My 10 son is wanting to drive outdoor karts. We live in knoxville, TN and there is nothing around here that I can find. Any advise how to get into this sport? Also, seems like this would be a perfect location for a road course. Any idea what it would cost to build a reputable track?
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Welcome @Larry_Bodie!
You’re in a good spot depending on how far you’d like to drive. Some of the best tracks in the country are not too far away from you… We have a track directory at tracks.kartpulse.com, here’s what I found.
Total of All Kart Tracks within 250miles Knoxville is 92
11 of them are Sprint Pavement (i.e. traditional kart) tracks.
AMP is the closest at 101 miles or so. It’s a great facility.
So there’s some places to get you started. If you’re looking at paved sprint I’d start by calling and/or checking out AMP and GoPro.
Varies hugely so it’s hard to say. The most recent example I can think of is Amarillo raceway in Tx. It was built two years ago, at a cost of about $2m. However it’s been laying up since and just recently got picked up for racing to start this year. Here’s a tour from earlier this week: https://www.facebook.com/mark.french.980/videos/10212476001678132/
A track just got done in Houston too, not sure on the cost of that however.
But that said, it all depends on the land cost, taxes and the specific goals you have for the track and it’s facilities.
Thank you very much for the information!
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You’re welcome. Keep us posted in your progress and let us know what questions you have.
I work at an indoor track called Veloce in Milwaukee, but we have a location in Knoxville. Have you tried going there first? If you haven’t, it may be a good way to see if he likes racing
He has been there many many times. His first time out he was a second behind my time. He’s hooked.
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Resurrecting a really old thread… CMP, AMP and most others require rental drivers to be 12+ years of age. My son is 10, turning 11 in March. I really want to get him to experience these karts on pavement. He’s a regular at Veloce, our only real option here in knoxville, and is posting really good times. Any further suggestions?
Hey @Larry_Bodie. It’s probably worth enquiring around the area for arrive and drive options. I know Denis at Kart Carolina might be one option for you.
Nick Tucker at Nitro Kart is another option…they only focus on cadet racing. https://www.facebook.com/TeamNitroKart/
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