How this league operate?
Any brand can take part in?
Will you attention the brand of the kart in a indoor rental track?
Sam, K1 indoors looks like the are using the OTL Superleggero.
K1 Circuit (the outdoor place where they do the national championship race for rental league) uses the OTL E-Pro electric kart, which is a shifter roller with electric engine. Yours is more like the latter.
@Ruppdartkart i assume all the k1 rentals are on the same brand?
Nope. K1 is a large national “chain” that has dramatically expanded their footprint via acquisition of independent tracks around the country.
They have a league series for customers of their locations. The league is on the rental equipment, arrive and drive. There is a championship wherein regional champs get to go race at K1 Circuit, which is a different thing entirely. That is a full length FIA-CIK type track where SKUSA and other racing series also race. For that facility they have more powerful, racier karts.
I wrote about them here:
Yep they use OTL superleggero rental karts. Our K1 Speed use them . BUT our K1 In Canton Ohio is the only one. That has a outdoor / indoor track. And we are the only one that can do a 1/2 / 6 / and 12 hour races. Our owner use to own a computer company. And designed his own lithium batteries with coolers from a local battery company. We can run 105 laps before a charge. And also rapid charge them at a high rate. They have been running in our karts for 12 months now and still going. Come race with us and my grandkids… K1 Speed Indoor Go Kart Racing Canton - Akron, Cleveland | K1 Speed or watch our livestreams. Our 12 is coming up March 14th on this channel link https://www.youtube.com/@competitionkarting or watch some races on ( K1 Racer or K1 Racer Girl ) Youtube channels
The electric market doesn’t seem like a dead end to me, mon Cher ami… since you left we’ve been seeing a flurry of activity with new builds and consolidation of Indies into chains that are focused on electric exclusively. (RPM and K1).
Me, @nikspeeds, Amatus (Karting with Friends), Alec (Touring Kart Championship) have all been interfacing with the owners of RPM and they are racey and I have great hope. K1 feels distant and disconnected from the racing community, but maybe that’s just me.
Yep have to defend electric . Its just a different means of propulsion . No threat to gas just a different option for people who come off of rentals. And like the power of electric… Not a dead end market. Just a new way to grow karting…
Then how do you convert outdoor facilities ? How do you solve the numerous problems they face when trying electric karts ? K1 only outdoor electric facility only runs 8 min sessions, on barebones rental chassis.
Indoor avoids all this problems because it avoids high speeds sections, so the kart doesn’t run at high RPM and doesn’t drain its battery. But indoor is not as interesting to drive as outdoor.
They are many infrastructure problems to solve before this market becomes interesting. Or you need better batteries. But in its current state, you just can’t convert big outdoor facilities, so they should stop bragging about their next-gen tech. Because it is nothing like next-gen.
You dont. Or maybe you do like k1 circuit is trying. But that seems to be easier to do in an arid place.
I think gas rules outdoors for quite some time.
I think it must be harder and harder to justify building outdoor tracks and easier to do indoor, near population centers now.
I wish I could take you to Rpm Stamford. That place is very much “now”.
Most racing facilities like Mid-Ohio, Nelson Ledges, Pittrace, do not have the equipment to facilitate 1 or 2 cars let alone a fleet of karts. Everyone keeps on forgetting the infrastructure of investment vs ROI to do any of this. However there was a laydown kart at WKA Daytona that was competing however I don’t believe it had a good weekend.
I was thinking about that too. The experience in less densely populated parts of the USA is gonna be different than coastal city folks.
The capital expenditure of an indoor electric place necessitates a huge ass potential market.
Karting disneylands sorta
Pitt certainly could pull it off but why?
@KartwerksDan thoughts?
Pitt hasn’t reinvested in a gas fleet in nearly
5-6 years because of the limitations of a 7 month market. They can’t justify the $360k to upgrade a fleet that they can store in their existing facilities and fuel from their existing fuel farm.
Just can’t see where they could justify spending the same (or more) on a new fleet and add the expense of charging systems to their overnight storage and trackside paddock area.
Could be wrong but having lived in that world, I’d find it difficult to justify the expense on a 7 month operation.
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I can relate to that having just had a four week season. Would not recommend 
I think what Tanguy is trying to relay is that the ROI for electric karts on outdoor tracks or extended runs is not there yet. Ie “the math doesn’t math”.
It’ll change somewhat overtime, but it will take a large reduction of current upfront costs for electric to work out for many karting ventures.
For indoor, it makes a lot of sense, especially if your bread and butter is corporate events. While a lot of us here on the forums don’t mind the smell of a gas engine, most people don’t.
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I guess what I’m trying to relay back to Tanguy is that the market is bifurcated and it’s getting more so as we go along. It seems around here (coastal population center) the new stuff is all karting Disneylands. Indoor, multi-activity centers. So while the math is hard it makes sense at scale like that perhaps.
It’s very bold of Artis to be pushing the race-kart vanguard and that’s a much tougher sell I would imagine. But I assume he also has a healthy concession kart biz that pays the bills.
Did I mention my ancestor who bankrupted himself trying to build an electric train from Maynooth to Dublin? 
Two college towns and Maynooth being part of a big decentralization project…. Not totally crazy.
Ok back to karting
Just to add this. K1 Speed seems to be looking at buying up alot of tracks. I have heard in the K1 Speed crowd. That the owner of K1 Speed is looking to put K1 Circuit’s in every State… I hope !!!
I hear ya, but at the same time, be careful what you wish for. The best karting has never been corporate. Lots of baggage there and it isn’t suited to racing, which is what matters long term to individual racers and the sport as a whole.
I like my tracks a little dirty and a little dangerous, a little unhinged. I like my race directors to be a little nuts and racers themselves.
I’m not saying there isn’t a place for the big dollar corporate stuff like K1, but it has been my general experience that the heart and soul of racing is found in the independents.
Ie check out Shredway Maine or GRX relative to something like Supercharged or K1. The spirit of it, the execution of it. I don’t want polish, I want authenticity and real racing.
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What have they bought of late? I know they took over operations at Whiteland. Anything else?
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All of effing NJ/NY. rip. (This was an attempt at humor)
K1 bought Englishtown, OVRP, and the kart track at NJMP?
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If K1 really is attempting to build outdoor tracks in new markets, an obvious location would be southern New England, despite the challenges of building a facility in this part of the country.
But I’m starting to think that someone or something like K1 may be the only entity that has the clout, capital, and ability to establish a top rate facility in this location, somewhat like their new track in Winchester, CA.
It may be too “corporate”, but I’d still take that over nothing.
Coincidentally, the only outdoor kart track that recently existed in the southern New England area that could be considered anywhere close to top notch, was an offshoot of an indoor karting facility, built by the multi-million dollar businessman and owner of said facility.