I think more kart rentals of both kind race & rental will get bigger as it goes on. As the costs get higher to buy Karts. Alot of kart tracks are taking on rentals to make more money. And I think rental race karts are a thing that will grow to. Alot of people cant afford race karts but can afford a rental race kart now and then. And it makes sense for kart tracks to rent race karts. They can get more money from renting them out then selling them sometimes. Alot of people like what tracks are doing with rental kart endurance races. Get alot more track time than owning a kart and waiting all weekend to run some laps and race in there own..
I donāt think it is the cost of the kart holding people back as much as all the other expenses of infrastructure. Storage, transportation service. The cost to rent an actual race kart are is not cheap. To do arrive and drive a regional or national level race is more than most of the vehicles I owned for the first 30yearsā¦
What type of discussion are you looking for here?
1 Like
Iād agree. The logistical aspects of owner karting are daunting. For me, the ideal world is tent program that stores/hauls/preps etc. And, thatās expensive.
Rental racing allows me to race without that expense and headache.
IMO, the pefect starter rental class (FOR RACE WEEKENDS) is:
- ultra-hard-tires (rental level)
- LO206 or Tillotson
- Ignite-type spec frame thatās nearly non-adjustable (move tires in or out, change gear ratio)
- stored AT THE TRACK and owned by the track.
- Change tires as needed,
- change oil after each raceday,
- use seat inserts for smaller drivers, and pouches on back of seat for lead to equalize weights
- charge $150 flat rate to race, which includes entry fee.
Practice days would use same kart, $40 plus crash damage deposit of $200. You get that back for clean sessions. run this class practice like a HDPE ā maintain distance between karts, only passing with wave-by or on certain straightsā¦
Rental karts have existed since the ā60s. Most circuits rely upon their rental business to subsidise owner-driver activities nowadays. None of this is news. A fair few track owners will admit they only do owner-driver stuff out of passion because they can more money out of of some stag-do or whatever.
Ah, yes, but how many rent actual race-calibre karts vs. the heavy monstrosities that only look like karts?
Margay Ignite and Club 100 come to mind. The market for non āracingā karts is of order of magnitude larger. If\when the market moves more towards āracingā karts, then youāll see tracks\businesses offer it. Anecdotally, at the places Iāve worked at that offered it, the take up was quiet to say the least.
But in the US with cost of imports at least temporarily elevatedā¦. maybe renting equipment thatās already here might make more sense for some people.
Sonoma Karting Center in SoCal used to do an arrive and drive race program with 206 tony karts (spec setups, no changes allowed). I think entry was around 500 per race + pre authorization for damage fees. IIRC, they stopped it because it was not profitable/sustainable. I like your idea of maintaining distance, but all it takes is 1 person on the grid to total a chassis and then the track is probably burning money for the day. Experienced drivers can run out of skill with zero people around them, and Iād imagine when you put complete novices in open wheel race karts the chance of that happening increases tenfold regardless of them being allowed to actually race each other.
Kart Idaho used to have arrive and drive Margay Ignites available a couple years ago I believe. Exactly like you said, karts the track owns etc. Not sure what happened to that though.
All that to say, similar things have been tried before, but it seems that cost wise for the tracks, it is just not sustainable to provide race karts for rental races. I think the increase in presence of formula kfx in the US is where rental arrive and drive should be going. Somewhat Open wheel, faster karts, but still a robust chassis that would be able to withstand abuse. And no, formula kfx is not paying me hahaā¦
I would love to have such a club. Iāve always thought that this model is attractive. I would buy a kart for racing purposes but wouldnāt want the headache of excessive tuning/engine stuff and support.
1 Like
Hope Lorain Ohio Kartplex does the same thing as Sonoma Raceway does with Formula KFX with Tillotson T4s at LOK !!