I went to the soft launch of the new Austin go-karting track at K1 speed on 4/27/2012, and raced their electric karts on the indoor raceway.
It was insanely addictive, and it works out at about $13.33 a race if you go Monday to Thursday. My race was 14 laps long and lasted around 10 minutes all told.
WARNING: It’s very, very, very addictive. I put up a little video of some karting laps with the basic info and some banjo music for you to listen to on YouTube.
If you dream of racing your friends on go-karts and are dissatisfied with Austin’s Park and Pizza – the kids playground that is in Austin as much as the State of Kentucky is – then there’s good news coming your way in April 2012. I enjoy the gas sputtering carts there, don’t get me wrong, it’s just the stinging eyes and the streaming tears from the exhaust fumes that put me off.
From May 2012 there’s going to be Austin’s first indoor electric go-karting set up. It’s not cheap – about $20 for 14 laps, but it’s surely got to be fun. The karts have 20HP allegedly, and being electric have good torque (acceleration), unlike a two-stroke gas powered go-kart which would have a narrow power band, and accelerate slowly from the line (especially with an automatic clutch).
Me, I imagine it will be fun for birthdays – it’s almost worth getting married again (to Mary) so that I can have another stag do, and go racing with a bunch of chums. I’m sure when F1 gets here, there will be track days on the new circuit, though I imagine they’ll be more like $800 for a half day. So I’ll be practicing on the K1 Speed track. And the Lone Star Exotics Ariel Atom track day at Harris Hill raceway in San Marcos. ($599 for a half day)
As a kid, I lived about 3 miles from Six Hills – home of “Have a Go Karting” where my teenage friends and I would careen around the track until the owners would tell us to stop crashing into each other. And thinking about it, I lived about 100 yards from a disused airfield. Just like I do now. Maybe Austin is the new Hoton.
So, I’ve got my 40th birthday coming up. I don’t have a team to build or anything, so I guess I’ll just sneak off to practice for the next few weeks and then invent a reason to go with all my friends.
There is an outdoor go-kart track just south of Austin. Karts go in excess of 65 MPH. Check out the website!!
Ooh – cool – I need to check that out too.
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Absolutely fantastic place! I have o go here with my two kids, i’m sure they will really enjoy spending time there. My older son loves go karts racing, and every time he has time de goes to the next indoor go kart track.
Hopefully I’ll see you out there. Trouble with kids is that they don’t weigh much, so it’s harder to pass them with their fast acceleration.