Go-kart Racing

dinesh_gd2003 · September 3, 2007

Are there any Go-kart racing clubs in Sri lanka?

drake · September 3, 2007

No specific clubs, MRA (a SLAS affiliated club) used to organize races at empire and independence square. But now getting permission to close roads is a problem. Thus due to a lack of a track and few participants karting is dead in Sri Lanka.

KLM · September 3, 2007

Drake can we expect a karting revival in 2008 at places like BMICH etc?

SeanD · September 3, 2007

What happened to Colombo Kart or whatever at millenium park?

miniace · September 4, 2007

I recall the good old days of Go- Carting in SL.Taj car park,BMICH,Isurupaya....were favourite locations.

Hey any idea about Eranga Jayawardhane,Chandrudh Deraniyagala...I can remember them battling for the junior nationals title in early 90s.Then juniors like Aravinda,Sheran,Rajitha,SA family boys were stars.

Then came pro carting and now no- carting at all.In my imagination there are more than 100 go carts in the Island just gathering dust in backyards and in corners of garages.

Someone should take steps to give life to this wonderful sport, Go-Carting.How about Auto Lanka doing the honors?

Madz Its upto you mate! Remember AL is backed by many ex-champions and many wonderful brains.

MINIACE

Grand Civic · September 4, 2007

roughly whats da cost of running condition go-cart today ?

drake · September 4, 2007

basicaly we need a possible location to run, and we need karters. If we have these things Karting will live again in SL :rolleyes :rolleyes:

been trying to find a place but no luck yet, any suggestions would be appreciated!

Best bet is to run the Yamaha engines as there are quite a few engines around in SL & its not too expensive to rebuild. Karts range from about Rs. 100,000/- to Rs. 150,000/- and the more advanced and newer stuff can be very much more expensive.

Running cost is not to bad cos the yamaha is a reliable engine if you use it well (as longs as u don't blow it up) & tyres will easily last a season or more. Other cost are stuff like entry fees, fuel, oil & plugs.

miniace · September 4, 2007

These places are still good venues

Taj car park

BMICH

Isurupaya

Additionally we can use

AMRC autodrome

AGH

Toyota lanka carpark???

katukurunda airfield carpark

Arpico shopping mall carpark???

Austasia complex

Edited September 4, 2007 by miniace

Pericles · September 4, 2007

We had an idea to have a days fun at the MIT car park too, but that never happened. Seems to be hard to get it organised! There are people here who are def interested in having a run for fun

drake · September 4, 2007

problems with taj & isurupaya is the surface is not as good as it used to be & people are not giving permission as freely as they used to... looking into BMICH...

AMRC is to small to run go-karts... whats AGH... also u have to look at a somewhat close place as transporting karts is just going to increase the cost also ideal place is without kerbing as the rear axle can be bent and parts in SL is a prob (but thats just an ideal place)

and lets not forget safety... i have no issue but it can become an issue...

for fun you have to get the prokarts running.... go-karts are race karts and few people would lend them out as they are easily damageable and costly to repair :-)

Edited September 4, 2007 by drake

dinesh_gd2003 · September 4, 2007

Then came pro carting and now no- carting at all.In my imagination there are more than 100 go carts in the Island just gathering dust in backyards and in corners of garages.
Someone should take steps to give life to this wonderful sport, Go-Carting.How about Auto Lanka doing the honors?

Madz Its upto you mate! Remember AL is backed by many ex-champions and many wonderful brains.

MINIACE

Hey, I totally agree with you on that. We should seriously try to revive this sport in Sri Lanka. May be all of us who are interested in Go-kart racing here at autolanka should get together and form some kinda racing club. Its a shame that a great and fun sport like this is no more here in SL.

I was on tour in Singapore and happened to go to one of their go-kart race tracks there. It was so much fun that i had my heart set on joining some kinda racing and taking part in the sport when i got back to SL.

dinesh_gd2003 · September 4, 2007

basicaly we need a possible location to run, and we need karters. If we have these things Karting will live again in SL :rolleyes
been trying to find a place but no luck yet, any suggestions would be appreciated!

