Gulf Coast Karters, Inc.

My son who will be 14 in April is looking to get into Karting. He has been racing with the CMRA for several years with plenty of racing experience and championships. Can anyone give me input on what class and Karts we should be looking at.
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Mike Myers

Mike,

I would suggest you post this question in the GCKI Karting Forums as not everyone looks at all the individual class forums. In the meantime I will do my best to answer your question. For starters take a look at the "Classes" drop down under "Race Season" on the GCKI main page. This will list the classes and rules that may apply to your son. TaG Junior, Rotax Junior, and Chonda Senior, are the classes that come to mind for someone his age (there might be others?). I would suggest you take a look at the results over the past year to see which classes are seeing the most competitors as it doesn't make much sense to race in a class by himself.

At his age you'll be looking at a full size kart regardless of the motor package. Kid karts and cadet karts are for 12 and under. Popular brands for full size karts are CRG, Birel, and Tony Kart, but there are many many many brands to choose from. CRG and Birel do have local support (3G Racing and RPM Motorsports) so you might take this into account when looking for a chassis as they have the knowledge and the parts to keep you on the track.

For a new karter I would suggest taking a close look at the Chonda (aka "Clone") class. It uses a low cost motor that requires minimal maintenance and I consider it less "sensitive" to deal with than a TaG/Rotax motor. A clone motor package can be purchased for less than 1/3rd the cost of a TaG/Rotax motor. It is also a great way to allow the driver to focus on the line and work on maintaining momentum through the corners (plus the racing is close and usually has a pretty good size turnout).

I am not an expert on junior kart racing; however, I would be more than happy to help answer any questions (I do race full size karts and have raced in the Chond Senior and TaG/Rotax Masters classes) I can. Please feel free to email me directly at proth0303@gmail.com. I plan to be at the race on January 6th (unless the weather keeps me away) so please come on out and watch and ask a bunch of questions. I will be racing kart #26 (orange/silver/black CRG) in the TaG Masters class so feel free to stop on by.

Patrick

Hi Mike. Glad to hear you want to get Taylor started in karting, he's going to love it.
Check you Facebook messages, I'll send you a couple of ideas.

Cheers!
Jm