When my dad got orders to for Germany, my brother and I were able to tag along. With no racing we were aware of, my dad realized we were bouncing off the walls and introduced us to snow skiing. While he was as the top of the hill practicing his snow plow, my brother and I were Bonsai-ing down the blues and reds. No Fear. Nearly destroyed one of knees on a powder run. I miss those days. 
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Why do we kart? You know believe it or not, Iāve actually been contemplating how to put this into words for the past couple weeks now. I suppose I have to give a little background on myself to shed some light on our current commitment to karting/racing.
I grew up on a dirtbike. But it wasnāt purchased by my Mom and Dad. I actually bought it myself from savings and my oldest brother Marc put in the rest of the cash. It was a way to keep me on the straight and narrow after two of my other brothers got into trouble with drugs and generally crappy behavior. Little did my family know how big of an impact dirtbikes would have on me. We didnāt have a lot of money growing up, but we werenāt poor. My parents priority was food/shelter/school for our family of 5 kids. So Motocross never really got the portion of financial backing it really required to go to the big races or compete consistently.
Fast forward 30 years, and I happen to have a decent job at the moment, and it allows us to compete much more consistently than I ever could growing up, now we are still well short of the national level events. But regional racing is a far cry from how far I was able to go as a kid.
Obviously, we have a two man operation going here. Emmett is the driver and I am everything else. If he didnāt want to do it, or, lets be honest, was just terrible at it, we would probably do something different. Weād do maybe a more traditional sport like baseball or soccer. But as luck would have it, Emmett has some talent to mold. Now here is where the hard work and dedication will come in for him. I can see those traits starting to sprout, so my job is to keep us getting to the races and practice sessions to continue to build on those skills.
Will we be in Indy or F1 someday? Honestly. Most likely not. But I guarantee he will have a job and responsibilities someday and he will need to fall back on skills that he learned at a young age. Skills like dedication, determination, patience, aggression, teamwork, when to have fun and when to lock down to do work and the wisdom to know the time and place for both of those. Karting teaches him all of that. Now, we have many more lessons to learn. So weāll keep digging, learning, winning, losing. Until a time comes when we have to part ways with the track to pursue larger dreams or take care of lifeās eventualities.
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I think Iāll add on to my practical answer and get a little woolier. I alluded to it but didnāt say it outright. I typically really enjoy ādangerā sports, that have real consequence. I have always been into pushing myself, largely because I was anxious about stuff like speed and heights as a kid. I have deliberately modified that over time by taking the drop and tucking in.
Also, I am closest to God or whatever the spiritual analogue of your choosing is in these moments. Not in the danger, but in the celebration of living.
I have gotten so much out of karting itās scary. I am fit, strong, sharp and younger than I have been in years!
I think Nick has too. Every young person who tries wholeheartedly to survive season 1 of junior karting with zero experience walks away with much more self-confidence.
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My Grandad is a massive car junky, when my dad was growing up he built his own 67 chevelle from 4 parts cars and drag raced it. He always wanted to kart but it was not within his budget and my granddad didnt see it as a worth while investment. When i was born I was hooked on cars and racing since the age of 3, and got into SBD (not karts) when I was 7. We raced for 9 years and spent countless hours traveling and racing. Due to stress and time, we decided to stop racing. I learned about karting at this point from a friend of mine, and spent countless hours trying to convince my parents to get me into karting. Fortunately my parents are well off and karting is in our budget. My dad didnt want a repeat of SBD in terms of stress, but is an extremely selfless man and does everything he can for me, so he payed for me to do a tent program. Since than, hes been living his childhood dream of racing through me, and while he has occasional concerns about me spending my money on karting, it all goes away and he turns into a kid again when we get to the track. Hes always involved as much as he can, and takes thousands (literally) of pictures. (he has a photography addiction). He always asks whats the next step for me, what do I need to get better, and how he can help. He is extremely enthusiastic when I do well, and when I got my first podium and came into the pits, I dont think ive ever seen him much happier. He would love to race, but refuses due to his selflessness and instead lives his dream through me. For his birthday, we had bought him a trip to race formula ford cars at a local track, but the track was destroyed in a tornado, than, we decided to get him a couple karting races with me at our local club, but than COVID happened. Next year will be his year, as I will do my best to give back to him and let him live his dream. I hope this insight was useful, as most of these answers are from the parents and not the kids themselves.
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Your Dad is a keeper. I really love driving with my son and hope you and your old man get to experience that too.
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Hol up. Wut? Thatās amazing. Do tell if you can.
I cant wait for next season to get him in a kart. Im a perfect copy of him in many ways so he trys to do everything he wanted to do as a kid but couldnt, with me. Weāve had terrible luck getting him in a kart. Our local outdoor rental kart place didnt allow the summer camp kis to drive with the adults, and once I got my drivers license it had closed (I think? Please come back X1). Now that reality has kicked in and I realized being an F1 driver is not in my future, I plan to use karting to make connections and become a motorsports engineer. my goal is to be a race engineer for an F1 team and I think karting will be useful towards that goal.
Iām trying to decide where Iāll start this.
My Dad fell in love with racing as a child. Wide world of sports was a half hour long tv show on weekends as a child and often theyād show a 3 minute clip of racing. He raced karts before I was born.
