Indoor Kart Oval Racing Syracuse NY

General Admission (includes Pit Pass) $15 (under 12 $10, under 5 free) * Public Welcome * Family Oriented

"The most intense oval racing imaginable" is how drivers describe indoor go-kart racing. Saturday, December 8, 2012 brings the 20th Annual N. Y. S. Indoor Championship to the New York State Fairground's Americraft Center of Progress Building.

Race promotor Rick Martell says "Imagine taking ordinary racing and squeezing it down to a track that's just 100 feet in diameter. Like making maple syrup, the more you condense it down, the more intense it is, and that's how indoor racing works. You get fierce wheel-to-wheel action in 6 second laps. With 12 karts on the track, just to watch it is a challenge. The karts pull 1.4 lateral G's in the corners, and because the track is inside a building, it's all turns. There are no straights on which the drivers can momentarily relax. From green to checkered it's full throttle, with occasional taps on the brakes to stay off the guy in front of you. It's the most challenging racing in go-karts."

Gates open to the public at 11 AM, racing starts at 11 AM and runs to late afternoon. Come on out, and bring the kids. This is very much a family affair.

The previous race, last December, drew 189 entrants in 18 classes. Between the heats, consolation races, and A and B main events, there are approximately 70 races packed into six hours of non-stop action. Unlike other forms of racing you may have seen, there are no long delays between races. One group exits the track, and the next comes on. The noise never dies down, and the action on the track never stops.

The secret to indoor racing is in the track. It's a heated rubber track, with a grip so strong you can't walk across it unless your shoes are tied extra-tight. Sticky sticky sticky. The secret to the track is a smooth concrete surface. Surprisingly, the smoother the concrete, the better. Infrared heaters shine down on the concrete, heating it to 120 degrees or so. Then a layer of adhesive goes down. The adhesive of choice is Coke syrup, straight from the fountain! Then go-karts with extra-soft rubber tires go out and zip around the track. After half an hour or so, there is a thick layer of rubber adhered to the top of the Coke syrup. Voila, an indoor kart track.

Throw in some grandstands, pits, and a crowd of a thousand or so people, and you've got yourself a indoor kart race!