Guide · Karting
Race sessions, arrive and drive and group races: what a karting track should sell
A kart track sells grid places, and a grid has a fixed number of karts, a fixed number of minutes and a safety briefing before every one of them. The track that sells well fills the grid with the right mix of drivers, keeps the juniors and the stag parties apart, and never sends a heat out with three karts on it.
The grid is the capacity, and the briefing is the cost
A track has a fixed number of karts that can be on it at once, set by its length, its layout and its own safety rules, and that number is the capacity of every session it sells. Ten or twelve is common. Before each session there is a briefing that takes ten minutes and cannot be skipped, and after it the karts are refuelled, checked and lined up again.
So a fifteen minute heat is nearer a thirty minute cycle once the briefing and the turnaround are counted, and a track open ten hours runs perhaps twenty sessions. A heat that goes out with three karts costs the same fuel, the same marshals and the same briefing as one with twelve. That is the arithmetic that should drive everything else.
A heat with three karts costs the same as a heat with twelve. Fill the grid before you add a session.
The instinct when demand is high is to add slots. The discipline is to fill the ones that exist, price the empty ones down, and only add a session when the grid is full.
Arrive and drive, the open session
Arrive and drive is an individual booking a place on a grid of strangers. It is the bread and butter of the week, and it is where the mix of drivers matters most, because a first-timer and a regular on the same grid is either a great race or a collision.
- Sell places on a grid, not tickets to a day. A session has a time, a price and as many places as there are karts.
- Age, height and weight rules captured at booking, because a driver who does not fit the kart, or the seat, cannot go out, and finding that out in the pit lane is the whole afternoon's mood.
- A minimum to run. Say on the booking page that a session runs with a minimum number, and move the drivers of a session that does not reach it to the next one rather than sending out two karts.
- Peak and off peak as two prices on the same session. Saturday afternoon and Tuesday morning are not the same product.
Race licences, registration and the briefing
Every driver signs a declaration and every driver is briefed. The declaration only needs doing once and the briefing needs doing every time, and confusing the two is how a desk queue forms.
- The declaration online, before the visit, by the driver, or by a parent for a junior, so the desk is scanning bookings rather than handing out forms.
- A track licence or registration as a one-off product, if you run one, with the status captured so a returning driver's booking shows it.
- The briefing is never skipped, however experienced the driver claims to be, and the session time on the booking page includes it.
Juniors, and keeping them apart
Juniors race on their own grid, in cadet karts, at their own pace, and a track that mixes them with adults to fill a heat has made a decision its insurer would not.
- Junior sessions as their own product, with age and height bands stated at booking and enforced at the pit gate.
- Weekday afternoons and weekend mornings are where they sit, which is also where the adult grid is quietest.
- A parent present, whose contact was captured at booking, and who knows the session runs to time.
- Junior parties are a junior grand prix with a room and food attached, and they are the most reliable Saturday morning a track has.
Group races, and the private grid
A group takes the whole grid, and a grand prix format, practice then qualifying then a final, turns two hours of track into an event with a podium. It is sold as one booking, to one organiser, for the grid, not as twelve arrive-and-drive places that may or may not all turn up.
- Price the grid, or per head with a minimum that covers the karts you have committed. A group of seven on a grid of twelve is priced as a grid, or the other five places are sold to the public and it is not private.
- The organiser is the customer: one booking, one payment, and the driver names collected from them or on the day.
- Timing sheets, a podium and a photo are what makes it a story rather than a session, and they cost almost nothing.
- Corporate evenings want the grid, food, somewhere to gather and often an invoice, and the organiser's details are next year's booking.
- Stag and hen groups are a Saturday, they are late, and the no-alcohol-before-driving rule is stated at booking and enforced at the gate without exception.
Practice sessions, and the regular
The driver who comes every week wants laps, not a race. An off-peak practice session, cheaper, with a smaller grid of regulars who know the track, sells the Tuesday morning that nothing else does, and a block of them sold together keeps that driver through the winter.
Weather, on an outdoor track
Rain changes the karts, the times and sometimes the decision to run at all, and the decision wants making in advance rather than on the day with a full grid booked.
- Wet running is normal on most outdoor tracks, with wet tyres and a briefing that says so. Cancel for standing water, lightning or a track that cannot be marshalled safely.
- A decision time and one message to every driver on that session, so the car park is not full of people who did not hear.
- A move to another session as the default, made by the driver themselves, rather than a refund.
No-shows, and the grid that went out light
An empty kart in a heat is not a lost ticket; it is a place you turned somebody away from and a share of the marshals, fuel and briefing that nobody paid for. Taking payment at booking is the plain fix for arrive and drive and the only sensible one for a private grid. Where you would rather not take the full amount in advance, the guide on cutting no-shows without taking deposits works through the alternatives.
The case for selling timed sessions rather than an open day is made in timed entry or open sessions, and a track is a venue where the grid makes the decision for you.
A sample day
| When | What the track is doing |
|---|---|
| Weekday mornings | Practice sessions for regulars at the off-peak price; school and youth groups as a private grid. |
| Weekday afternoons | Junior sessions in cadet karts; off-peak arrive and drive. |
| Weekday evenings | Corporate grand prix bookings taking the grid; peak arrive and drive on the nights they do not. |
| Saturday | Junior parties in the morning; stag, hen and group grands prix through the afternoon; peak arrive and drive into the evening. |
| Sunday | Family and junior sessions early; peak arrive and drive; a quiet late slot priced down. |
| Every session | Briefing inside the session time, declaration done online beforehand, paid at booking. |
Where booking fits
Booking is what makes the grid arithmetic visible before the day rather than in the pit lane. Each session is a grid with a time, a price and as many places as there are karts, so a heat cannot be sold past the track and a light one is obvious a week out. Junior and adult sessions are separate products with their own rules. Age, height, weight and the signed declaration are captured when the place is booked. A group takes the grid under one organiser and one payment. Drivers move their own booking when the weather turns, and the pit gate scans them in with the briefing about to start.
That is how Hatch works, with the money going into your own Stripe account as bookings are made, and there is more on booking software for karting tracks. The no-show and timed-entry pieces above are the companion reading.
Common questions
How many karts should be on a track at once?
As many as your track's own rules allow, which its length, layout and safety case set, and ten or twelve is common. The point for selling is that this number is the capacity of every session: sell places on a grid rather than tickets to a day, so a heat cannot be sold beyond the karts and a light one shows up a week out. A heat with three karts costs the same to run as one with twelve, so the discipline is filling the grid before adding sessions.
How long should a karting session be?
A fifteen minute heat is usual for arrive and drive, but the session on the booking page is nearer thirty minutes once the ten minute briefing and the turnaround are included, and it is worth saying so. A grand prix for a group, with practice, qualifying and a final, is a two hour event. Junior sessions are often shorter and always on their own grid.
Should juniors and adults share a karting grid?
No. Juniors race in cadet karts on their own grid at their own pace, with age and height bands stated at booking and enforced at the pit gate, and a track that mixes them with adults to fill a heat has made a decision its insurer would not. Weekday afternoons and weekend mornings suit junior sessions, which is also when the adult grid is quietest.
How should a karting track price a group race?
As a grid, or per head with a minimum that covers the karts you have committed, sold as one booking to one organiser with one payment. A group of seven on a grid of twelve is either priced as the whole grid or the other five places are sold to the public and the race is not private. A grand prix format with timing sheets and a podium costs almost nothing extra and is what makes it an event people rebook.
Written for UK indoor and outdoor karting tracks. Grid sizes, session lengths and driver rules here are the common shapes rather than rules: your track, your insurer and any governing body you race under set your own.