Rebel Scum Reports: HQ Racing, Peekskill, NY

Bimodal_Rocket · January 2, 2026, 9:51pm

A new facility opened up in Peekskill, NY called HQ Racing. It is fantastic and looks like it’s likely to become a major destination for us rental racing nerds!

The track is a long one, with a combined indoor/outdoor layout. My recent visit was on a chilly January weekend, so we were inside only. Even with this shortened track, the prospeed laps are approx 53s. That’s quite long for an indoor track.

The layout is very flowing and very technical. It features a number of complexes that punish overdriving entry. It’s not an easy track, but it is fun and quite rewarding when it starts to flow.

The surface is excellent and the grip level is very high. Ideally, this is a quiet tire kind of place. Excessive tire noise means you are overdriving!

I can’t wait to see what transpires league/enduro-wise, here. I chatted with the GM and manager and they seem to get it and are not making another Supercharged type operation. It doesn’t have that corporate feel.

Come try it out. The track is awesome and the new Sodis are the nicest karts you can drive, e-rental wise, imo, and these are the latest model! Adjustable everything! Good tires! They turn on a dime!

I’ll post more of my adventures here at HQ as they transpire! Highly recommended!

TrailBrakeMatt · January 4, 2026, 10:01pm

I think I need to make a trip there this winter!

Bimodal_Rocket · January 5, 2026, 3:25am

It’s a good one! The best so far, pure in intent and execution. Shockingly, there is no bar/restaurant that I saw, and a smallish game room, not outrageous. They run prospeed alongside regular speed as well, which is a good sign. It seems to be very very racey and the folks I spoke with seemed enthusiastic and into karting.

They run the latest sodi which might amuse you. It has a “mychron” of sorts and does data! Look, sector times!

They are also getting a fleet of gas karts. For racing and wrasslin’ purposes, I presume.

Bimodal_Rocket · January 11, 2026, 1:35am

So, what do you folks make of these weight/time qualifiers?

Gas kart quali

I weighed in at 203 geared up last race so given that I did a 54 first visit, I guess that means I am qualified for the indoor gas karts? @nikspeeds any clue about this?

Rules

You’d think that some are self evident but never underestimate the power of a rental kart in the wrong hands. 400 lb missile or doorjamb, depending…

I have the opportunities to go again on Sunday. Kate and Nick are going to the outlets to look at handbags so I’ll go racing!

Microcenter Rocks

Today, we went to the nearby Microcenter in Paramus (where coincidentally I ran into the Scummiest of the Scum, @AndreLafond last week).
They have a nice rig setup you can drive there, running the Nordschleif on iracing.

I did a few laps and got rather into it, really enjoying the feels.i might have to set up the rig again.

It’s weird how different it is, how you have zero feedback as compared to irl. It’s also weird how you adjust quickly.

nikspeeds · January 11, 2026, 3:59am

I hate that I can’t help but overthink these things, because I can guarantee I will spend more time with whatever it is I’m about to say than anyone did in coming up with those numbers .

To start, there is no logical pattern or curve that fits the schedule. The “standard” of 0.1 seconds per 10lbs for gas karts suggests a linear increase. I’d be OK with non-linear if it was predictable, but these are all over the place. The full schedule is:

140 lbs & Under: 53.6
140 lbs – 160 lbs: 54.1 (+0.5s)
160 lbs – 180 lbs: 54.3 (+0.2s)
180 lbs – 200 lbs: 55.0 (+0.7s)
200 lbs – 220 lbs: 55.4 (+0.4s)
220 lbs & Over: 56.2 (+0.8s)

So moving between 2nd and 3rd is +0.2s, then 0.7s, then back down to 0.4s, then back up to 0.8s? huh?

And why bother going to 220 when the labels on their app stops at 200?

And these times are for the electric karts. Electrics are less sensitive to weight than gas, so I’d expect a handicap less than what you might calculate for gas. The 120lb difference between 140 and 220 might justify a 1.2s handicap with standard gas expectations. Being that the schedule here is 2.6s difference, I just wonder if there was any reasoning at all here.

The times, you would think, are to ensure that–for safety, insurance, etc.–only competent drivers have access to the gas karts, right? Selfishly, I appreciate the sentiment, as that means there’s a subset of karts much less likely to be destroyed.

