Need some juniors advice

[Scott Napier]

My daughter is 6 and is already starting to get that racing itch. She asked me this morning when she gets to "race a go-kart" so I told her not for a few more years.

THat got me thinking about how much it costs and where to get the stuff because I am going to have to plan it out and budget for it. Any advice you guys might have would be great. Please be advised that regional stuff really won't mean much because by the time she is ready to race we will be living in Savannah, GA.

[Anne O]

For now you can go check out that guy in Calhan (CRE motorsports?)... I think they have some classes for the younger kids. I'll try to find the paperwork that he gave me a couple of weeks ago when we went out there.

[ianacole]

Bandimere has a "try-it-before-you-buy-it" type of program. I spoke with the guys out there and they seemed pretty cool, really willing to talk about the sport and what to look for. Check 'em out: http://www.actionkarts.com/ .

[BoulderG]

Hi Scott,

Congrats on being a good parent and getting your daughter started racing at an early age!

Locally, you might get good information from www.thecoloradokarter.com. On a national basis, you'll probably get good information from www.ekartingnews.com.

There are plenty of six-year olds active in karting, boys and girls, from what I've seen.

[Clay Turner]

The "guy in Calhan" is George Durdin at CRE Motorsports. He's very focused on juniors:

719.749.9840
cremotorsports.com

[Anne O]

Thanks Clay, I just remembered what his name was:D

[Matt Leicester]

When I started figuring where to begin for getting my little Boo Girl a kart for Solo, the SCCA rule book was the best place. I had looked on eBay at all sorts of things I thought would be what we needed until I actually looked at the Solo rules. Turns out, it's pretty simple - there aren't as many choices of Solo legal karts as there are choices of kids karts in general. Basically, you either need a Briggs and Stratton World Formula powered kart, or a Yamaha KT100 powered kart. In my case, the choice was easy - I hate the sound of Briggs and Strattons and I love the sound of two strokes! Next cool thing about a KT100 kart, you just change intake restrictions and mufflers as your child gets older and moves up in age classes, no new kart needed. If you're even remotely patient, the parts you need show up on eBay pretty cheap. From what I've seen with our daughter so far (which isn't very long, but still...), there's no point in buying the newest, trickest, coolest, fastest kart - any KT100 powered kart is going to be faster than the very young driver, and the kart can be tuned and updated as the driver gets more experienced and more brave. I think the driver will always be the deciding factor on junior kart speeds - the rules allow enough that an old, inexpensive, no-longer-competitive-in-wheel-to-wheel-racing kart can still be competitive in autocross, and will absolutley still be a blast for the kids to drive at the local kart tracks for practice! We found a package with two KT100 karts and one 50cc Comer clutch kart all for very reasonable. The fifty has been great for our 7 year old daughter to get her feet wet, and even though the KT100 karts are very old in kart terms, I see no issue with them being fine until she is 16 and can drive a car (or shifter kart if she wants to stay with karts...).

Matt Leicester