Your Go-Karting accidents!

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Yeah I know they are not all fun. I'm was just asking as these things are intresting to read about. Then again, that would be disrespectful to the people who have been paralysed by these accidents!

That's racing. Baddest crash I've witnessed was a guy who clipped a driver recovering from an off (went off and straight back on the track) and got launched forward. His feet got stuck behind his pedals which broke both of his ankles. That was pretty nasty.
 
Once racing on my bro's own raceway, some big ape just barged right towards me, throwing some kind of green shell. Suprised the hell out of me so I spun out and hit one of my bro's lame man-eating flowers, which broke my cart on impact.


Needless to say, I was pretty bummed out for the rest of the day.
 
It's not an accident, but I'll never forget when I got overtaken by a 12 yr old.... girl.

In my defense though, she was driving a faster go cart with Mclaren style West logos all over, she probably weighed a good 4 stone less than me, and her mum was the manager of the track.
 
I haven’t been karting many times, and I’ve only had one accident where I’ve hit something.

It was at an indoor karting track in the Czech Republic. There was the flat out right hand kink followed by a 180 degree hairpin which went back on itself. However, the hairpin was banked steeply and made of wooden planks, so you could take it really quickly by giving a slight lift, like the type of lift only you and god know about.

Anyway, I was convinced I could take the hairpin flat, so after about 20 laps I decide to try it. Of course – and you all know where this is going – with no lift of the throttle there wasn’t enough weight on the front tyres, so I understeered up the banking straight into the tyres at a fair rate of knots. :ouch:

Suffice to say I never tried it flat again…
 
Karting is to expensive for me, but i did it a couple of years ago when the 4X4 club had their party.
It was an indoor track with rental karts, but still pretty quick.
There's a straight with a wide bend at the end and i was going at (the kart's) full speed when i lost grip and went straight into the tire wall.
Luckely the speed caused me to bump right out of the tire wall again, so i didn't lose much time :)

And the supervisor of the track didn't really like it that someone was burning up tires. (squeeling all the time ;) )
Luckely he didn't know it was me :)
I would just brake hard, turn in and give full throttle again, which caused my tires to lose grip every corner.
Great fun.
 
wasnt to bad of an accident, i just spun out on the first lap of the 2nd heat, this was last year in a cr85 crg chassis @ infineon road track:

dsd0291ql8.jpg


happened right here @ turn 2:
InfineonRaceway.jpg
 
i just made a post on another thread about go karting, anyway, on my 13th birthday i went to a place called Arnold's Go Kart Racing. it was an all indoor course with a lot of turns and some seriously quick karts. the entire track was lined with tires along the walls. my first time around the track i had a really fast kart, but i had a lot of trouble turning it. i think that i hit the wall atleast 10 times. and the karts had no reverse, so the workers around the track had to pull me off of the wall, it was really embarassing.
 
My worst so far was spinning and taking out a couple cones and a hay bail. But that was my first and only experience in a kart. Besides my 4 spins within ~40 laps, the guy who let me drive said I did amazing for my first time, so I'm looking forward to many more wrecks in the future!
 
Worst accident, flipping 4 times, into a concrete barrier at 90 mph in one of these:

icon-openkart.jpg


Had to have my back looked at, but ive stopped racing them for about 2 years now
 
I've had a few, all on indoor tracks.

In more-or-less chronological order:

1) I was doing a warmup lap for a race at a particular bean - shaped circuit. I'm used to indoor karts having somewhat variable handling, but the one I had for this race was just evil. It would either understeer or oversteer wildly and on a whim, and with no apparent cause. It was so bad, I found it hard to aim the car at all. And this was just on the warmup lap. Anyway I started second on the grid, took first place at the start (I usually start well because I'm light), led the first lap, got to the left hander at the end of the fastest point of the circuit, tried to turn in to this corner (which was a flat out corner) and the steering wheel was jammed straight. I was stationary in the tyre wall before I'd stopped trying to turn the wheel and thought about braking perhaps. Turns out that the front right wheel had been loose, and once I got onto the straight, it came off the axle and jammed the steering. It couldn't fall off the car completely because it had wraparound bumpers. No pain though.

2) I was diving up the inside of someone when they closed the door a little too late. I had nowhere to go, so I braked, but his back bumper caught my front bumper, and pulled my bumper off. The bumper jammed under my kart lifting the front wheels off the ground, at which point of course I could no longer steer and I sent straight into the tyres on the outside of the corner.

3) I was racing a friend of mine and was getting better drive than him out of a hairpin. My car was slightly oversteery but controllable, he was suffering lots of understeer which was delaying him from getting on the throttle. I had him set up nicely going around this hairpin. I took a wide line in, got on the power early, got a bit of oversteer but kept the foot in, and aimed for the inside so that I could pass him on the next straight and get him on the entry to the next corner. He saw it coming and put his foot down despite his understeer. He ran out of track and bounced off the tyre wall, which meant he was suddently coming backwards towards me instead of vacating the track I was trying to use. I braked, was oversteering already so slid sideways into the back of him. It was the most painful kart accident we've both had. We broke both karts. My steering wasn't right after that and his throttle got jammed open.

