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I did get pictures of him, but he was going so fast they were all blurred or out of focus.

Pay $45 bucks - must be a member of the place, I think that was $20. Run order goes like this:

- 1 hour practice session - you can test any one of the 18 karts there to size them up

- 10 minute qualifier - split into two weight divisons: <190 and 190

- 12 minute heat race

- 20 minute feature race

- AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

No you heard him right. I'm just not sure if those are acurate numbers or not. Somehow it makes sense with the entire liability thing that could surround an accident.

Yes his focus is slightly blurry. That's why we need to get him in a Subaru.

That sounds reasonable. About how many folks showed up for those?

Usually between 25 and 30. You will get a wide variety of people there. A lot of the dudes from the NASCAR shops tend to go to show their skills. It feels good whooping up on them - AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

That's cuz they're use to turning left only.

Oh, I'll also note that the sad thing about going with the 6.5HP instead of the 9HP karts is that the price difference is only $240 per kart. I know, multiply that by 12 or so and you've got a chunk of change, but by percentage that's *tiny*. His karts were probably about $4800 each depending on options (if I'm wrong I'm probably a bit high, but it's between $4200 and $4800).

For those curious about setting up your own facility, you'll have close to $10k in the timing system. Use an existing warehouse building and you'll need to strip the sealer off the concrete, which isn't cheap. Then there's the track layout. Building rent. And INSURANCE. This is not a cheap operation to setup.

They do have variable remote controlled governors now so you can slow down (or stop) someone being an idiot, which I would have *thought* would have helped enough on the insurance premium to be worth it, but so far none of the tracks I've visited have it installed. So maybe not.

Oh, and Aaron is talking about Victory Lane, *not* G-Force, as indicated in his post. The Charlotte track, where he lives. Everyone probably figured that out, but just in case... I know G-Force has something similar, but I'm not sure if the deal is as good. I can say that if you are thinking of going and spending some time doing package deals (usually if you buy 5 sessions at a time you can get the price to $15 per session) then any time early in the day is good (except Saturday). If going to ANY of these places early like that, though, CALL THE DAY BEFORE. They all try really hard to sell corporate outing packages and will often have the entire places rented out for a few hours during time they are NORMALLY OPEN. Had this happen to use at Victory Lane once...we called a few days ahead of time and everything was fine. We got there and some group had rented the whole place the day before. Not happy.

Also note that Victory Lane is all 9HP karts. G-Force is 6.5 and 9 and you have to "qualify" on the 6.5's before you can run the 9's. Most club members shoud have no trouble after a stint or two running the necessary times in the 6.5's to "graduate" to the 9's. Once you graduate, you're there for good. If you go when they aren't busy they try to separate folks so you're not out there with people in the "other" karts so there isn't any annoying speed discrepancies.

Also, IMHO, all these places render the outdoor track at VIR moot. Until they get better karts up there, it's not nearly as fun as the indoor places. Their single engine karts don't have enough power to be fun, and the twin engine karts are very funky as far as handling *and* they only have a small handful of them.


--Donnie

Donnie's neglecting to mention that the 'qualifying' at G-Force is in traffic with whomever else is running. All it takes is for one mouthbreather to hold you up, ignore both the passing flag and blue flag, then wreck you to keep that from happening.

He must have been Allen Iverson, because he was wearing his jersey

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

If someone is holding you up, by the time you figure that out, they've ruined the lap you're on. So you have two choices...pass them (err, it is called "racing", you know) or you can hang back for clear track space. In 8 minutes at any of these tracks you're going to get 14-18 laps, so you've got nobody to blame but yourself if you can't find some clear running room and get a decent lap in during all that.

While I have seen occasions where folks didn't get passing flags *and* were clueless they were holding me up *and* were just good enough I couldn't actually get by, that's been VERY rare. More likely people *do* get passing flags and when they do, they get out of your way. In fact, I can't recall *ever* seeing someone ignore it completely in all the laps I've done at these places.

That said, I generally hit them when they aren't busy. Most times I've been at one of these tracks has been right after they open for the day, and often that day is Sunday. So most of my sessions are when traffic is on the light side. YMMV.


--Donnie

I saw a lot of passing flags displayed at Rush Hour last Friday night, but very few people actually yielded. It was fun watching to see where/when/how the faster guy would get by, though.

As for the 6.5hp karts, the guy I talked to said that fast laps were with full throttle on about 90% of the course, and you could complete over half a lap without lifting. So I guess more power might be nice at some point.

Actually, that sounds a lot like autoxing or rallyxing a 2.5RS.

Donnie, these people were evidently special. I'd pass them, and then come up upon them after they'd spun or whatnot and they'd get the Jimmy Spencer red mist out and think that I'd slapped their mom.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

This facility is nice, the track layout is good, and the Sodi chasis are good as well. As I think was mentioned earlier, there are only two brake zones on the whole course...and it's not a lot of braking either. The course will be much more challenging & better practice (for autox, track, & rallyx) whenever they can get the 9hp karts in. Unfortunately, I only had time for two sessions on Friday afternoon. My first session was a 33.6 and my second session was slower, I thought I was quicker so it was either the kart or I got some more adjusting to do. It looks like to be fast you need to be in the 32s which seems to be very doable with a few pops at the course to learn it a tad better and a decent kart. It's nice to have one of these facilities in the area.

Eric

Figured I would resurrect an old thread rather than start a new one. I went to Rush Hour for the first time this afternoon with a few friends from work. Ran three 15 minute sessions. I don't have results from the first session, a good thing I'm sure, but my fastest time from session 2 was 34.209 and in session 3 my best was 33.535. One of the guys in our group runs there regularly, buys sessions 100 at at time and was kind enough to transfer sessions to us at $10 each, which is lot cheaper than the usual rate.

I also went karting at VIR last Friday. (Went up there for the surprisingly brisk charity laps with a former co-worker) and put in an hour on the kart track. Temps were in the high 40s. Should have stolen a page from That Guy and worn the racing suit offered, as blue jeans were not enough to keep my knees warm. My fastest lap, on lap 2 of the second 30 minute session, was a 50.58, and then my times went to the dogs as I experimented with many different ineffective lines. I think that with weeks of expert instruction and hundreds of hours of practice time, augmented by an extended crash diet, I might break into the 40s. I enjoyed the elevation and camber changes. The downhill approach to the off-camber 180 at the end of the back straight is a real hoot, especially when you crest the hill and find 3 carts spun out in front of you.

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Art McDonald
Premier Amateur #518
2008 Dishman Cup
Pivot Cone Snob

Rodney is a waxer (but in a good way)

Rush Hour regularly emails offers to members offering 10 sessions for $75.