United Karting Arrive & Drive

A couple weeks ago I made it out to United Karting to try out their rental karts. It's an outdoor karting track sort of similar to what I did at SpeedVegas in April. I only did a couple of races but I was happy with the venue overall and I'm looking forward to going back.

My first race was a bit of a mixed bag. During the warm-up lap while I was getting a feel for the kart's handling, I noticed that the kart would dart to the right as soon as I applied the brakes. It also wouldn't turn right at all unless I was braking. I made it through the session, but it was annoying driving because I had to stab the brakes to rotate the kart any time I went through a right hand turn on the track.

Other than the kart problems, I also found the track a little hard to navigate. Most of the walls are the normal red and white interlocking barrier systems you find at most karting tracks, but some of the track boundaries only used tires that were fairly low to the ground. It made it hard at times to visually pick up where the next corner is supposed to be until you really got the track memorized.

Just to get the last of the negatives out of the way now, the seatbelts on the karts didn't really cinch all the way down so it felt very weird driving with loose seatbelts. The track was also kind of bumpy in spots but that wasn't a huge deal.

The second session, between having a much better kart and being a little more familiar with the track, went significantly better than the first. My main impression was just how fast the track and kart felt. Unlike SpeedVegas, there was no point where I was running into the top speed of the kart and just waiting patiently for the next corner. There were even a couple corners where you go flying past the barriers at such a speed that it felt like you'd have quite a shunt if you messed up the corner. Presumably with the interlocking safety barriers, the walls would have some give and you wouldn't actually hurt yourself, but it definitely added to the sensation of speed on the track. If anything my only quibble with the track layout is that there weren't enough typical brake-apex-accelerate-trackout corners that can feel so satisfying to get just right.

The balance of the kart in my second session was also pretty nice. Several of the corners were long enough that you could really play around with the throttle to affect the balance mid-corner, which was a lot of fun.

One thing worth mentioning is that I was able to show up and get in a couple races without having to wait around forever, which was nice. Part of this is just down to having gas karts, whereas I think at Autobahn Indoor Speedway they have to wait to let the electric karts charge up fully between races, resulting in a lot of down time.

Overall I was really happy with the experience. I was several seconds slower than the other drivers, but I'm looking forward to going back and learning the track and the karts better and improving my lap times. A lack of decent passing opportunities is a huge problem at Autobahn, so I'm curious to see how the track layout at United Karting works for wheel-to-wheel racing once I'm actually quick enough to be closer to the other drivers.

SpeedVegas, Part 2 - Karting

If my feelings were a bit lukewarm about my exotic car driving at SpeedVegas, the karting we did afterwards was an unqualified great time. The karts were fun to drive, the track was challenging, and I even got in some great wheel to wheel racing.

I've done a lot of indoor karting at places like Autobahn Indoor Speedway and, while it's fun, those experiences left me worried about a few things that might be likely problems at SpeedVegas. My biggest concern was traffic, since you can get held up a lot by slower drivers at Autobahn while you're waiting for a decent place to pass. Even with 15 cars on track at SpeedVegas though, the track was long enough to get some separation from other drivers and the straight sections were long and wide enough to get passes done.

Another thing I was worried about was how long we'd be sitting around waiting to get on track. We were signed up for three races, and at Autobahn it can take forever to get through three races because of long waits between each race. At SpeedVegas though, were were on track for our first race very quickly and then only had a few minutes of downtime between each race. Maybe it's because the karts are gas instead of electric and so don't take any time to charge up, but they were pretty much constantly running races.

One minor downside was that the karts were slightly underpowered and didn't have quite enough top speed. I've done gas karts before where you really had to roll onto the throttle smoothly while trying to avoid power oversteer, but that definitely wasn't the case with these karts. The longest two straights also felt like you reached the kart's top speed too early in the straight and then were just waiting until you reached the next turn.

Despite those downsides, the track and karts still combined for a really fun drive. The karts tended towards oversteer under braking, so getting the balance just right to scrub a little speed and then get through a corner smoothly without sliding was challenging - in a good way. There was a good mix of fast and slow corners too, with the first corner at the end of the main straight requiring just a little bit of brakes and then flying through at nearly top speed. Nailing the braking point, turn-in, and apex and carrying full speed to the outside wall was super satisfying.

The other people in my group really had a great time there also. Everyone had varying levels of experience and even the less experienced racers enjoyed improving their laps during each session. This kind of karting is such a great mix of wheel to wheel racing, accessibility for all skill levels, low cost, and just general fun factor. It seems crazy to say given the huge cost difference, but I think the karting races outshined the exotic car driving as the highlight of my day.