When I was 3 he built me a soapbox derby car like a vintage modified or hobby oval track car and would push me down a big hill.
For my 7th birthday he bought me my first go kart. Caveat, my parents divorced and my mother wouldnāt sign the parental waiver.
He ended up building his own kart and weād race each other in gravel pits and an ice oval on the lake behind our house. Hence the name Ice Karter. I had always had a love for racing but for one reason or another I never did. Hockey and other sports took precedence.
This year I decided I would take the plunge and finally go racing. I had gone to the local general meeting for my club and decided join up. The meeting date was March 7th 2020. On March 21st I was going to head down and buy a used kart from the club. Then March 14th happened and the world shut down. I didnāt know what to do so I put it off for this year.
October 9th 2020. My father passed away. He came in his neighbourās driveway caught the grass and hit a tree in his go kart.
Less than 2 months passed and I bought my kart. His last race, Octoberfest Grand Prix 1991. My first season of racing, will of course be 2021 with eyes on the Octoberfest Grand Prix and their 40th anniversary 30 years after Dad last raced.
Why do I kart? I kart because thereās nothing like it. I kart for the memories and dreams of racing together. I kart because if not now, then when? Iām 28 years old, with no wife, no kids and other than bills and a boss, no real responsibilities. Just a single dude with a passion for racing.
I have no dreams of grandeur. Not for formula, not for the Canadian Nationals, Canadian Open, Florida winter tour or Grand Nationals. Sunday morning club is fine by me.
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I am sorry to hear of your Dadās passing. Someday, if you have kids, maybe you can take them to the gravel pit and the lake and give them the kinds of memories worth keeping. About you and them, doing stuff.
When I think of my Dad, I distinctly remember the model rockets, the Cox gas powered aircraft, the balsa wood plane we built. Those moments were so meaningful.
Hmmmmmm. Maybe long term goal is to place top 10. That will keep you busy and motivated for a while!
The way next year is looking the question will be Why DID I Kart? lol
Brother raced karts since around I was born pretty much, so yeah, never knew any different
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Kinda interesting that you both ended up in karting media sorta. Him as author and you with Karting uk web. You both coach?
Also: 15 lap race of PFI on 125 Tag: Terence or Alan? Tie?
15 laps of sim?
Ultimately. Success doesnāt matter. Sure I want to win, we all race to win thatās why we put the time and effort in. To improve, to go faster and to win. Who knows really? Maybe I have some hidden talent or something. For me, though, just racing is where I want to be. Thereās a lot of competition where Iām racing a ton of karts, 30+ so top half is fine for now. Like 15th 10th something like that even top 20 in points, Iād be happy, maybe go for rookie, who knows. I start ripping top 5s like itās expected, then weāll talk about regional and national stuff. Senior is a tough order around Toronto.
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So I donāt kart yet, but I guess I can talk about how I got interested in it.
So before the pandemic, I honestly didnāt care at all for motorsport. My friend had a birthday party and said they were going to go rental karting and asked if I wanted to come along. I said sure and was actually fairly decent at it, for someone who never karted before. It was kind of embarrassing that I had the fastest lap time out of all my experienced friends.
I had so much fun I started getting into racing in general. I caught the racing bug, but at first I looked into car racing, like Skip Barber and Mazda, which would get me broke. I did not fully consider karting as an option after I had ruled out all forms of car racing and finally reached karting. As I watched onboard tapes of different karters like Ryan Norberg, and actually was astonished with the skill needed to race one of those ātoysā. After looking through the options, I decided to give the lo206 class a try, after trying to force an entrance into X30, even though I obviously didnāt have the cash to do so. I am scheduled to rent a lo206 kart and run some practice laps, and honestly Iām really excited to do so. I have done rental karting a few times and love it. Hoping to race in a low budget AND with many talented drivers.
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My dad had Indianapolis Motor Speedway on his Bucket List forever. In 2017 the SCCA held their Runoffs there. Finally it was a chance to put in some laps at the same place his father had done decades before. It was a big deal for our family. My brother and I came in from Texas and Florida to crew for him. The Nostalgia was incredible. I am hoping you get the opportunity to do the Octoberfest Grand Prix in his memory. 
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I love this thread 
Why do I kart? Adrenaline is a drug, many moons ago my skydiving instructor told me āfear will be with you the rest of your life, might as well make friends with itā Iāve lived by those words ever since. I quit skydiving after a jump with a rig that I foolishly hadnāt packed nor witnessed being packed myself, opened so damn fast it fractured a vertebra, docs advice Iāve weakened it, if it happens again it could put me in a wheel chair. End of skydiving.
Discovered karting not so long ago, itās a rush to be on the limit and pushing hard. Itās also great therapy - I have a pretty stressful job, no matter how much of a bad week Iām having I put on my helmet and everything is blocked out. Nothing else matters only driving as fast as I can. For a short time at least, Iām free of life pressures
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Next we gonna find out you were French foreign legion and eat nails for breakfast.
Did you fly as a military pilot? Any cool planes?
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I mean, obviously not a good outcome but atleast it openedā¦
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Lol no, maintenance. Jumped outta a few cool planes tho. Shorts 360, Turbine Islander, Lynx heli, Sea-King heli, Russian troop ship heli thing.
Rough gig if they throw the engineer out of the plane!!! 
Sounds like an adventure.
