5 Easy Steps to Get Into Karting!

Outside of driving public rental karts, people without racing and/or mechanical backgrounds often find themselves unsure of how to go about getting into kart racing. Karting is one of the most exciting and fun sports you can participate in, and done right, can supply you with memories to last a lifetime.

Everyone deserves to get a chance to enjoy the wonders of karting, and if you follow the steps below, you can too.

1. Find The Nearest Kart Track

This step may be the hardest one. Unlike some sports such as little league baseball, there is no uniform organization for kart racing. However, a standard google search should suffice. Finding the track closest to you may help you decide what division of kart racing you would like to get into: dirt oval, asphalt kart road course, or “enduro” karting where karts race on full-size car tracks.

2. Attend a Race at the Track

The best advocates and “experts” on karting are the racers. Simply attend the next race you can at your nearest track, buy a pit pass, and talk to people. Karters love to be able to share their stories with prospective drivers and share their love of the sport with you. They can also help steer you in the right direction when it comes to what you will need to buy, what to expect, and how to go fast.

Everyone may give you different advice and that’s okay. Take as much in as you can and enjoy the atmosphere of a kart race.

3. Contact Your Nearest Kart Shop

Most kart tracks nowadays have either on-site Pro Shops or kart shops nearby that help support racers at the track. Contact one of these shops and talk to them. Most of the time, these shops are owned by long-time racers who just want to see the sport grow, so you shouldn’t have to worry about being ambushed to buy. See what classes they recommend to get into, and kart brands they may deal. Not every go kart uses the same parts and it is very beneficial to have a local parts supplier other than yourself.

4. See If Your Nearest Kart Shop or Track Offer Driving Schools or Test Drives

Most shops and tracks nowadays have try-before-you-buy options. At AMP, we offer a series of different Kart Racing Schools that allow you to try racing karts in some of the fastest classes for a fraction of the cost of buying a new package. Other shops may allow you to even rent one of their karts for a raceday and offer support and mechanic services. Both options are viable ways to try out what it is like to get behind the wheel of an actual racing kart before having to drop money on one.

5. Purchase Your Kart!

Now that you’ve sold yourself on the sport of karting, it is finally time to drop the hammer and buy a kart. There is a lot more than just the kart that you will need when getting started, so make sure to set aside a total budget that you are willing to spend on karting. Once you’ve got that, give yourself no more than 1/2 of that to use on a kart purchase.

If you don’t have enough money to buy a new kart package, you can always look at buying a used kart. Granted, with the used kart you may need to use slightly less than 1/2 of your budget on the actual purchase, as their may be some adjustments that need to be made to make the kart fit your body size.

At the end of the day, karters only want to get more karters into the sport they love. You’ll never see a karter not answer a question about karting without a smile on their face, and that’s what is just so great about this sport.