Best bet is to run the Yamaha engines as there are quite a few engines around in SL & its not too expensive to rebuild. Karts range from about Rs. 100,000/- to Rs. 150,000/- and the more advanced and newer stuff can be very much more expensive.

Running cost is not to bad cos the yamaha is a reliable engine if you use it well (as longs as u don't blow it up) & tyres will easily last a season or more. Other cost are stuff like entry fees, fuel, oil & plugs.

If we can get some interested people together and try to organize a race as a way of start things off that would be great. who know we might be able to find one or two sponsors as well!

drake · September 4, 2007

ok first step we need to see who is actually interested in running seriously cos like it or not u have to invest some cash in it. Currently i know of about 5 guys with karts who would run after a bit of pushing.

Next step find a good location, considering everything.... if these two work out i'll guarantee a Championship of at least 6 races but it will depend a lot on commitment of those interested

miniace · September 4, 2007

Go-carts are ideal start for youngsters and low budget people.A hundred thousand rupee budget is good enough to start and running costs are not that high .

I cant understand why our top officials of motorsports not taking actions to promote Go -Carting in SL.

drake · September 4, 2007

Go-carts are ideal start for youngsters and low budget people.A hundred thousand rupee budget is good enough to start and running costs are not that high .
I cant understand why our top officials of motorsports not taking actions to promote Go -Carting in SL.

there have been efforts but different issues have come up..... to long to list here.... also u need the commitment of the karters which sadly went missing

a lot of drivers that used karting to start their racing careers abandoned it as they moved on... but like i said if there is commited intrest then anything is possible

dinesh_gd2003 · September 4, 2007

there have been efforts but different issues have come up..... to long to list here.... also u need the commitment of the karters which sadly went missing
a lot of drivers that used karting to start their racing careers abandoned it as they moved on... but like i said if there is commited intrest then anything is possible

Do any of you know if the race track which was their at excel world is still operational ? I heard from some ppl that it was being renevated some time back. Maybe if its still there, we can use it to organize a race. I think all interested parties should meet up and see if we can make this a reality. According to Drake we already have 5 racers !

miniace · September 4, 2007

I think all interested parties should meet up and see if we can make this a reality. According to Drake we already have 5 racers !

Make it six..count me and my kart!

Grand Civic · September 4, 2007

WOW U Have a Kart tooooo.....

Dont you have any spare kart like the minis you have ?

Edited September 4, 2007 by Grand Civic

dinesh_gd2003 · September 4, 2007

Make it six..count me and my kart!

Me too!! though i will probably have to get some ones Kart on rent or something

drake · September 4, 2007

Miniace whats the engine you have on your kart?

dinesh_gd2003 the track at excel world is way to small to handle go-karts

dinesh_gd2003 · September 6, 2007

Miniace whats the engine you have on your kart?
dinesh_gd2003 the track at excel world is way to small to handle go-karts

Hey.. any of u guys interested in meeting up on a weekend to discuss and think of a way we can organize some races?

miniace · September 6, 2007

WOW U Have a Kart tooooo.....
Dont you have any spare kart like the minis you have ?

I rent my cart... just started that business!

madmax · September 6, 2007

ok first step we need to see who is actually interested in running seriously cos like it or not u have to invest some cash in it. Currently i know of about 5 guys with karts who would run after a bit of pushing.
Next step find a good location, considering everything.... if these two work out i'll guarantee a Championship of at least 6 races but it will depend a lot on commitment of those interested

Count me in. I was looking for one some time back to run around the MIT car park on weekends. However never found a good kart worthy of buying.

dinesh_gd2003 · September 6, 2007

I rent my cart... just started that business!

hahahaaa! Congratulations! you just got your first customer

drake · September 6, 2007

Hey.. any of u guys interested in meeting up on a weekend to discuss and think of a way we can organize some races?

Like is said if we have enough karters to run & a possible location, i'll get MRA to organize the races.... that is getting perm from SLAS, marshalls, tyres to bounce off etc....

But like i said we need to have show that we are committed to this.... so maybe meeting up would be a good idea