One of the newest kart racing tracks in the USA is Piquet Race Park in Loxahatchee Groves, Florida. We ventured from Miami & AMR Motorplex to get to Piquet and now we're going to give you a review on the facility.
The latest track that we’re reviewing is the Orlando Karting Center. The Orlando Karting Center is a track that I'm familiar with, having won the Florida Winter Tour there back in 2011. Some 12 years later, not much has changed at the facility. The first thing you'll recognize when you're on your way to the track is it's like an industrial estate. At no point do you think you're going to be rocking up to a kart track and then behind some pretty dodgy, dicey fencing is a little sign saying Orlando Kart Center and, bang, you're in there.
Kart racing is not only a test of physical skills but also a battle of mental strength. The ability to stay focused, handle pressure, and bounce back from setbacks can make all the difference between a good driver and a great one. This is a lesson I learned through my own experiences racing in Genk, Belgium, where I faced a series of challenges that tested my mental fortitude.
The next track that we were fortunate enough to visit was Pitt Race in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Now we had a 15-hour road trip from Orlando, and we drove it on the Monday after the SKUSA Pro Tour event, towards Pittsburgh, and we were greeted with an amazing facility.
If you want to go racing in the South of Florida, the AMR Motorplex is located just outside of Miami. Homestead (previous name of AMR Motorplex) has been around for quite some time and it's in an old NASCAR car park. Directly across from the kart racing facility is the Homestead NASCAR circuit where they hold the NASCAR races at.
Tire management is something drivers don’t always think about, but it plays a big role in the results. Now a lot is determined by how hard or how soft the compound of tire that you're driving on. It also has a lot to do with the track surface itself, so whether it's abrasive or it's a smooth surface and the temperature of the day does have a bit to play with how tires are going to wear.
We pay a lot of money for our race tires, and we pay a lot of money to get a good engine. We buy brand new go-karts, and we still find ourselves finishing in the middle of the pack. We're now wondering to ourselves, "Well, we've got all the equipment, we are getting coaching, and we still can't move up the pack. What can it be?"
We discuss the pros and cons of data analysis in this blog. Now, technologies improved a lot over the last five, 10 years, and when I was winning all my races in the 2005, 2015 era, we didn't really look a lot into data analysis. It just wasn't something that technology was up to scratch with.
The United States is a hotbed of not just racing talent, but also prestigious and iconic racing tracks. Karting also contributes to this by having challenging and technical circuits to race on. In this article, we will cover five of the most technical circuits in the USA.
We’re going to look at the three biggest mistakes that beginners make in kart racing. As we know, kart racing can be quite daunting. You've just gone out, bought a brand new package, and you don't really know what to do. So, when you go to the track, what are the three key areas that you can improve on when you start in kart racing?
The fifth track that we ventured out to was the Nola Motorsport Park in New Orleans. This is probably one of the biggest facilities, especially from a kart and motor racing facility that I've been to in the USA. Nola Motor Sports Park has a huge motor racing circuit there, but also have the driver training facility kart racing circuit and rental karts. The paddock space in between the car racing & kart racing paddock, it's just monumental! A big facility that offers a bit of everything for, for everyone. If you're the recreational karter, you can go rental karting and you're driving on half of the NOLA Kart circuit which is an impressive layout for rental karting.
Houston Speed Sports Park in Houston, Texas, was the next track we ventured to on our USA Road trip. This was on the back of our blog where we had a last-minute trip to Atlanta Motor Sports Park. Then we thought far where else can we go? So, we ended up driving about another 15 hours out to Houston. Pretty boring drive on the way there. We travelled through I think it was Louisiana, Alabama and down the south parts of the United States.