But, the weights are self-reported. What’s to stop someone from making themselves heavier just to qualify? TBD if they’ll actually go through the trouble of weighing everyone to get access to the gas karts. Weighing everyone seems like a lot of extra work for marginal benefit in identifying competency because, even though the schedule is overly handicapped, anyone running under 56.2 are probably not the class of people who you’re worried about crashing or playing bumper cars.

I do appreciate them putting extra consideration for us fatties but adding up my best sector times puts me at 53.4xx, which qualifies me in the < 140lb category. Like, cold track, right after the opened, never having been on the track, first ever pro speed lap time was 55.3, and in that session was 54.7 which qualis me almost 100lbs lighter lol.

But if you look at the data, there are 60 people in the 200+ category so far registered at this track, and only 7 of them have times >57s lol. So like, what are you really “protecting” here by setting the limit so high?

And then I’m like, is this just a proxy for age Like how historically, police and military had height requirements to systematically filter out women, who are naturally shorter, and not call it sex discrimination. We can say well, the fatties are likely older, wiser , and less likely to play bumper cars than these little shts, so let’s make it harder for them (but then why not be linear?).

Ok I’ve ranted enough about something so unimportant. I’ll crawl back into my hole now.

PS: I’ll happily sit on the throne as King of the Fatties^[1]

Yes

I had to find a 3rd time to use that term here ↩︎

nikspeeds · January 11, 2026, 4:04am

Does Nick need a new handbag

Also, what outlets?? Is this something I could sell to my family as an activity for them to do??

Realistically, I doubt it for this week, because the littlest can’t be in the car that long yet, but be good to know about for future reference (if that day ever comes for me ).

Bimodal_Rocket · January 11, 2026, 5:34am

His mother and he have a thing for these bags. They are quite lovely. I think there’s a coachtopia they want to check out. They are into vintage bags and I think are likely to ebay sell.

Protip: Chanel is disappointing quality and construction compared to its peers from what we have seen. Most of these types of bags are art objects in a sense, hand made, etc. They tend to be made very well and the materials lovely. The Chanel things we got were surprisingly cynical and felt cheap. Dior has been another story. Wonderful stuff.

These are all vintage, btw. The new bags are cray-cray expensive.

So yes, as a family activity to do, handbags are a possibility. It is a slippery slope and will rapidly get more pricey than kart racing. However, this bag collecting habit is monetizable. You buy at auction and resell.

Our trip to micro center was to build a PC and accidentally try to arbitrage some ram. We lucked into 2 of 32 fast DDR5 packs at pre-crisis prices. The Brooklyn micro center sold out of their allotment of 15 by 10:30 or something, so we were happy to grab the last two in NJ. We also got a CPU/Mobo/Ram Combo, case, water cooling loop and the last 500 buck 5070.

Obviously we are building a new pc. Sadly, none of this fine technology will benefit me as it’s going to my son. But, we enjoy nerding out together shopping for and building the PC together.

I just realized this juxtaposition is unusual. But so is grown men in little karts, all scrunched up.

Bimodal_Rocket · January 11, 2026, 8:44am

BattSpeed Powered

Also snuck in a snazzy Oktane sticker to represent TK Cohen and
Associates.

Tomorrow I head back to HQ to lap as much as possible. I would very much like to get down to the 53s, which should be doable with a few more laps and some clear track.

I’ll shoot footage with both the anamorphic and also the lens mod 2.0. I am not sure which I prefer, so, this may help decide. It could be that the wider angle of the lens mod 2.0 is better indoors, whereas the anamorphic might be great at NJMP, for example.

Bimodal_Rocket · January 11, 2026, 8:49am

How do you think this stacks up for us IRL, for example? I’m 203 geared up these days. Your weight disadvantage is much less pronounced in electric. At supercharged you would beat me about 50% of the time and I’ve driven many heats where we basically were the same.

You have gone faster than me already, 53.6, vs my 54.x. Granted I had crowded track etc but still.

Bimodal_Rocket · January 11, 2026, 8:55am

We should do this race for the old farts and aspiring old farts every year. In rental karts.

