More and More Grownups are Re-discovering Go-Karting

March 11th, 2010 Posted in Boating

You might not imagine the baby boomer generation to be very much interested in the topic of track racing with go karts. But, if the truth be known, many older adults are discovering that Go-Karts offer a brilliant recreational outlet. One fan is Jay Leno, who is 59 as of this writing. What youngster doesn’t yearn to drive? If you’re a boomer with kids or a grandparent with grandkids, you might just want to consider participating in this ideal sport for the entire family. You might want to consider this, if you want to spend some high quality time with your youngsters or grandchildren.

Many people think that go karts are just for children. That’s possibly because these cars started out as children’s toys. Add their small size and the unconventional spelling, and it’s no surprise that many people don’t know that older adults can have a great deal of fun on go karts. While there are junior leagues in go karting, it’s a lot more popular among adults, with karts capable of travelling as fast as sixty miles an hour.

That kind of speed doesn’t feel very fast if you’re driving a car on the interstate, but just try it in a go kart, and you’ll see how fast sixty miles per hour can really be. There’s no enclosed cabin to keep you from feeling the wind in a kart, no windshield, no suspension. Furthermore, you’ll feel every change in the pavement, since the bottom of a kart is only just off the ground. Even professional racers say travelling at top speed in a go kart feels much faster than the same speed in a Formula 1 racer.

Go karts are becoming popular with adults in all kinds of settings, even including corporate outings. Some go kart tracks do mostly corporate business, with sessions focused on leadership development, staff motivation and team building. Even business professionals get to cut loose and hit the track in a go kart, with these corporate events committed to the metaphor of racing. The reality is, karting is possibly the fastest growing motor sport.

With kart ownership costing as much as a small car, dedicated go karting can be costly. This clearly is not solely for children – high end go karts can cost more than ten thousand dollars and hit highway speeds. This variety of racing kart is used only on large outdoor tracks. Indoor karts are used on smaller tracks and normally go only about forty miles per hour.

It’s like a roller coaster that you can control – the turns and twists on a commercial go kart track can make it seem a lot faster. Something that could be risky at top speeds is knocking wheels on a tight track, and indoor karts have more safety features, for example steel buffers to prevent this.

Adults who are curious about driving go karts can simply walk into a track, and pay for a session – usually around thirty to forty dollars. Since these karts are a lot more powerful than go-karts for youngsters, they’ll have to wear protective clothing and go through a safety talk. There are even adult racing leagues at most tracks, allowing kart enthusiasts to compete against one another. Each lap takes about twenty seconds, and an average race is fifteen laps.

Think again, if you’ve been thinking that go karting is solely for kids. This is an excellent sport that can be enjoyed by anyone. Many adults are having a lot of fun, getting back into go karting.