Kart School at AMP....

[TYancy]

We are taking our 5 year old to AMP today for an ages 5-7 Junior Discovery event. It's supposed to be about 2 hours long and the kids get some time on the track. They provide the driving suits and helmets. Needless to say, he's pretty excited (and so am I).
I only hope he doesn't run straight into a barrier or decide to go off-roading and that he has a wonderful time.

 

[EF1]

I do not see how he couldn't have a great time. I wish there were opportunities like that available to me when I was that age.

 

[302BOB]

Your Son is a very lucky young lad.....His first kart experience is something He and you both will never forget!!

 

[blacksheep-1]

Yep, I was a WKA state champion in Piston Port back in 1992. I love karts, I would still be racing them if my back wasn't trashed.
Our driver Luca Mars ran karts as a kid ( he's still a kid)

 

[mavisky]

AMP is an amazing karting track. Not sure if they use the full course for the younger kids' training sessions, but there's really only one sketchy corner where the walls are close to the other carts. The verticality of the track is next level though.

 

[TYancy]

The event was a blast! My son loved it! He did really well listening to the folks helping the kids out. They start them off with a tether on the rear of the kart and have them go in and out of cones for about 150 feet to get them used to the foot controls. The karts are extremely governed for this portion. Then, they start to let them loose a little bit, progressively giving the kids a little more freedom each time.
Then they get to go around the junior portion of the track alone by playing follow the leader. No passing other karts and obviously, no passing the leader. The kids got 3 sessions on the track about 10 minutes each time. By the last session, he was letting it go pretty good! I would say they were reaching speeds between 15-20 mph. I started to ask, but honestly I was so excited to see him doing so well.
His choice of lines around the track was awesome! I was really proud to see him doing it.
I took some pictures and videos of course and I just got them uploaded to my laptop last night. It's been a really hectic week, but I will for sure update the thread.

For any parents thinking about seeing if their kids are interested in karting, I highly recommend the experience. There were folks from North Carolina and California there and they were just as impressed as I was. One of the 7 year old kids found the limits of the tires and spun the kart out. He recovered nicely! It wasn't his first rodeo though as he has motorized vehicles at home already.

Kids do not get to go out on the main karting track until they graduate to cadet level. In a racing environment on the junior track layout, speeds are limited to 30 mph. They have a radar which measures each competitor's speeds which happens during practices and qualifying.

 

[TYancy]

Here are a few pictures from the Karting Junior Discovery at AMP:

 

[JeffV8]

The best time I ever had was racing Karts . I did for 20 years.. Raced my shifter kart all over the USA road racing at car tracks. Me at Pitt Race

 

[TYancy]

The best time I ever had was racing Karts . I did for 20 years.. Raced my shifter kart all over the USA road racing at car tracks. Me at Pitt Race

Awesome! It looks like a blast!

 

[302BOB]

The closest I got to kart racing was when I took my son to a small (tiny) track in Stratford called "Bones". There were no racing suits or helmets and the karts were powered by lawnmower engines, but we still had a blast that day, many moons ago.........................

 

[EF1]

Last I was on. Kart was the 1/8 scale cars at NASCAR Speedpark in Pigeon Forge. I was black flagged and ejected for aggressive driving. I haven’t been back since.

 

[blacksheep-1]

You guys are gonna make me do this and show my age....
The Yamaha/Hartman was run by me at Daytona and Savanah.
The Yamaha /Kali I ran in the southeast and the Jamaica international series.
I got busted huggin on the race queen.

 

[Mad Hatter]

That looks like fun!.. the huggin as well.

 

[JDee]

That looks like fun!.. the huggin as well.

Yeah, we Canucks seem to like that. Probably due to the winters up here!

 

[Mad Hatter]

Lol.. Out West (Vancouver), we were the more stuck up ones!!