Newbie advice?

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edmundh

New Member
I am a complete novice at karting, with my only "experience" being a karting "school" about 10 years ago. I am dying to go racing though as I finally finished school and can afford to put some time and money into it (although not much of either!).

I am not mecahnically inclined, and I am not what one would consider a "gearhead", although I like to think that my understanding of racing is above average. So let me get to my question. I am looking for a karting class/venue that uses pretty inexpensive karts with very little modification opportunites (so I dont have to spend all my time in the garage thinking "what does THIS do?"). Maybe something similar to a Rotax Max. It has to be local (St. Louis, Southern IL), and novice friendly.

Also, I don't have ANY type of support system. I know no one in karting, and my family is not what you would call supportive of my desire for racing. That is, I am on my own. I am not sure, but I think that may affect my choice of class/kart to start in.

I am eager, yet ignorant. Any assistance/conversation/advice is extremely welcome as I try to join the ranks of those I so admire, the recreationally competitive karter!
 
well, i would go up to springfield il. this sunday for that swap meet. that way you could see some to the epuipment up close and personal. go around and talk to everybody and ask questions. the karting community is a friendly and helpful bunch. then decide what type of racing you would like. dirt (which is awesome), asphalt or maybe some road course stuff. probaly the best thing to do is go dirt. there's more tracks around that are dirt. if you can go to springfield and just go to look and meet some people. you might learn alot of things while up there.
 
If you want to race asphalt road course
e-mail me and I will help you .
Hook you up with the right people
and help you at the track

Craig:D
 
dirt

if you want to run dirt in illinois you have a good selection of tracks. bedrock in belleville il, junk yard international in coulterville il, beaver creek in greenville il. if you go to the bottom of the main page of this site you will find a list of tracks in the area.
 
If you want to get a taste of dirt racing, you need to go to springfield tomorrow. We are racing karts tomorrow indoors on a dirt track. Starts around 11 a.m. They are just running one class of karts (heavys) during their motorcycle show to see how it goes over. If you do come up i be more than glad to talk to you. I will be racing the blue #9. If you cant make it sat. we are staying for sunday for the swap meet. We have a couple of tables of stuff at the swap meet. Just ask for John Hobson or Scott Peters, we have several karts for sell, along with tires, gears, clutches, everything to get you going.
 
the guys that are giving you advice above are great, listen to what they say, if you want to win....as for me, i am a rookie in theis sport and still listening to the big boys.
 
newbie advice

if you want to get in to dirt racing,let us know we would be glad to meet you at the track and show you the ropes,even let ya try one of our karts out to see how ya like it for a few laps.come on down to our pit if your ever at the track we will be glad to show you what all goes into gettin one of these things to go..you could get into the stk classes for fairly cheap,there are a lot of cars and engines for sale on this forum for great prices.this is a great sport to get into.good day~
 
thanks!

Thanks for all the information guys. It's great to see such an active community, and one that is so open to helping out the new guy. I sure wish I could have made it to the swap meet in Springfield, but I guess I can wait until the new season starts in Spring to start picking a class and buying a kart.

I am really interested in going road racing on asphalt, but dirt racing might be something I get interested in after I have gone to a couple of the races.

Thanks again for all the communications!
 
Great post, edmundh!

i'm in the same boat as edmundh but i'm very close to buying a kart to run at bedrock. a friend of mine, who works on a late model and who has also bought a kart for his son, is really showing me the ropes. we're going to look at a kart this saturday. i'm getting fired up about racing this spring.

i hope i can meet some of you guys out at bedrock or at the feb. 1 meeting.
 
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