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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
May 2004
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Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Sun, 06 February 2005 23:56
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So having just moved up here, I've been tasked with putting together a work go-karting thing.
Looking for the best ones around...fastest etc.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Matt
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
August 2003
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Mon, 07 February 2005 03:19
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There are three main ones.
Kingston Park Raceway - www.gokarts.com.au
Archerfield Speed Karts - www.realgokarts.com.au
Willowbank Karts
Kingston Park is okay, it has a new track which is a lot more interesting than the original 4 corner hole. The karts are still the same old briggs and stratton 4 stroke slow mobiles. They take ages to accellerate and arent all that exciting to drive.
The Willowbank karts are situated right next to the drag strip and queensland raceway. They had 4 stroke karts but with more grunt than kingston park. The track itself is a professional use track where they hold comps. It is a massive track with plenty of corners, but it also has a lot of long straight line stuff. The straights arent all that fun as they seem to max out speed early on, but it would be awesome in a faster kart. You'd really want to go here if you had a massive group, otherwise you will never come across another racer due to the tracks size.
Archerfield Speed karts are the only ones that use the Yamaha KT100 2 stroke karts. The tracks are smaller than kingston and willowbank, but they are nice and twisty. You never end up sitting on a straight with the kart maxed out, it is always accellerating. They also have nice pickup out of the corners unlike the 4 strokes at kingston. Overall the racing is a lot more exciting.
After trying all three Archerfield was definately the better. The karts make the difference, they are no where near as sluggish as the others. If you had the 2 strokes out at willowbank then it would be a different story.
If you are organising a race day talk to the guys at archerfield, they are really great with helping you organise race packages. I ended up getting 1 practice session and three 12 minute races for my group, as well as getting them to organise a 1 lap qualifying shootout V8 supercar style. You even get tropheys for the top three.
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
May 2004
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Mon, 07 February 2005 03:26
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Cheers for this...the guys mentioned that they thought Archerfield had something.
It sounds the go, so I'll give them a call
Thanks again,
Matt
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
July 2004
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Mon, 07 February 2005 07:54
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I havent tryed kingston park, but i have done both willowbank and archerfield. My personal preference is willowbank, as the track is nice and big and is a great day out. If you do go to archerfield, ask to get the massive track. When i went we were on 1 of the 2 smaller trackers and it gets a lil boring. they sometimes open a massive track out of the two smaller tracks for bigger groups. Which ever one you choose, itll be a great day out.
CHRISTO
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
October 2002
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Mon, 07 February 2005 09:23
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actually the willowbank track shut the old track and moved 200m down the road, its a BRAND NEW track, brand new karts and the apparently haul ass.
the old track was just for the pro's and the hiring place actually hired the track off the club {did u understand that  }, so after 10 years the pro's said stuff it, we want the track to ourselves, u go build a new place
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
August 2003
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Mon, 07 February 2005 14:16
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Well what do you know... I just checked out ipswich kart hire in google and they have a new page. They also run the Yamaha 2 stroke clubmans, twice as powerful as the kingston karts.
Its an 800m track so its almost as big as the old one (1.1km) Definately would be a good idea to check this place out if you have a big group. Like DOHC said Archerfield is fun but can get a little restrictive on the smaller tracks. They offer the same racing packages as archerfield.
http://www.gokarthire.com/
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
February 2003
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Mon, 07 February 2005 14:32
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having driven at Kingston and Archerfield all i can add is:
kingston: slow if heavy driver, hard to stall and few stopages during racing, karts had very stiff steering (hands v.sore afterwards), long track with lots of corners, would be good if all drivers are same size and skill.
archerfield: fast depite my weight, being 2-stroke a stall kills the engine, no stoppages but offs, hits and stalls will affect your timing/position as you haveto wait for a pushstart from a 4x4 bike, good racing, good kart suspension, facilities spartan compared to kingston, short tracks are fun but long track gives you big speeds.
personally, i'd go back to archerfield but only at night and with enough people to get the larger rather than the two split tracks
hints: bring bike/pushbike gloves, expect your clothing to get dirty, byo food, remember our kart number, try to get: practice race, qualifers x 2, final. If there's many of youz, run two tracks/lots and after the qualifiers, resplit the two groups into two lots based on time/position so you don't have slow drivers being harrased by faster drivers during the final.
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
February 2005
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Mon, 07 February 2005 16:14
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I was at Ipswich at the end of November, and, in the words of Bart Simpson, it both sucked and blowed. Tired karts, all staff on foot, and really amateurly done. It looked like a new operation had just taken over. Haven't seen the new track or new karts, but I'm heading that way for the HSCCQ Come'n'try motorkhana on Sunday, and I'll have a little look see.
