Chicago Indoor Racing has multiple track configurations, a full banquet room, arcade, bar, and viewing area. This is not just a couple of karts and a few tires around some piece of asphalt. For all the stats check out their website www.chicagoindoorracing.com.

I’ve been to three go kart tracks this year. On top of all the hospitality and atmosphere Chicago Indoor Racing has to offer one thing that stands out, efficiency. Your experience starts out with a video explaining safety and track conduct, along with filling out the mandatory wavier which you find on the table in front of you under a head sock. It should be noted that Chicago Indoor Racing doesn’t use a skimpy head sock but a thick quality sock. It may not seem like much at first glance, but considering it is going to come in contact with the user, the quality is appreciated.

After any last questions are answered you move to one of the two locker rooms to gear up. You can keep any extra street clothing in a locker located around the racks of driving suits. All driving suits are sorted and hung by size. Staff will remind you to select a suit one size larger then your normal cloths, follow this advice. After you have found the correct driving suit, it’s time to selecting a helmet. The facility has been open for two years but you would not be able to tell judging at the excellent condition of their helmets, again all sorted by size.

This may seem like a little trivia point, but all the helmets have a small sticker on the front listing the helmet’s size. If you have ever had to dig through a rack of helmets to try and find your size, the sticker is a nice touch, again very efficient. After adding a neck brace you move to the desk for the registration process. You will receive a ticket listing if you are on track one or two, and the time your race will start.

Moving to the track area, races are announced by start time and what drivers are running on the announced track. As you enter the pit area, you hand a crewmember your ticket, check the computer monitor to see which go kart you are in, and proceed to the assigned go kart. Each track has two sets of go karts. As one group is climbing out of their go karts, the following group can climb in theirs, reducing down time between races.

Each track has its own large screen with lap times projected onto it. There is no place to hide your performance, and when you finish a session you have instant feedback. After leaving the go kart you can go back to the registration desk for a full lap print out of your performance.

The following are my impression of each track.

Track One

Initial impressions of this track remind me of Long Beach. It has a long straight with a bend leading into a chicane, which will catch out any inattentive racer. Any type of braking along with steering input will lead to a healthy tank slapped.

Following the chicane are two right hand turns, which lead to the inner section of the track. If you pick your line correctly you can go flat out until you reach a 90 degree left hander followed by a hairpin leading onto the straight away. This section reminds me of Long Beach the most.

After a couple of runs I was starting to pick up the rhythm of the circuit. It’s that elusive “just one more run” that is hiding my real fast time. With a good circuit, isn’t that always the case?

Track Two

Monaco! While smaller then track one, I found track two to be a joy to drive. The back straightaway is not as long as the straightaway on track one, but if you can find the balance, the two turns that follow can be taken with a full head of steam. Then it’s a hard right onto the short straight leading to a primary overtaking location, a left hand hair pin.

Approaching traffic, if you can stick it to the inside of the hairpin, you can fight it out through the following right left combination and take the speed down the back straightaway. Running through that section I got a reminder on just how quick a kart can swap ends. One moment I’m powering through the left hander leading to the straightaway, and the next moment I’m backed into the wall, hard. If you don’t spin now and again, you aren’t trying hard enough.

I would like to give a big thumbs up to the crew at Chicago Indoor Racing. They allow participants the chance to take a shot at driving a go kart the way it was meant to be driven. By that, I mean minor contact was not always flagged. If contact didn’t persist and the same mistake wasn’t made twice you were ok. However it was not Beyond Thunder Dome out there either. I did receive one warning card (I never touched him, he spun under braking, honest) and I saw one racer receive a penalty.

Comparing my lap times to the top times on their website, there is still speed out there for me to find, but for a first time at the facility I didn’t do to bad.

The beauty of go kart racing is you get a taste of just how much skill is needed to consistently put together fast lap after fast lap together. You also lean just how long a tenth of a second is.

If you get the chance, I recommend taking a few laps at Chicago Indoor Racing. I saw people who were going to only try one session climb out of their kart with a wild look in their eye, and head to the registration desk for another session. Karting is one of the purest forms of motorsports but I must warn you, it’s addicting.