I think Bryan got down into 53s also. He is 200+ as well I think.

Bimodal_Rocket · January 11, 2026, 10:28pm

HQ Karting: Visit 2 - The 14 Heat Sunday

Well, that was Awesome! I spent all day at HQ Racing today, from 11am open to 5pm closing. I got in 14 heats! It was a busy day, but surprisingly, I was fine, physically.

I was massively out-cooled in the parking lot today by the gentleman who came in his Ariel Atom. He says this is the 300hp turbo one, and that it weighs about 1600 lbs. He was a pleasant fella and a racer as well, it appears!

These new pickup trucks are pretty cool. They are massive and look powerful with cool names like Raptor. ((How about TrailRipper or RockRoller? (A special Rik Astley edition )). There’s also a weird kind of Giant Robot Car Transformer thing happening here, which intrigues me.

Anyways, today was a full day and I made new friends and saw old ones as well. Now, I must drive back to Princeton from Peekskill, NY which isn’t too bad a drive.

Pls No Punterino

Lake HQ

There are a few parts of the track that are extremely similar to another track I know, one that is much older. Both of these tracks feature an extremely similar section: Double uphill switchback 180s that then funnel downhill into sweeper left into a very round, island style left redirect, into the technical section..

Discussing this, one of the racers I know pointed out that the same firm is responsible for the other tracks I was thinking of, which explains it. It is a good sector at both tracks!

The newest facility, HQ, however, is using the latest and greatest in materials and vehicles, I can’t tell you enough how much I like the track surface, the karts, design, etc. It is racey and free of gimmicks. There is no banking I can see, either. It’s a two-level long sprint track, essentially.

These are the imminent gas karts, the latest Sodi model powered by the standard GX 270. These karts look very nice, and, my experience has been that the Sodi rental karts are excellent. These are likely no exception. I like the belts and do find that they are useful in crashes. But, I think racing these, @tankyx style (euro sweaty/no rollbar/traditional) would be ideal.

Disappointingly, I was not able to improve my time, much. I did 54.5 as my best which is about 1s off. I think I am struggling a bit with the higher grip level, underestimating how I can tighten up some lines.

Reviewing footage, I think my T1 needs a makeover. I tried a few things but I think what is needed is to tighten it up, go less deep in and stop trying to make the exit ideal. That slows down the entry/mid and in this case, the exit apex 3/3 isn’t leading to a straight bit to a 180 right after a brief moment of wheels sort of straight.

So, the question becomes how and where can I tighten and/or shorten without inducing hopping?

Cool Sunday Drives

Beef of the Day

Prospeed vs Noobspeed

Bimodal_Rocket · January 14, 2026, 3:34am

Their App is useful…

But the email after-race report data is great!

This happens to be the sole Pro-Speed Only Heat of my day there. It was a good one, with 14 faster drivers!

This info should help me suss out which sectors I am worst in, etc. I’ve been pondering where to find 1s and this will help immensely. It’s a pity I can’t get similarly granular info from the app. Maybe I am just being dumb.

Bimodal_Rocket · January 21, 2026, 6:39pm

I have many things to say and they are all positive

What walks on 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs at noon, and 3 legs at dusk? Here we see stage 2 and the beginnings of 3. After 14 heats, I was getting sore feet from the pedal box.

Third visit completed. Another 14-Heat mega-stint since it’s 2hrs away and if you gonna go you might as well go big.

I really like this place. I think they have found the secret sauce for the indoor kart surface/tire combo. The grip is phenomenal without being overwhelming. The tires will release suddenly, but they will build quite a bit of load as compared to most karting experiences indoors (or out, actually).

This part of NY is lovely and is also close to skiing places

The grip lends itself to a very skatey type of driving where you feel very up on your toes in the rubber, locked down and quiet. It feels very elastic and flowing when you start getting it dialed in.

Racecar flex or an offering?

I came this time hoping to break into the 53’s after having qualified in the 55s and then posting 54s. Studying previous visit footage and discussing with friends, I decided to try to change up t1, get very tight to first apex and shorten entry dramatically.

Splits, I tell you, Splits!