Cheers
R
P.S: Ipswich always crapped on the others IMHO, and was REALLY disappointed last time I went, hopefully things are on the improve....
[Updated on: Mon, 07 February 2005 16:18]
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
February 2003
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Tue, 08 February 2005 00:09
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Yeah I was dissapointed with Willowbank last time I when.
The "officials" hand time you... this isn't the 1960's, get computer timing!!!
ALso they told us the qualifying was based on your fastest lap. So us more experienced karters were going really hard to try and get the perfect lap, and spun a lot because of going 110% after we had logged in a few decent laps to qualify us in the 'A' final. All good..... until they came up later to tell us it was actually a qualifying RACE. As a result, a heap of us got stuck in the B Final... and a girl that has never driven a kart before and just putted around in qualifying got into the A Final.
Race time, the 4 of us in the B final finished 1,2,3,4 and nearly wiped out a gaggle of Chinese chicks doing 10kmh on the back straight.
Just a poorly run day in all... and the overalls they give you are in poor condition, and they don't have enough large people overalls.
Take your own helmet. The renters were disgusting as usual.
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
October 2002
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Tue, 08 February 2005 07:17
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well the new track only opened about 2 weeks ago, i beleive they are very good now, have very good equipment ect ect
i'd love to come out there for a get together, i can even bring some big boy overalls too
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
August 2003
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Tue, 08 February 2005 12:05
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Definately make a point that your want your race meeting to be done in a particular way. The format ipswich and archerfield use doesn't make sense to me. What is the point of having the first two "qualifying races" not count towards your final overall position. Basically that means you can win the first two races, stuff up the third and you will lose completely.
I got archerfield to run all three sessions as races, and receive points for each race rather than just have your third race result count. The second race remained a reverse grid to give the slow pokes a chance. Overall it ended up much better when using a points system. Qualifying was determined by a one lap shootout for each driver. Over half of our group spun out in their shootout lap, leaving it smooth sailing for the other drivers 
Just have a chat to them and let them know what you want, they seem to be fairly flexible.
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
May 2004
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Thu, 10 February 2005 02:40
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Thanks guys...I'll look up the Ipswich ones (that's close to where my boss lives, so might be good brownie points  )
I emailed Archerfield and from your comments, it sounds like we can say how we want the day to run...three races, rather than two qualifying and one race sounds like more fun to me.
Besides...work's paying, so that's a good thing!!
Matt
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
July 2004
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Thu, 10 February 2005 10:56
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There is the Big Kart Track up the coast, has by far the best and longest track anywhere around SE QLD, only let down is the horrible, horrible karts. Same POS's found at Kingston and just too underpowered for the size of the track. Its been a while since I've been there so things might have changed, if they had karts with some decent power definitely worth the drive up there.
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
February 2005
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Location:
gold coast
Registered:
November 2004
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Tue, 15 February 2005 01:55
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im going with the twincam boys this wknd so ill let you know what they are like, cant say im gona be much impressed if the big kart track is the best track around though. and yes those carts do suck,
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Location:
gold coast
Registered:
November 2004
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Sun, 20 February 2005 23:33
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OK
well went to willowbank on sunday
good points:
-the 2 stroke had great top speeds,
-carts were heaps more comfortable than big kart track.
bad points:
-the track is basicaly a carpark with some tyres on it
-u cant slow down or your engine goes slow and stays going slow
till u get pushed by a bike
- the lighter people go faster, fat people go slow.. ha ha i guess u really cant do anything about this.
- there is no timing or race style, u just go around and around and around.
i know this is more bad points , but this is the best cart place ive been to. if u could get these go karts on the big cart track it would be perfect
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
August 2003
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Tue, 22 February 2005 12:49
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Damn, it does sound like a big step backwards, especially with no timing. Well I guess Archerfield is still the better place to go!
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Toymods Club Treasurer
Location:
Sydney
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: Best go-karts in Brisbane?
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Tue, 22 March 2005 22:28
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Please read this thread before posting in here again, Events Only
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They've moved it down behind the Autocross track onto a piece of bitumen, drawn out the track and barriered it with tyres, very similar to the way the old Archerfield operation used to have theirs. Track looks like a scaled down version of The Paper Clip (sorry, QR), and not all that long. The whole thing looks a huge backwards step from what they had. Can't comment on the carts as there weren't any circulating when I went past. I'd be intrested to hear what others say about it....