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Where are you located?
Central Indiana, very close to New Castle
What age bracket are you in? Junior (<16), Senior (16+) or Masters (30+)
I’m 51, my son is 10
On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your mechanical ability, or willingness to wrench on things?
I’ve worked in an automotive machine shop, I’ve done metal fabrication, and I’ve raced a Miata with NASA
Talk a little about your racing experience so far.
NASA HDPE, sold the car to have kids! Already bought a Nitro Cadet LO206 for my son.
What’s the main thing you need help with to get you started.
I don’t want to buy a non-competitive kart, but I can’t afford to buy a new, front runner. After my son and I get seat time, we’ll re-evaluate the best chassis to buy. LO206
I’m pretty comfortable with jumping into karting, I just need bits of advice. My son is very new to racing and karting, and I want him to enjoy it before the competition wears him out.
Kartpulse is a great resource and many here will give you good advice. I would also suggest doing a search if you have a general question as more than likely others have had the same questions in the past too.
Welcome Christian. Being in Greenfield, Comet Kart Sales is going to be your new best friend. You can also look at their site and showroom for used chassis. They sell them on consignment for others so they tend to be on the higher side of the market, but they also tend to be in good shape too.
Keep an eye on the Sprint Kart Classifieds on Facebook as it’s a very active karting classified section.
Assuming that Comet will be your shop of choice you’ll want to talk to them about which cadet brands they support. Nitro chassis is still the most popular cadet chassis which unfortunately Comet doesn’t stock much for. I’ve found however that parts directly from Nitro in NC come pretty quick.
Welcome Christian! There is definitely a difference between setting up cars and karts, but as for driving I think you will transition from the Miata to a kart quite well.
Depending on your budget, which sounds similar to mine, I would at least try to invest in some driver coaching for your son and if possible yourself. Ideally one that has mechanical experience too. That way they can help give you a baseline for setup and advise on what changes do what on the karts. Secondly, most children are less resistant to taking advise from a non-family member. A driving coach will help your kid establish good habits early on and avoid common mistakes. They will also help your son get up to pace quicker, so he doesn’t become discouraged by the competition so easily.
Ideally, if the budget allows it, joining a race team or hiring a full time Mechanic/Coach for your first season would be the best solution. I think you will find people in the karting world are pretty friendly and will to share advise. Even more so when they are getting paid to do so.
Welcome to the world of Karting! The Midwest is lucky to have a lot of tracks within reasonable driving distances.
As a Southwest Ohio resident, G&J Kartway is our home track, and is great for learning and getting practice laps in, since it’s open daily whenever there isn’t a scheduled event, and you can run all day for $20.
If you want to come check out the scene at OVKA, our big annual Memorial Champ Race is next weekend (July 22-23) where our family-friendly club will have a ton of people available to answer questions and help you get oriented with your new karts.
