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International Karting Industry Buyer's Guide |
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| CONCESSION CORNER | |||||||||||||
| WHAT
MAKES A GO-KART TRACK FUN?
By Leon Wilbanks, J & J Amusements Some companies spend considerable time and money to determine what brings customers back to go-kart tracks. Much has always been made about the look of the kart. While initially, the look or style of the kart may have something to do with customers buying a ticket, it takes a distant second to the “fun” track when you are talking about repeat riding. So what do customers want as a “fun” track? A wide rail to allow passing anywhere. Lots of turns with various radii, short straights and incidental bumping allowed. Enter the Rat Racer Track theme: pro-style karts are used such as J&Js F-16. A longer wheelbase and better control are featured along with 8/9-HP engines set at maximum throttle, letting the short straightaways limit top speed. The ride is simply a “blast” for the customer and the lines are long. What’s not to like? Recent years have seen NASCAR enjoy tremendous popularity and concession go-karting has tagged along with varying degrees of success. For the most part, the high-banked “moat-like” oval tracks have had poor success in concession karting. These type of tracks offer very little action and are boring for customers to drive. The only way to make the interesting is to increase speed, but concession karting is ill-suited for high speed, wheel-to-wheel competition. The most successful tracks with this venue are oval slick tracks that require some advanced driver skills and involve a lot of “sideways” action to keep the ride interesting. A different twist on the NASCAR theme is a single lane track with no rail system using a 5/8-scale NASCAR-style kart on a one-at-a-time, against-the-clock (a'la Malibu Grand Prix) style track. These “karts” have 50-MPH capabilities that are more akin to scale racing than concession go-karts. However you decide to
design your track, be sure to design it specifically for “FUN” and you’ll
have customers coming back time and again. And better yet, they’ll be telling
others about it, too!
ASK THE EXPERT!
QUESTION: Why are most new concession go-kart tracks still being constructed using automobile tire barrier systems? -- William G. Mason Jr. ANSWER: At the present time, no other systems have demonstrated the level of impact reduction to riders and karts than can be accomplished with the automobile tire/steel plate barrier system. If it weren’t for the ability of properly-designed tire barrier systems that reduce the impact of karts grazing or running into the barriers, there would be a large number of injury claims as well as greatly increased maintenance costs for the karts themselves. The relatively small size
of the concession karting industry does not produce incentives for costly
research to create new systems that are potentially better. As a result,
to this writer’s knowledge, none are now available. While a number of new
concepts have been introduced and others may be on the horizon, no other
system to date has been able to replicate the flexing of the tire systems
on impact. There are some firms, however, that are currently at least contemplating
improved systems for the future.
QUESTION: Can I design a dual purpose track that can serve both racing and concession karts? --Stephen Hayd ANSWER: I am aware that many people have done so in the past, with limited success, but I personally don’t see any practical or safe way to do so. The concepts are too far apart. Concession karts are facility-owned while most competition karts are owned by the person driving them. (This is not the case with indoor kart racing, which is another venue completely.) The high speeds of competition racing have resulted in race tracks being designed with long sections of track and larger radii in the turns. Both of these elements reduce the attraction of concession go-karts as they emphasize the low speed of the karts. Most successful concession tracks are designed with much shorter straight sections and tighter turns to create the illusion of speed, while most karts are traveling at much lower actual speeds. Lower kart speeds are absolutely necessary due to the greater disparity of age and skill levels of the drivers that patronize concession kart facilities, as well as the potential for liability in the concession arena. Competition karts are far lighter in construction and do not have designed to come in contact with the tire barrier systems currently used on the vast majority of concession tracks. As a result, some modification to the barrier system at most concession tracks would have to be developed to avoid competition karts from flipping over the barrier system or becoming entangled with it. Some track have used hay bales in front of the existing tries/barrier plate assemblies but this ends up reducing the available driving area by the width of two vales. The two extremely different
venues should operate on different tracks whenever possible. This would
permit maximizing the appeal of each, which is in the best interests of
all parties associated with either concept.
About the author: Peter
Olesen is a Licensed Professional Engineer in 8 states and president of
Peter F. Olesen & Associates. The firm provides consulting services
to concession go-kart and FEC clients. He can be reached at 847-253-1515.
END
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Kart Marketing Group, Inc. Post Office Box 101 Wheaton, IL 60189 USA Telephone: 630-653-7368 Fax: 630-653-2637 Email: karting@msn.com |
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