turning, or shifting. It is outright intimidating at first, but huge fun once you adjust to the rapid fire sequence of events. It is probably the closet thing to driving a F1 car or and indy car that a mere mortal can do. :D:D:D:D
The two closest tracks to NYC are Englishtown, www.racewaypark.com, and OVRP, www.ovrp.com. I believe that Englishtown is a little bit closer than OVRP to the city but maybe by 20 or 30 minutes. OVRP is in the middle of nowhere. House, house oh there's a nice track. Englishtown is off Rt. 9 and not quite in the middle of nowhere but not far off. Englishtown track is in a parking lot but I like it a lot. Plus, you can watch drag racing when you aren't racing. Full Tilt run by Keith Raffa has a good setup and can rent you anything you want. I don't know the same for OVRP b/c I have never rented from there but I know they have some sort of rental capacity. I definitely recommend a rib protector. You must get something with a hard shell instead of just padding. I have a Freeminds protector, but the Sparco VS is good as well as a Sabelt hard shell knockoff of the freeminds. Ribtect makes a hard shell carbon fiber one but it looks like a girdle. My freeminds has protected me in many situations. If you have any more questions, shoot me an email at agatoff@gmail.com
vBulletin® v3.8.4, Copyright ©2000-2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.