On Track Karting

The Brookfield track is way better than Wallingford. Less crowded, much cleaner, overall nicer facility. It’s also a bit newer, so the karts have way less wear and tear on them.
I’m a repeat customer and my experience is always different each time I go. It is sad to see the prices continue to climb. What used to be 8 for $ 85 is now 4 for $ 68. They do have a weekday pass for $ 98, but it’s tough to go during the week (your body is screaming at you by race 6 or 7 anyway). If you do want to go during the week, go on a Tuesday — they run 10 minute heats instead of 8 minute heats, which gets you an extra two laps (or three if you’re fast).
You can opt to get a membership that costs $ 10, which gets you 1 free race on your birthday month. The membership is nice because you don’t have to fill out a waiver each time you go, nor do you have to watch the safety video — this saves you at least 10 – 20 minutes. Once you get fast enough times to get in the pro-​karts, it’s a $ 20 upgrade fee. Once you get into the pro karts it’s an extra $ 2 a race. It’s also $ 2 for a head sock, and I believe its $ 4 for a full balaclava. Yes, there are lots of fees.
The staff is a mixed bag as well. Most times I’ve went they’ve been good. I also cut them a lot of slack, as they probably deal with a lot of testosteroned-​up people that can’t handle a little adrenaline (or they just drive like it’s a demolition derby). However, the most recent time I went the officials were not attentive at all. In addition, they only had 2 officials working the whole track (not counting the guy sitting at the computer at the starting line). If you got spun in the hairpin turn in the back, you’d probably sit there for at least a good minute before someone could get out there to help you.
The biggest safety issue with inattentive staff (or just not enough staff) is that the yellow (caution) or the red (stop) lights/​flags were not going out, which resulted in someone getting slammed at 40mph at the beginning of the main straightaway. Luckily everyone was okay. Just avoid kart #58! Inattentive staff also meant that the passing flag wasn’t going out, which results in bunched up karts, which causes accidents.
My last gripe about my last visit was the manager. You’ll notice him right away as he bleached part of his goatee. I have to say I was really not impressed by the way he conducted himself. He has a short temper, that’s for sure – and does not have a real concern for safety. I saw him on numerous heats sweeping rubber off the corners while a race was going on (they were junior heats, but still, not an excuse). I also saw a woman get into an accident (hit a barrier) and he (the manager) was yelling at her. Really man? People are here to have fun, and accidents happen. He’s acting like the damage to the kart is coming out of his own paycheck. The most recent time I went was the first time I’ve actually seen him out on the track, so hopefully he’s not out often.
Though I am sure nobody enjoys sitting through the safety video, I don’t believe it’s emphasized enough — a lot of frustration and accidents occur because drivers either ignore the track officials or are not paying attention to the flag signals. Please understand what the flags mean, and obey the track officials – even if they’re in the wrong (I was once erroneously black flagged for bumping, the track official meant the guy behind me, but I still pulled in the pit as per the rules — they gave me an extra lap because of it).
The track itself is pretty easy — it’s not very technical and is noob-​friendly. Most of the time you’ll want to be on the throttle the whole time. If your kart is pushing through a turn instead of turning, lift off the throttle quick. It settles the weight of the kart, putting more weight on the front tires, which will help you make the turn. Some karts have wider front tires, others have narrow tires. The ones with the narrower front tires will push more (the technical turn for this is called understeering — it’s worth a google).
If you’re going here with the family — go during the week if you can. They are normally slowest on Mondays and Wednesdays. Also make sure to call ahead — they have a habit of not updating their website when a party buys out the place (which happens quite often) — so before you make the trip down there, make sure they’re actually available.
I’ll be back eventually — though I have my gripes with the place, the feels you get from driving are honestly what keeps bringing me back. Drama aside, once you’re on the track, it’s like nothing else in the world matters. As someone who suffers from a lot of anxiety and depression — the 8 minutes I spend on track are literally the best 8 care free minutes of my life.
Dom Torreto said it best: «I live my life a quarter mile at a time. Nothing else matters: not the mortgage, not the store, not my team and all their *********. For those ten seconds or less, I’m free.»

While the track is nice, the facilities are a bit on the cheap side. The staff is very slow at check-​in. When a driver needs assistance on the track… they are very slow as well, but, when a driver is driving recklessly and turning the race (heat) into bumper cars, they don’t care at the expense of other guests. In my case, resulting in injury. I will not go there with my son again. The management didn’t even care to help or follow up.

Came here for a friend’s birthday this past weekend and had a pretty awesome time. Apparently the normal cost for just coming in and racing is $ 20 a race, but we got a group rate since there were about 25 of us, so my friend was able to work the price down to $ 16 per race (plus $ 2 for the head sock).
The facility was very easy to navigate and also rather clean. There’s a section for parties and a few arcade games on one end, and near the registration counter on the other end there’s an area you can watch the races from. During your time at On Track, you’ll need to watch a 10 minute safety video to ensure you know what the flag colors represent and whatnot. I’ve heard you can pay the membership fee of $ 10 to bypass this for the year or something, but it’s fine, I’ll keep my money and just sit through the video again if I decide to come back.
The driving itself rocked. There’s nothing like driving up to 40 mph and being able to just rip and drift corners. The staff monitoring the race were on their game and singled out people who were wreaking havoc on the track, as well as let you know if someone behind you was looking to pass. I had an absolute blast here and will be back in the future with a group of friends.