SpeedVegas, Part 1 - Exotics Racing

During my most recent trip to Vegas, some friends and I went to SpeedVegas for a morning of motorsports. We started the day driving exotic cars - one friend in a Lamborghini Gallardo, another in a McLaren 570 GT4, and myself in a Porsche 911 (992) GT3. It was their first time doing any kind of on-track performance car driving and my first time driving a 911.

After walking around the paddock for a bit, soaking in the view of all these amazing cars, we did a driver briefing in which they discussed the track layout, cones marking the braking zones and apexes, and rules for passing and getting passed on track. Even though the track is only 1.3 miles, we'd be on track at the same time as other drivers, with the instructors watching and assisting to make sure passes happen safely. I was a little worried about traffic being a problem, but there was only one time when I was in a corner with two other cars that it was much of an issue.

After the briefing, we headed on track for a couple ride-along "discovery laps" in a Porsche Cayenne. Having done instructor ride-alongs back in my Skip Barber Racing School days, I knew what I was in for. I tried to warn my friends that this would be the scariest part of their day, and it definitely lived up to it. After an initial slow lap to discuss the track layout, the second lap at full speed in an SUV with tires squealing the whole way around was not for the faint of heart.

As soon as the discovery laps were over, we threw on helmets and were in our respective cars almost immediately. Other than feeling like I was sitting very low to the ground, the Porsche felt much more like a normal car compared to the Lamborghinis and Ferraris I had driven in previous exotic car outings. I pulled up to the end of the pit lane and then jumped onto the gas to join the track. The car certainly felt fast right away, but with so few laps and with a track full of already-warmed-up drivers, it felt like I didn't really have much time to waste warming up myself.

My immediate impression of the track was just how many quick direction switches there were. There was hardly anywhere on the track where you get to brake into a turn, hit the apex, and roll onto the gas all the way to track out under full throttle. One of the longer turns on the track (turn 3?) tightens up more and more as you go through it, which ends up feeling like you're scrubbing speed the whole way around until finally getting to a super late apex. From there, the track is basically just a ton of back-to-back-to-back S-curves. Some of them felt like I was just keeping the car stable while getting through the apex and on to the next turn, not really able to get on the throttle much because the next direction change and compromise corner would be coming up right behind it.

The final S-curve is straight enough that you can essentially just straight-line and get on the gas, but almost as soon as you're on the gas, you're back on the brakes again leading into the final hairpin. I never really felt like I nailed this turn. They have green cones set up to show you where to hit turn-in points and apex points, but I kept finding myself so far to the outside so deep into the turn that once I got down to the apex I was going way too slow. Since that turn leads onto the main straight, that turn should have been the best spot for really getting on the gas and pushing all the way to track out under power, but I just couldn't get my line right through that turn the whole day.

After six or seven laps, we did a cooldown lap to give the brakes and car (and me) a chance to take it easy for a lap before getting back into it. I'm sure it's no coincidence that my fastest lap of the day, a 59.363 second lap, came immediately after the cool-down lap.  A couple laps later and I was back into the pits and the driving was done. My instructor seemed pretty pleased with my driving and the fact that I broke under a one minute lap. I was happy that the day went smoothly and that I didn't have any scary moments in a 500HP car I had never driven before.

Although certainly my first thoughts jumping out of the car were how fun it was, if I'm being totally honest it wasn't my favorite track day (that honor probably goes to my day with SCDA at NJMP in the Spec Miata). I never really got to the point that I felt like I was putting the corners together nicely, nailing the racing line, and pushing the limit for what the car could do. Maybe I was paying too much attention to their green cones instead of trusting my own instincts for finding the line and adjusting each lap to go faster. Maybe the track layout isn't conducive to feeling out the limits of a car's handling - in some ways it felt more driving autocross than driving on a racetrack. I suspect the track is specifically designed to avoid spins and off-track excursions when these cars are given to a bunch of novice drivers. In fact, other than noticing the immediate power you get from a naturally-aspirated 500HP engine, I didn't really have a ton of impression of what driving the Porsche really felt like. I sort of just didn't notice the car, which is kind of disappointing since those exotic cars is where all the expense is for this kind of event. Maybe though, it's as simple as not getting enough track time to get comfortable with the car or the track.

Even as expensive motorsports go, the dollars per minute on track here was pretty pricy. My NJMP track day was twice as much money, but I got almost 90 minutes on track for that money compared to only about ten at SpeedVegas. The draw, of course, is getting a chance to drive supercars at the limit on a racetrack. What I'm still not sure about is whether the track layout is just fundamentally underwhelming for such great cars, or if more seat time there would make the difference to where I'm enjoying feeling out the limit of performance in a Ferrari or McLaren or Porsche on that track. I guess there's only one way to find out - to go back and do some more laps next time I'm in Vegas!