The Karting Club

im only 20 nicky lol

There is finally a pro picture of me racing lol!

This is from today, I had it easy, i was easily 3rd quickest in practice and managed to qualify third as well after two restarts in the sprint race. in the feature race, i got a bad start and fell to fourth and got stuck behind a slower kart, whle trying to avoid him, i got sideways and fell to fifth, so after getting around 5th, i was determined to go for the podium, after the halfway point, there was still a good 2 seconds between me and 3rd, i closed with 2 1/2 laps to go, and waited for the right time to make a move, at the last possible passing zone, on the last lap, i brake late, enter a hairpin tight to the inside, and cut 2 tires over the grass in a textbook passing move the secured me the podium. greatest race ive had so far id say, even better than the wins

Pretty substantial bump here..

Right, I've been looking into karting quite a lot recently. Mostly looking at doing Formula Blue at Larkhall, taking it down for practice runs at first before entering some club races.

Do many people my age simply just do karting for fun, rather than as a means to climb the motorsport ladder? How much money should I expect to spend a year on maintaining a kart for use in the odd local club race? What's the sort of learning curve associated with maintaining a kart? I'm quite mechanically minded, but I lack good experience, so how quick will I pick it up?

I'd love to do cars, but karting just seems a much easier way to get my hands on something 'fast' on a closed course. And as I'm an engineering student, having a kart would be a good way to introduce me to simple mechanic skills and driving skills that might help me with Formula SAE in the future.

I know there are a few karters here, probably with much bigger budgets than I'd ever have, but if there's a few simple bits of advice, I'd love to hear it!