Public service announcement

[j-c-c-62]

I took a few laps last week at a go kart track and found the experience rather fun. I raced go karts for more than a decade 6+ decades back. I have driven other indoor and outdoor karts occasionally over the years. Thus experience is the best I have enjoyed since the early days.
The track is approx 30? miles north of Tampa on I75 exit #314 in a town called Bushnell. Track is 1/4 mile west of I75, on north side.
Karts are well set up 4 stroke 9? hp B&S, full slicks, easy to steer (not a lot of caster) handle well, I'm a big guy and seats are fine, with full harness, pedals adjust, they have helmets which are required. Nice track, road race, banked turn, hair pin, Esses, straights, overpass, rumble strips. These are real race karts by Margay, who built my last kart in college, Pre SAE days.
Check their schedule before arrival, they favor afternoon/evening hours. Prices start at $30/10 mins (8? laps), for those over 65 on Fri afternoons its $20, more time segments get cheaper prices. No racing in the rain.
It was a lot of fun. I will return. I highly recommend if ever passing by.
Home - Bushnell Motorsports Park

 

[toolmanmike]

I took a few laps last week at a go kart track and found the experience rather fun. I raced go karts for more than a decade 6+ decades back. I have driven other indoor and outdoor karts occasionally over the years. Thus experience is the best I have enjoyed since the early days.
The track is approx 30? miles north of Tampa on I75 exit #314 in a town called Bushnell. Track is 1/4 mile west of I75, on north side.
Karts are well set up 4 stroke 9? hp B&S, full slicks, easy to steer (not a lot of caster) handle well, I'm a big guy and seats are fine, with full harness, pedals adjust, they have helmets which are required. Nice track, road race, banked turn, hair pin, Esses, straights, overpass, rumble strips. These are real race karts by Margay, who built my last kart in college, Pre SAE days.
Check their schedule before arrival, they favor afternoon/evening hours. Prices start at $30/10 mins (8? laps), for those over 65 on Fri afternoons its $20, more time segments get cheaper prices. No racing in the rain.
It was a lot of fun. I will return. I highly recommend if ever passing by.
Home - Bushnell Motorsports Park

Sounds like fun. I love a nice cart track. We had some fun down in Branson Mo. years back at a course that had carts with twin 8 horse Hondas. They were fun. A lot of fun!

 

[F4R/T]

Go carts are a blast and fun for all!

 

[davek]

Love go carts, nothing but fun.

 

[j-c-c-62]

Love go carts, nothing but fun.

A agree.
I think society would be better served, if they replaced early drivers ed with go karts, and even have practice in the rain to fully develop driver skills.
Nearly every successful race driver we know spent early in a go kart.

 

[Fran Blacker]

I took a few laps last week at a go kart track and found the experience rather fun. I raced go karts for more than a decade 6+ decades back. I have driven other indoor and outdoor karts occasionally over the years. Thus experience is the best I have enjoyed since the early days.
The track is approx 30? miles north of Tampa on I75 exit #314 in a town called Bushnell. Track is 1/4 mile west of I75, on north side.
Karts are well set up 4 stroke 9? hp B&S, full slicks, easy to steer (not a lot of caster) handle well, I'm a big guy and seats are fine, with full harness, pedals adjust, they have helmets which are required. Nice track, road race, banked turn, hair pin, Esses, straights, overpass, rumble strips. These are real race karts by Margay, who built my last kart in college, Pre SAE days.
Check their schedule before arrival, they favor afternoon/evening hours. Prices start at $30/10 mins (8? laps), for those over 65 on Fri afternoons its $20, more time segments get cheaper prices. No racing in the rain.
It was a lot of fun. I will return. I highly recommend if ever passing by.
Home - Bushnell Motorsports Park

Sounds like fun but $30 for 10 mins, $20 for 10 better. I'd need 18hp to make it move.

 

[j-c-c-62]

Sounds like fun but $30 for 10 mins, $20 for 10 better. I'd need 18hp to make it move.

Trust me, 9hp was enough to find my skill limits, and the B&S asked for break at the end of my 10 min run.
I actually was toying with a nice 4-wheel drift on a few fast turns, kart was balanced well

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

We went to a place called Pole Position in Oklahoma City a few years back. They had electric carts. We had a blast. I think they had $75 afternoons 4 hours all you can drive.

 

[YY1]

How evenly did the carts perform?

Last track I went to, in Orlando- was a nice track, but the carts were significantly disproportionate in performance.
Kind of put a bummer on the day, and way too much time was spent trying to get a good car by watching others drive and taking notes.

 

[j-c-c-62]

I can't definitively answer that. Nothing visually indicated any difference, the track does offer endurance racing of 20 mins, 1 hr, 2hr and 4 hr with driving teams. In those races they add weights to even out driver weights, because with 9hp, weight is everything.
In my 10 min run with fellow seniors, me being likely the heaviest, the fastest kart/driver, who started first, I started last, I had one on track spin ( caught the inner rumble strip) in my session, he lapped me on the last lap. According to the sessions posted timing post-race results, he had the fastest lap, but I had a better avg time over the session, which really does not make sense. He passed me on the uphill overpass section and just pulled away from me under full throttle. I attributed that to my weight disadvantage. For fun, it doesn't matter, if I was racing, I admit would be a concern. Be easy to fix IMO, draw random numbered karts, for a 4hr? race, have 4? race breaks, and change karts.

 

[#41]

I need to race full size vehicles to overcome my natural ballast disadvantage.

 

[Richard Cranium]

This thread needed an intro.