A History of Stock Karting

Stock karting, widely considered to be amongst the minor leagues of the sport of racing, involves miniature, open air vehicles raced around what is usually a smaller sized track. Because it is less regulated than other, more widespread motor sports, stock karting has a greater amount of variety not only in the events but even in the vehicles themselves. While your average amusement park go kart may level off at only fifteen miles per hour, some supercharged stock karts can get up to 160 miles per hour or more.

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The design of a stock kart can be highly customizable and many clever designs and concepts have hit the race tracks in the colourful recent years belonging to this sport. Not only are bright colours almost a must across the board, but also bright combinations of colours. A stock karting race in progress is one of the most colourful sporting events on the planet, with the exception of perhaps a hot air balloon race or a clown marathon. Hot pinks and fierce yellows are splattered across the canvas of the tarmac, mingling with giddy greens and fiery oranges like an impressionist sunset, with only the occasional fearsome black thrown in for good measure.

Besides being beautiful, the karts must also be highly maneuverable as well as provide a measure of safety despite the open air configuration. Most stock karts are generally made to be very lightweight, usually between 160 – 180 pounds without the driver.

There are three types of engines used by the majority of stock karts, the 2-stroke engine, the 4-stroke engine, and the electric engine. Electric engines are the lowest maintenance of the three. Merely requiring electric charging between races, they emit no pollution and are smoke free. They suffer in the power department, however, and are usually only suitable for non-competitive, amusement racing.

The sport of stock karting is generally credited to have begun in the 1950s with a professional race car maker from Southern California. Taking a break from his job manufacturing Indy race cars, he decided to see what he could throw together from an extra 2-stroke engine and some scrap metal. Out of his garage came the first stock kart or go kart in history. He tested this new breed of machine in the Rose Bowl parking lot to national acclaim. Hundreds of people gathered to watch its first run, loved what they saw, and from there the sport of stock karting was born.

This fledgling sport quickly grew in popularity around the world. Almost immediately after beginning in the United States, stock karting began to gain a huge following in Europe and became almost a national fever in some countries.

To begin with, engines for these early stock karts were adapted from motorcycles or even chainsaws. Soon, however, due to the sport’s immense popularity, companies that manufactured engines designed exclusively for stock karts began to spring up around the world, notably in Germany, Italy, and the United States.

There are three different racing formats in the sport of stock karting, sprint racing, endurance racing, and speedway racing, each requiring a different skill set.

Sprinting generally rates the top speed of the kart itself in races that last usually around ten to fifteen minutes. Skill in passing and a high engine speed are the two most important factors in sprint racing.

Endurance races tend to last quite a bit longer with the shortest of these being at least double the time taken by a typical sprint race and the longest as long as a full 24 hour day or more. In these, strategy and consistency are more important than speed, and it should be noted that watching these longer events also takes a lot of endurance.

Finally, speedway events take place on official asphalt or clay tracks, which generally have a set oval shape and a certain length. These may either be trophy dashes, consisting of four laps, or main events which usually have up to 20 laps.