Have been here a few times, it’s driving go karts indoors. It can be fun, but I won’t be back after my most recent experience. Here’s a brief synopsis of why:
You have to watch a safety video before riding or pay a $ 10 membership fee to avoid watching the video. I’ve seen the video a few times now because I won’t pay 10 $ to get out of it. It’s 8 minutes long. At 7 minutes and 50 seconds when they they say «thanks for watching» I left to use the restroom. I came back and an employee told me I needed to watch from the beginning again. I thought it was a joke, but no they were serious. I said no thanks just refund my money… which the video says they will do no questions asked. I try to get my money back and they won’t give a full-​refund. I grew agitated and after realizing they were not going to budge, I left letting them know I would not return, and let the cc company know to refuse any charges from the place.

That. Was. AWESOME. I’ve never done something like this before and it will not be my last! These things go QUICK and the track is challenging. I went with my wife (who I lapped a few times — ha ha!) but there were some younger guys on the track as well (maybe early 20s) that provided excellent competition — although I suspect they’ve done it before because two of them lapped *me*. =)
The staff is friendly, the facility is clean, welcoming and well lit, and safety is paramount. Never for a minute did I feel in danger while enjoying my time here, and my lap times quickly got better as I became more comfortable with the cart.
Now I’m going to start looking for friends to go with and make it a great «guys night out.» =D HIGHLY recommended for an adrenaline rush.

After the reply to my original post, I felt obligated to comment again with respect to personal information and identify theft. I used to work for a major corporation that had rigorous multi-​level protections against identity theft. Guess what — thieves STILL found a way to gather information from them leading to the company being hit with $ 10MM+ fines from the FTC and sued by multiple state Attorneys General. I’ve seen what proper management of sensitive personal information looks like and locking a piece of paper in a room is not it. If the form is stolen, how would you ever know? How would you ever be able to contact the affected to let them know? I work with insurance companies and I work with this kind of private information on a regular basis. Your method of «protecting» personal information is grossly inadequate and is something people need to be aware of before allowing you to have it.

Had a blast! And it was my first time go karting ever!
Hubby decided we must go… randomly on a weeknight. So we went. I was so hesitant because I wasn’t sure what to expect and knowing the klutz I am, I would flip the car over or hurt myself in some other way like my helmet flying off my head.
The staff was very helpful and of course I had to watch a safety video beforehand. Safety is huge which is great of course. The karts go up to 40mph from what I remember and the track has a lot of bends which makes maneuvering a ton of fun!
We didn’t have to wait for our first heat which I joined my hubby and it was only the two of us. Then he did one with only a few people. Then more started showing up as the night got later. He drove in 3 heats and I in one.
I really quite nejoyed myself and would love to go more and probably will in the future. Only downfall… for what you’re doing, it seems quite expensive.

You’ll pay quite a lot of money…
You’ll leave smelling like burnt rubber and gasoline…
You’ll be absolutely physically exhausted for the following 24 hours…
And it’s unquestionably worth it.
Calling these machines go karts is like calling a Ferrari 458 a commuter car. These things are enormously fast — 40 miles an hour on the radar gun, and 150 miles an hour to your conscious perception. It’s amazing how much 6.5 horsepower can move you when there’s only 500 pounds of material (driver included) to move.
The safety factor is another very important concept to mention here. Everyone gets a helmet and a neck brace, plus optional tracksuits and gloves if you want them. The karts have an extremely low center of gravity, and are surrounded by plastic bumpers. The track itself is entirely lined in plastic guard rails with rubber tires behind them. I was in multiple collisions, one of which was quite major, and never truly felt I was in danger at any time.
As you can imagine, a place like this is frequented by unrepentant assholes, and they drive like… well, you get the idea. Just give them a stern scolding, remind them that it’s a freakin’ go kart track, and walk away knowing that you have something they don’t: a real life.
We had an absolute blast. Only regret is that we did too many races… eight was too much. Next time, four races tops.

Nice clean and fast track.
If you want to drive real fast go karts, this is the place. With the karts getting up to 40 mph and a better layout than the Wallingford location, this is the place to go to get your driver on.
It is owned by the same company so your license that you bought there is good for this location as well.
The only problem with either location is that they tend to run short staffed so there can be waits for heats (Races) to get started since there are only a few employees that are trying to to do too much stuff.
I’ll continue to go back due to the sheer fun and the fact that it makes you a better driver, I just wish they upped the staff a bit so the employees are more responsive to the customers needs.