4) Same circuit as above: We were racing and there was a girl with us who had never driven a kart before and was very slow. She was doing a good job of keeping out of everyone's way and I came up behind her on a long straight, which was about two and a half kart widths wide. She pulled to the left to let me past, so I aimed to the right and put my foot down. But she moved a bit too far left and clipped a tyre that was sticking out a bit with her front wheel. This madee her slow down suddenly basically bounced her sideways across the road right in front of me. I swerved to the right, missed her with my front wheels but caught her with my back wheel. There was a loud crack and a kart wheel came bouncing past me. It didn't feel like a big impact to me and I assumed it was her wheel but I thought I should stop and see if she was OK and thought the marshalls would probably want me to stop anyway, so I hit the brakes. The brakes on these karts only operate on the back wheels. Anyway, it turns out it was my wheel that had come off, so when I hit the brakes, the kart of course turned sharply to the right, and I went into the tyre barrier :dunce:

I've had a few spins as well. My most recent was at a 3 hour race at Buckmore (outdoor circuit), in the wet. It was the only time my team's kart spun in the event, and almost cost us a place, as it was 5 minutes from the flag.... fortunately it stayed on the tarmac and I could recover before the driver behind me could catch up. In the same race I also had a big scary moment in the fast right hand kink going down the hill, before the tighter left hander. It's the fastest point on the track, and this was when the track was still dry before the rain started. I lost the back end while riding the inside kerb. The kart recovered OK with a quarter turn of opposite lock but it felt like it was going to hurt if it did spin. Apparently the karts are doing about 65mph at that spot :scared:
 
Buckmore, thats near where I live isn't it? I have had a near miss before at the same track at Butlins that I've carried on about. Mainly because that's the placed I've raced most. Two karts were fighting for 1st place in front of me down the start/finish straight, and as they came into the chicane on the straight this girl who was driving one of them, accidently steered in the boys back wheel as she was trying to get past him. He spun, and hit the barrier and I had to make a viloent swerving manovuer to avoid crashing in to him!
 
It's in Kent, near, um, Maidstone I think. So that would be near you. Somewhere down there off the M26 or something. Here's a link. It's got a vid of a lap so if you've been there you'll recognise it. There's no chicane as such on the start finish straight that I can think of, unless you mean the left / right sweep around the viewing area before the pit entrance, while going up the hill.

http://www.buckmore.co.uk/content.php/000

I had my big moment at Symes Sweep, and my spin after exiting Conways. The karts get a lot of understeer in the wet, I suppose because they have no differential at all (also probably doesn't help much that they're on slicks) and the only way to kill the understeer, other than driving at 1mph, is to give it lots of throttle. This seems to stop the rear wheels dragging the car straight. It's a bit unnerving when you turn into a corner, get silly amounts of understeer, realise you're just going to slide face first off the circuit, over the grass and into the tyres and the brakes aren't going to help, and having to convince yourself that what you really need to do right now is accelerate. Hard.:scared:
 
It's in Kent, near, um, Maidstone I think. So that would be near you. Somewhere down there off the M26 or something. Here's a link. It's got a vid of a lap so if you've been there you'll recognise it. There's no chicane as such on the start finish straight that I can think of, unless you mean the left / right sweep around the viewing area before the pit entrance, while going up the hill.

http://www.buckmore.co.uk/content.php/000

I had my big moment at Symes Sweep, and my spin after exiting Conways. The karts get a lot of understeer in the wet, I suppose because they have no differential at all (also probably doesn't help much that they're on slicks) and the only way to kill the understeer, other than driving at 1mph, is to give it lots of throttle. This seems to stop the rear wheels dragging the car straight. It's a bit unnerving when you turn into a corner, get silly amounts of understeer, realise you're just going to slide face first off the circuit, over the grass and into the tyres and the brakes aren't going to help, and having to convince yourself that what you really need to do right now is accelerate. Hard.:scared:
Read my post before. I was talking about the go-kart track at Butlins holiday resort in Bognor Regis. As for what you are saying about driving in the wet, I wouldn't have a clue since I never have. The only go-karts I have ever driving are them 50cc ones you get at holiday resorts, and the even less powerful ones at beaches. I have actually driven what I think was a 100cc or 150cc at Brands Hatch, but I chickend out after a few laps. I was ok with the rough banging and scraping people give you in 50cc karts, but when you go much faster, it gets scary, well for me it does. Not sure if it is to do with the fact I have autism or what. When I was dring the kart for those few laps though, the karts backend always started to slide, and I always corrected it. But if I went back there again, I would defeintly give it another shot. I am alot braver now, so I would most likely be fine.
Edit: Anyway, does anyone want to share more of their accidents, since thats what this thread is about. My fault for going off topic though. I would share more of my accidents, just need to have some more first. And since I only drive them on holiday, or at a fairground or beach, it's not gonna happen any time soon. Anyway, yeah. What I said before that
 
I’ve had many Karting accidents, and I’ve also seen quite a few (Including one flip-over, which looked kinda funny :lol: ). I mainly go to two kart-hire places near Perth… Cockburn (Pronounced ‘Coburn’ :P) and Wanneroo kart circuits… Both of which are the largest outdoor tacks in Western Australia. The karts are very fast compared with standard hire karts, but unreliable… as I found out just before a hairpin after a very long stretch. My Brake wire suddenly snapped, and I was sent hurling across a very rocky/bushy shortcut through to the other side of the track, where my kart finally came to a halt. It was also the place where my friend managed to completely bowl-over two large safety barriers (the same Red and white ones used for standard roadworks :P).

