CalSpeed Karting Center to permanently close December 4
We regret to inform the karting community that CalSpeed Karting Center will close permanently on December 4, 2022. We were recently informed by Auto Club Speedway that due to the planned redevelopment of the property, all rental activities and programs will cease by the end of the year.
All scheduled events at CalSpeed will continue as planned. LAKC, Tri-C Karters, and SuperKarts! USA ProKart event will proceed as scheduled as will the remaining Clinic/Sprint/TinMan and IronMan/Super Series rounds. The final day for open practice and kart rentals will be Sunday, November 27. The 15th annual running of the Machismo 12 Hour Race endurance race on December 3 will be the final event at CalSpeed.
We are currently exploring options for the future. In the meantime, our goal is to make the most of the limited time we have left to best commemorate our 19-year run at Auto Club Speedway.
More information and announcements are forthcoming.
Bummer! Never got a chance to run there. Planned on running ROK Challenge of the Americas there next year. They just released the schedule a couple weeks ago and it had CalSpeed on the schedule. This must have been sudden.
Correct and there is another big facility that K1 is opening not far away and looks massiveā¦supposedly for electric rentals and gas powered karts, launching in 2022 but not sure about the exact plansā¦will find out soon!
The Calspeed news was posted on EKNās page on Facebook. Several individuals in that postās comment section have mentioned that the K1 track plans to be for their rental karts only.
Which, to be quite honest, doesnāt come as a surprise at all.
I think you are rightā¦itās the reality nowadays, what brings money is rentals and events. Practice days are not really worth it unless used as a filler or brought down to once a week type of frequency.
Iāve observed three main types of tracks. (bit of a soapboax rant at the end)
Tracks owned by NPO clubs that have just enough cash to keep it running with help of volunteers and sponsors. But little to no budget for expansion/marketing.
Tracks that operate with rentals but rent the track from the club, with agreement to commit to race x number of race events.
Tracks that run rentals that just cannot justify hosting a race without the organization having to bring BIG driver numbers or charge triple digit entry fees.
The soapbox (Iāve been talking with people about this lately so itās on my mind)
My honest assessment is that track\clubs are undervalued and taken for granted by racers in karting. Many drivers will think nothing of spending hundreds on tires and engine work, but will balk at the thought of paying more for entry fees. Often I see people piss and moan about a $5 increase in fees. Yet if you look at the hierarchy of things, without the track, racing cannot happen. Sure, not having an engine builder, or fresh tires make it difficult to race. Not having a venue makes it impossible.
I actually think itās a major factor that impedes the sport and one of the reasons Iām not super keen on the mantra that ākarting should be for everyoneā. I promise Iām not talking about gatekeeping the sport here. The continued efforts to make owner driver karting less and expensive will naturally attract pople with smaller budgetsā¦ including entry feesā¦
While making the sport accessible to āeveryoneā is a valiant cause, itās just not sustainable and almost always a false economy for the racer (Read clone\predator classes). The sport (Owner driver part) requires too much effort on the behalf of the ācustomerā to work as a āstack high and sell cheapā model.
Karting should be (and is) excellent value, but that often gets conflated with cost in peopleās minds. . Racing will cost you everything you allocate to it, the question is what do you get for your money.
All that said, I think Calspeedās closing was to do with real estate changes?
I use to go there with my dad in the mid to late 60ās.
