Has karting finally priced out the average person?

At my local track there has been a price jump (not the topic of this story) that got me thinking about kart prices. Is it possible for a working person to get into karting and compete successfully?

I see prices of Arrive and Drive packages in the $1k for a club weekend. I see used karts going for $6k. Truck and trailer prices have been through the roof since COVID. $250 sets of tires. $1300 206 packages… The list goes on and on. Is it even possible for a regular person to be competitive? What is the entry cost to the sport? Have we turned into an elitist niche past time? Is there any way to recover/turn back time?

I am blessed to have gotten into the sport years ago so my built up inventory of used parts and useless kart knowledge keeps things affordable for me. But how would a new person do it? How much would it cost?

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Arrive and drive rental stuff still falls in the affordable category, although prices have crept up there, too. When I started 6hrs were 1200 now it’s 1600-1750. Leagues tend to be 75-150 a race still.

Is that chassis with engine or only chassis?

I think 206 club racing on a hard tire is still affordable and I think you can be competitive on a budget. Anything beyond that, including 2 cycle club racing, requires a pretty hefty budget.

Regional racing is expensive, and national arrive and drive is INSANELY expensive.

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$5K+ for a new roller, and $2K+ for a replacement chassis blows my mind.

The rolling chassis okay I can justify, but $2K+ for some tubes and powder coating?

I’ve slowly accumulated chassis and engines, but I’d hate to add up what it would cost me to start from scratch again.

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Depends on location and expectations. It can still be done on a working man’s budget, but you do have to be lucky with your local club. If they have an open grid and go with whatever you can find, you’re going to be OK.

However tracking prices and the nature of the market for everything else, it is getting harder and harder.

In Europe, I would say 2 stroke has been out of the average person reach for many decades now

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I understand that ‘karting’ and ‘kart racing’ are synonymous to many, but they’re not the same thing technically. I ‘kart’, but do not race and that makes it much more affordable since I don’t have to shop against a spec, or keep everything 100% pristine for every lap I do.

But just sticking to racing, overall I believe the numbers themselves prove that kart racing is too expensive for the average person (avg income vs average kart racing budget). That said, there’s definitely a spending culture/mindset that one will either subscribe to or not, and that will have a huge effect on affordability (and yes, that culture seems to be the one that is the most mainstream these days).

I think it may still be within reach for the working person without a family that can make sacrifices in other areas to afford it. Once you get a family and have more responsibilities it becomes less affordable (job dependent).

Karting was never cheap. I raced juniors for €400-€800 per round from 05-08 in mini max and snr max. I spend about €800-€1000 a round now in kz. Half of the budget is 2 sets of tyres. (wets and slicks). Slicks last a day. Thats enough to be competitive running myself.

The outlay on the kart however is expensive. I have 10k in two engines alone.

@calebgilbert and @Bimodal_Rocket

Good clarification. I agree that rental karting and tack day karting are still “reasonably” accessible to the common person. My mind was on kart racing.

It seems the sentiment here is similar to mine. There are definitely times/ways it can be done, but overall not really possible to the average human. Thats disappointing to me, but understandable.

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i think the budget racer can still get it done, but if they are budget and new, it’s a bit tougher. once you’re into the karting world, and have some knowledge and connections, it gets a bit easier to find a good deal on a used roller.

i just recently purchased a 2024 roller, for a pretty good price, but i got lucky, and already knew the person i purchased the roller from. i also just sold a 15 year old chassis for about $650 to someone who’s completely new to karting. he did mention that he saw the $4K rollers, and that wasn’t in his budget. (i also told the dude about kartpulse, since he needs some intellectual resources).

so i do think it’s doable. the kart i sold for $650 was a throw in on a buy out i did a year ago, so i basically got it for free, threw a used motor on it (purchased from derek at the 2024 ovka swap meet), and after going over everything and fiberglassing the seat, was able to race it. all the dude i sold it to really has to do is get a used motor and some wheels/tires, and he’ll be on track for under $2K, most likely.

by the way, if anyone in the badger kart club region (wisconsin) has a 206 motor they want to sell, hit me up and i’ll get you in touch with this guy.

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Can it be done on a Workingman buget, Well yes kind of.
We use In the region of 700-1000 Euro if we know this will be a hard weekend, and 1500-2000 Euro if We Think We can compete In the top 5, i like to be able to spend the 2000 on all the races, but cant afford it.

Some of the drivers We are competing with (and beating) spend 3000 and upwards for a single weekend.
This is national races In the Rotax class, if you go to WSK or the likes i can only imagine how much it cost,

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Many chassis manufacturers won’t sell tubes anymore. I know that’s the case with OTK. Only rolling chassis.

I know with Croc we can still get tubes, and I believe the beginning of this year we’re getting like 4-6 sets of tubes for people. One set is mine for my KZ.

I don’t think it’s karting pricing out people, it’s people being priced out of pretty much everything. Hobbies and non-essentials should logically be amongst the first to be cut

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I wonder if karting is going at a similar rate as other industries? Maybe its the same as everything else, but I feel like its going faster. I bet someone here on the internet is way smarter than me and can calculate/investigate.

The start will often be hard, like finding a chassis and engine, but when you make connections it will be a little easier.
The hard part will be finding time and sacrifice other things to get competitive. Have seen it recently where drivers lose pace because they didnt come for one or two months.

This is important too. My club runs a RMC so it technically is a ““National”” Series, because of that people want their tickets so you see people changing piston or piston ring every race or using 2 or 3 set of tyres every practice. Although, in Masters that doesn’t happen as much as the other classes. You can compete at the front without doing that but obviously it gives a strong first impression

If I recall correctly Kartshop sells bare frames to anyone

The used market is like any market there are some wild asks and some good deals out there. When the Clone engines became popular people were buying them for $75 with a warranty and selling of their 2 cycle engines and sawing and welding to fit a 4cycle engine on their 2 cycle chassis. Wild times, I don’t think that will happen again with Tillitson and Lo206 having seals, people are choosing to spend a little more for fairness of engine. However there are still people that take older chassis and make them competitive. I would like to see some regulation on the expensive metals and aero work. The fact that you can’t run a laydown seat in a sprint kart but can buy the most expensive rare metals to lighten your kart, CF floor trey and the latest and greatest bodywork is a bit ridiculous. I understand why the manufacturers do it so they can roll out a new generation chassis every year but these new chassis seem to get tired really quick.

Whats a realistic yearly budget for club racing? Anyone have a ballpark?