Indoor Karting-Haverhill,Ma

[grovefromnh]

A new indoor karting place opened up in Haverhill, Mass just off of Rt495.

[chaos4NH]

I think that is the track a stone's throw away from Jason Howes. Although That one is actually closer to Ward Hill. Jason, can you fill us in? I think they are electric cars, but I heard quite torquey and rather quick.
Anyone know the prices?

[JayBay]

Yup, I've been there a few times now, it's right down the street from me. It's not bad, they're electric karts that pull ok. For big guys like me my extra weight doesn't seem to be as much of a penalty with these as with traditional gas karts.

The track isn't very interesting though... the space is pretty small, and they have the karts throttled back a little. They initially had a tight chicane at one end of the track, but they removed it because too many people couldn't figure out how to get through it cleanly and the karts were getting banged up. So now it's pretty much an oval. I told the owner (who's a friend of mine from high school, actually), that they needed to make it either faster or tighter (or both!). Unfortunately his insurance policy limits the speed to something lame (I forget exactly, it's around 25mph or so). He also needs to keep the track easy enough to drive for the majority of the customers, who aren't rock star race car drivers lke ourselvse.

So right now the place falls somewhere between real indoor racing (ala F1 Boston and Maine Indoor Karting) and amusement park kiddie karts. If you're in the area and need a fix, it's not a bad place to do a couple races with a few friends. You'll get bored quick though. And at $18/race (plus the $10 annual license fee) it's not a steal either. Although they were running some specials that brought the per-race price down a bit. Check the website for details.

http://www.checkeredflagindoorkarting.com/

If anybody's intereted in heading over there to check it out I'd be glad to meet them.

Cheers,
Jay