Dropping this here to read and process later.
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Oh hell yes! Someone from outside of karting spending money on promoting karting to people that aren’t already karting?!?!
Yes please and don’t waste time growing this venture to the states! Need this in Vegas full time and Miami too for starters - destination cities that will send people back home looking for karting in their region.
This is gonna be like supercharged.
The future is now and it’s indoors electric on crazy tracks. I can’t tell you guys how much people seem to be wowed by the experience of karting up and down in the dark. All we need now is ambiance, lights, sound.
But they need to figure out the racing bit.
But racing is hard! Ya gotta concentrate and pay attention and stuff! /s
Well there is that, too…what I’ve seen in the league is that folks get it figured out with some experience. I’d wager that quite a few of the “Superchargers” are/were new to karting and feel way more confident after participating. The sanitized TT format is a great and easy introduction to traffic and passing.
What worries me:
Karting past a certain point is inherently dangerous. The possibility of wrecks in TAG and the like is quite real, we see it every race weekend.
We can’t insure for that at places like a rental facility, I imagine. It appears to me that ALL of the newer facilities MUST use speed 3 for their non-league sessions if they want insurance coverage.
This does not bode well in some ways.
Yes, the superchargeds and the like of the world are doing a freaking amazing job at attracting folks and getting butts in seats.
But they haven’t answered how we address the next leg up someone’s karting journey. Speed 3 is too safe. Speed 4 isn’t fast enough for even me. I honestly do not feel risk out there, much at all. Usually, the incident is a glancing blow at 30mph, something minor. And we have belts and a roll bar.
So, the owner kart world will still be meaningful but it appears that it’s rather “passive” and is happy just accepting new folks that manage to figure out the next steps beyond league stuff.
But I don’t see that world doing much at all to contribute towards new growth. It appears they just get the grow-outs from the boom in league stuff.
Anyways, I worry that we will have overly sanitized racing with no real risk at which point we might as well just all fuck off. I’m sure that the owner karting world will always persist but right now, it’s a heck of a lot easier to get started in karting with urban centers that cater to the “new” recreational karter.
Don’t get me wrong, I do love owner karting. I just don’t see how a business that asks you to drive mega distances each weekend and spend a huge pile of cash can appeal beyond a hugely enthusiastic small group. It’s a pain in the butt, relatively., and pricey, too.
But oh those sweet, sweet revs… when the electric torque stops, you really miss feeling the revs climb past 15k as you get on the pipe of the x30 or whatever.
What do they have to answer for? They (indoor entertainment venues) don’t care at all what we in the owner kart world do ot do not do to convert curious rental kart people in to kart owners/racers.
That is our job as an industry and frankly most don’t make that effort. Lowest hanging fruit on the vine.
OMG, my eyes are bleeding from the buzz word assault in the first two paragraphs. 
Also,
“Adding a touch of authenticity, the in-kart audio technology features recordings by stars like Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and Charles Leclerc during the adrenaline-fueled Grand Prix races.”
So this mean I can hear George, Lewis, Max, & Charles say “He exceeded track limits!” or “He pushed me off!” about me, but I can’t complain to my team about them? 
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How they keep our interest. As it stands, it’s too slow for most purposes. Speed 4 is the minimum for racing imho. It’s not sufficient to provide a challenge for the long term. They need something else. Start with position racing as opposed to TT. At some point you will have the facility utterly dialed in at speed 4 and it will be like speed 3. Gives us some battles, at least.
I think we are in agreement.
I just want to know about this “authentic golf-kart experience.”
I must be missing something - this sounds like an augmented reality indoor karting facility with some F1 themed money grabbing bells and whistles. What am I not seeing?
F1 wants to have full control of karting, their ambitions lay above this. This is just a start
Seriously? Why? They have no business coming within a mile of it lol. Wtf.
F1 wants to control everything. it’s the game. Karting is effectively ‘Formula 5’ now, and its something that they don’t have full control over. it’s a bit too free.
F1 people moan about karting all the time, it’s a source of a lot of complaints about motorsport. This stadium tie-in is just a first step. The Champions of the Future series now has F1 Academy money. It’ll be a slow drip. They’re feeling their way
F1 has taken over (philosophically) the FIA World Karting Championship with their drivers in the OK catagory. They won’t appreciate Paulo Ippolitto taking to the stand at the FIA Gala for the KZ trophy though.
You can’t trust F1 at all. You can’t cede an inch to them because they will take it all. They do not care about karting as a sport. its history, heritage, meaning … to F1 irrelevant. it’s a pain. They care about controlling the category for their own ends.
They have to a certain extent psychologically controlled the sport for a number of years, but I think we’ll see an expanse of F1’s visual branding into karting over the next few years. I think some branded electric kart series will be how they go for the jugular because the Italian factories won’t be able to defend against that. I think they might be a bit drunk with the money generated from the ‘F1 dream’ but it’ll soon become a nightmare.
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While we are at it, just merge FIFA and F1… go full repulsive. What’s a little misogyny and corruption on top of cozying up to dirty sovereign funds?
I see this more as a casual fun like most indoors tracks, mostly aiming for the casual public.
Although maybe it will be something to take in mind when the UE bans combustion engines.
At least for South America it will take a long while
What, no disco light balls? Amateurs.
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Appealing to convenience. And besides, nobody wants to get their hands dirty. Or sweat. Or maybe even bleed a little.
It’s a first step really, well not quite. We had FOM’s support of the Stars of Tomorrow and less said about that the better. We now have the Champions of the Future series the F1 Academy is piling money into. It’s a drip drip drip. You have these indoor places, but you see F1’s march onwards elsewhere
F1 figures take a lot of swipes at karting, which is really the aim of these kind of hit pieces:
They want to control karting, make no mistake about it. They don’t really understand it and they don’t like it. It’s outside their sphere of control and over the next few years will bully their way into controlling it as much as possible.
Fortunately the USA seems to be like, yeah you guys do you. We’re gonna put on denim and go rip around in dirt.
They plan on doing this in Las Vegas. I suspect America is their #1 target for this. Many already existing places they can offer franchises to
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That’s what it sounds like to me as well, Eric.
That was my expectation of SC (Supercharged).
I went once and disliked the experience:
To summarize: too much processing time and not enough racing (spend time in 3 queues). Then speed 3 is too slow.
But, then they surprised me with the league. I was skeptical so I texted Ben (a racer who races ALOT of series locally and generallly is podium) and he said do it. (He won the Wrentham league).
He was correct. It’s a great experience and not what I expected from such a commercial and popular facility.
They tightened up their process and there’s much less waiting around involved. The league itself is very quick, usually done in under 2hrs.
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