This was the right thing to do, and led to me landing 53.6 which subsequently improved down to 53.4. The grip is such that I was confusedly using too much track, allowing for less grip than available, lengthening line. Ultimately, I started to Bicycle after I managed to reduce the hop. It’s that grippy.

Woo! Formula car and twin engine dart. Here I am with the GM. He and everyone else have been super kind to me and helpful. I already managed to lose a glove. It was found and he texted me proof of life, which was a great excuse for me to come back and run another 14 heats! Thank you!

Anyways that informs the whole place, imo. It’s about finding quiet, efficient gripped up lines that skate through the corners. Smoother, back it up, etc.

The Bridge to Kartbithia

It occurs to me that the ideal way to get very fast here would be to overpower it massively. I would love to learn to harness the equivalent of 1000hp on a track such as this. If you can keep the rears from releasing, can shoot the power down the line, you can learn the timing and tempo of when you need to be off and on. If off slightly, around you go. Repeat till consistent or dead, whichever comes first.

I chased this fella in my fastest session, Mr. Torris, who recognized the TKC shirt and asked if I knew Ben Braley. Indeed I do, having just won an endurance race with him, and the other Torres, Rob. He’s very quick and I was only able to slightly outpace him in the fast kart when he had a normal kart. I suspect, much like Ben, I am cursed to be chasing him rather than leading, most of the time!

Lotta young folk working here and most of them seem to be into karting themselves. I met the fella who built the place too! He’s a gentleman in the Callan/Chamberlin vintage range, who, as it turns out, loves endurance racing and is quick!

Bucolic post office electrical box on way

Rebel Scum Road upon return

Lake next to HQ, not sure how water hazard interacts with track

And now we wait… for the weather to improve and the barn doors to open and the gas karts to come out…

I can’t wait to race!

Bimodal_Rocket · January 22, 2026, 5:32am

Agreed odd
You best be quick if you gonna be a skin job here. That jump from adolescent/smaller adult male to normal adult male to even more normal adult male makes no sense.

We have a pal Shiva who is a stick to begin with and somehow lost 10lbs additional due to holiday fare inspired gastrointestinal distress. He would need to post a 53.6 since he’s under 140 for the moment.

That is certainly doable for Shiva as I just did 53.4 at 200lbs. However, it’s not a layup, at least for our thinner pals.

Ironically he doesn’t get the same skinny guy benefits from the e-kart relative to the gas kart. The weight differential in the 4stroke is much more significant.

Bimodal_Rocket · January 22, 2026, 10:30pm

It occurs to me that all the time I have spent here:

Is probably why I’m enjoying HQ Racing so much. Note that both of these tracks involve really delicate kart placement and careful balance. Since they are technical complexes on weirdly grippy surfaces, the driving needs to be careful how you throw weight around because you are trying to be efficient/quiet. I know that’s always the case but it feels especially similar in style.

Chasing the pace at Xtreme taught me the stuff I needed to do it here as well.

Also, further, while HQ is the polar opposite of SC in terms of grip and also a rather different type of driving, that too directly led me to where I’m at right now.

I’ve babbled a bit to Warren about how I’ve been using daily driving to inform my race driving. What’s interesting and intersects with all this is how all of a sudden I’ve come to the point where daily and race driving have totally overlapped and I’m not talking about going fast.

Bimodal_Rocket · January 24, 2026, 3:02pm

I talk to the track which ignores my attempts at polite conversation…

it kept telling me how it memorizes Train networks for fun.

AndreLafond · February 2, 2026, 2:00am

Had a chill day so went to HQ for two sessions today. Great track and really nice rental karts. The higher speeds being locked behind the membership is a bit aggravating but I can see why. Pretty high grip track too which is awesome to see.

Bimodal_Rocket · February 2, 2026, 4:59am

Sorry I missed you. I was OMW when when Matt called and told me to get my butt over to Xtreme Zone. Thankfully I did, as it turns out I won that winter Ironman series! Woo!

AndreLafond · February 2, 2026, 7:29pm

No worries. And congrats on the win!

Asapdan3 · February 28, 2026, 6:49am

This track is such a blast to drive. I enjoyed reading to see your thoughts. Im plateauing in the low 54’s looking to get that 53.6 for gas karts