The most annoying and painful crash I had was about two years ago during my dads work function at the Kingston Park ‘Le Mans’ raceway track in Brisbane.

It was a brilliant day… there was practice, qualifying, four 10 min races, and even a safety ‘car’ was used for the rolling starts. Good karts too, all with a top speed of 90km/h. There were maybe 10 or so people driving in each race… But unfortunately there were a lot of slow people / people with no awareness or regard for people behind them, so getting in a good time for qualifying was somewhat difficult. At the end I managed 3rd place for the starting grid, and the first race went rather well… finishing 2nd.
For the following 3 races, they decided to do a reverse-grid order :lol:… so there were many accidents caused by slower people hogging the track while faster people were trying to pass. The final race seemed to go well, until the final few laps. There was an incident involving 3 drivers near the chicane area… all of who were on the far left of the track. The entire right-hand-side of the track was free, and I saw the perfect opportunity to quickly wizz past and take 2nd place. One of the three complete morons who had crashed, saw me accelerating around the large swooping bend to overtake… So what was his natural reaction? He drove directly in front of the gap, and parked!!!
That left me absolutely nowhere to go, so I slammed the brakes… the kart did a bit of a right-hand tail flick, and the rear of my kart slammed into the side of his (quite a big impact 0_o).
I sat there for a few moments, checking if my rib cage was still intact… by that time the crazy kamikaze driver had left, and my kart stalled... so I ended up finishing last (or close to it :P ).
 
One of the three complete morons who had crashed, saw me accelerating around the large swooping bend to overtake… So what was his natural reaction? He drove directly in front of the gap, and parked!!!

I hate people that do that. They're the ones that make people break bones. I had one person do something like that to me in an enduro. He was in the car that was leading the race, but he was a slow driver (the others in his team were faster). He was slow down the straight, and there was a right hander on the straight. He would keep on the inside around that corner to stop me passing him on the brakes into the right hand hairpin that followed. So on the next lap I went around the outside of him around the fast corner. He saw me coming and swerved into me, which pushed me into the barriers on the left. The car went from full speed to reverse in about the distance of a tyrewall. It really hurt. Also the marshalls had to pull me out. I spent the rest of my stint circulating with my head down in a blind rage trying to catch this guy - and I had every intention of parking him face first in a wall - but I never saw him. Turns out the marshalls also took a dim view of his driving and he'd spent the rest of his stint in the pits doing pressups....
 
I have never had a Go-Kart accident, but my brother had one in the past, where he cut one of his hands open.
 
So I went Go-Karting at a little nearby track where it is designed for littler kids and isn't competitive. But I figured out a way to nudge other people and either spin them out or just get past really early. Well I messed one up or got a little overzealous and ran myself into a wall instead. Got off with only a warning.
 
Each year me and a few friends go to a VW car show (the volks-word show), mainly for air cooled stuff like camper vans and beetles at sandown park. Horse racing fans maybe familiar with the track. Well in the centre of the course there is a daytona racing cart track and we always have a go.

track_sp.png


One year we went and there was a minor in the group (under 16) and was given a single engine cart as opposed to the twin engined carts the rest of us would be using. In the saftey breifing we were given strict instructions to be carefull of the slower moving vehicle and to give it a wide birth. Once we had all donned our racing gear and were ready to go we all came out of the pit lane and onto the main straight. Some bright sparks decided they wanted to all stop on the grid and have a F1 style start. I wasnt expecting this so slammed on the brakes and stopped just before i slammed into the back of somebody else, what was funny however was seeing my mate, who didnt manage to stop in time, go flying past me on the grass backwards waving at me!

Remember that minor in the slow car i spoke about? well after we were all moving again and actually racing me and my friend steve were locked in battle and the poor minor who seemed oblivious to anybody else on the circuit at the same time pulled across at my friend and it sent the poor boy flying into the barriers. I managed to see the front of the cart bend just before me and steve got around the corner.

Further on in the same race i was once again locked in battle and after the main straing there is a huge 180 degree corner which can be taken very very fast. Well i decided i had my big balls attached that day so went flat out through the corner and managed to overtake the person i was racing. Unfortunately for me i forgot about the sharp hairpin right just after the sweeping bend so promptly jumped on the brakes. Momentum got the better of me and even with full lock on there was no escaping what was about to happen. I missed all barriers by inches and still dont know how but after a deep breath i got back on track to then be given a pit lane warning for aggressive driving! Not really an accident on my part but it was a heart stopping moment travelling pretty much full speed sideways on at a tyre barrier.

Spec....
 
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