We're going to try and do a miniseries & talk about some USA kart tracks that we recently toured on a road trip.
How to get involved in some of these different facilities around the country, but also just giving it a review on what we thought it was like driving at these places, who we drove for when we leased the kart packages, and a general sense on what it's like to race at these tracks.
The first track that we are going to be talking about is New Castle Motor Sports Park in Indianapolis. So, we were fortunate enough late last year to receive a package from the MPG Motor Sports Group and got to drive a KA100 engine on a Kart Republic chassis. We just hired a van and cruised out to New Castle Motor Sports Park, which is one of the closest facilities to their workshop. Our first impression of the track is it's very wide open, long straights. It does have a couple of hairpin corners in there that lead onto long straights, but a very fast and flowing racetrack.
A bit of history in the club rooms there with some of the past drivers that have raced at the track is on display. Comet Kart Sales shop, Mark Dismore Jr is there where they build the engines and have their warehouse full of spare parts as well. So accessible for the driver to go to the track and have support & spare parts available. They've also got pit garages that you can rent out as well.
If you're looking to race at New Castle Motorsports Park and need some help, you can check out our Track Guide for the circuit here.
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We're going to try and do a miniseries & talk about some USA kart tracks. How to get involved in some of these different facilities around the country, but also just giving it a review on what we thought it was like driving at these places, who we drove for when we leased some kart packages, and just a general sense on what it's like to race at these tracks.
The first track that we are going to be talking about is New Castle Motor Sports Park in Indianapolis. So, we were fortunate enough late last year to receive a package from the MPG Motor Sports Group and got to drive a KA100 engine on a Kart Republic chassis. We just hired a van and cruised out to New Castle Motor Sports Park, which is one of the closest facilities to their workshop. Our first impression of the track is it's very wide open, long straights. It does have a couple of hairpin corners in there that lead onto long straights, but a very fast and flowing racetrack. One you can really try and run a low sprocket on, and it's where momentum is key. If you're making mistakes out of the hairpin corners, you must gear it for your mistakes, you're going to lose speed down the straight.
A bit of history in the club rooms there with some of the past drivers that have raced at the track is on display. Comet Kart Sales shop, Mark Dismore Jr is there where they build the engines and have their warehouse full of spare parts as well. So accessible for the driver to go to the track and have support & spare parts available. They've also got pit garages that you can rent out as well. So that saves a lot of the hassle of potentially having to have a big trailer. You can store a lot of your stuff there, rock up to the track, open your door and get onto the circuit as well.
I can't remember what the practice fees were for the day, maybe around 55 US dollars for the day which is pretty reasonable considering some of the other facilities charged a little bit extra. So I think that was well priced. The pit area for a practice day, very, very easy. You just basically pit wherever you want. You can pit next to the grid, which we did, lift your kart up and you're back onto into your van.
The one thing I would say about the actual practice itself was they sort of allow a lot of different karts on the track, which can be a little bit daunting for the low performance categories. We had shifter karts on track with cadet karts and as we're talking about these long straights, I'd hate to think what these shifter karts are doing on the straight line. At a guess, 85 mile an hour, maybe even faster. Then you've got cadet karts that are around 60 miles an hour, so probably a little bit too fast.
A little bit daunting for a newcomer if you're starting out. I think that a split of classes might be a little bit more beneficial for those guys. But like I said, the racetrack itself there's plenty of inside curbs that you can attack here. It's got a little bit of undulation, not a lot that but the sections that are, are very, very fast. They're basically flat out sections, so they're not the trickiest undulated spots on the track. The surface itself is quite nice. It wasn't sort of too abrasive on the tires. It didn't work them too hard, which is quite good. Plenty of space for runoff, like if you were to make a mistake or dropped a wheel or drive off the track, you're not into a tire barrier straight away or you're not across the track and having a head on with other karts on another part of the racetrack.
I thought the safety point of view was really, good. But yeah, overall a really nice feel. Like I said, everyone was really polite when I got to the track. Really easy to get on track. All the resources are there to get on track with the Comet Kart Sales guys being there. I didn't access the pit garages because we didn't need to, but we saw some guys working out of them that looked good. It's quite a nice club. They've got plenty of major races there throughout the year with the USPKS, & a SKUSA race there. They've got the Rotax Grand Nationals there, so it's centrally located central within the USA, which is going to make life easier for most of the country to attend.
I want to go back for a race. I think it would race quite evenly with a lot of the slipstream happening on the main straights. Obviously if you have a big engine, that's a big advantage to have on these tracks, but I just think that having that slip stream so that drivers can't just drive away. I think that it will produce some good racing. I think that's why so many race events do go to New Castle Motorsports Park.
To learn how to drive this track fast, be sure to check out our track guide here that gives drivers all the braking markers, throttle zones and apexes from every angle.
New Castle Motorsports Park – Kart Class
For more information on how to access New Castle Motorsports Park check out the below links.
New Castle Motorsports Park / New Castle Raceway / Kart Racing Track, East of Indianapolis, IN