Buckeye Raceway Electric Kart Racing

[pylnrcr]

So.. Buckeye Raceway is an indoor electric kart racing track that opened a few months ago on Broad St. directly across from the casino. They are running a Tuesday evening racing league with 8 driver teams challenging each other for the 8 race series win. The format is based on driver/team combined average lap times for each event and then all events combined. Performance Control and Autobody Specialists provided the team trophies for the series. The facility is clean, quiet, warm, and the people working there are all friendly and helpful. The track itself is tight and challenging with lots of places to hang yourself but at the same time can be very fast once you get in a few races to find the driving line. Actually, the driving line is a drifters dream as the karts, with full torque available right now are best when steering with the throttle and the line between "hell yeah!!!" and "crap, I spun again" is very thin.

Several OVR'ers are are on our team including the Hoovers, Mike Ucker, myself, and Mike Smith coming out to sub when needed. (Thanks, Mike). Here is a video of one of our races last night, I'm following Mike Ucker.  Again the goal is to gain the combined lowest average for all drivers and laps so we -try- to keep the "bump passing" to a minimum. Races are 8 minutes which nets about 17 laps per race.

If you get a chance check the place out. www.buckeyeraceway.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egr2wpBIip4


Bruno

[AlanLGuy]

Haven't got a chance to go here yet, I live on the wrong side of town.

Grip level looks similar to GP indoor before they opened to the public.

Acceleration looks maybe a bit quicker than the gasoline powered carts, but top speed looks to be a bit slower.

There's not much passing I take it? I don't see any real areas that would let you get a run on someone to try to overtake, at least not without giving them a good hard tap.

Looks like a blast to drive as a drift course, had a ton of fun when GP indoor was slick, but I think I'd get frustrated if I were stuck behind someone the entire heat

[pylnrcr]

I haven't tried the gas karts so I can't compare them. Passing is possible (we weren't really trying in that video) and I've found that most people will let you around if you're on them for a couple laps. If not there are places to gently help them move.

Interestingly, these things are only running at 60% of their capability. They are preparing another area of the building to expand the course which should really open things up. My understanding is that the additional barriers are on backorder. Can't wait to see what they do then.

Bruno

[Monkey]

Haven't got a chance to go here yet, I live on the wrong side of town.

Grip level looks similar to GP indoor before they opened to the public.

Acceleration looks maybe a bit quicker than the gasoline powered carts, but top speed looks to be a bit slower.

There's not much passing I take it? I don't see any real areas that would let you get a run on someone to try to overtake, at least not without giving them a good hard tap.

Looks like a blast to drive as a drift course, had a ton of fun when GP indoor was slick, but I think I'd get frustrated if I were stuck behind someone the entire heat

Grip level is indeed less than GP. If you'd rate grip it'd go FT > GP > Buckeye.

The car as much more torque, and they are really much harder to drive. It really takes a science. It's cool with the active differential they have in the rear.

I drove on a different course, but with Pallotta, O'Gorman, Montgomery and a bunch of others, passing was really not terrible. To drive those karts correctly you have to throw it into a skid around the corner. Pretty fun.

Plus, that operation is ran 1000000000000000000000% better than GP.

[AlanLGuy]

It would be hard not to be better than GP, still haven't seen anyone do it better than FT, wish I lived closer to Cincy, that place is fantastic.

GP has gotten much better of late, but they still have a long way to go

[dps214]

Maybe things have gotten better since then, but when I went (not too long after it opened) the group I went with and I were not impressed. The karts seemed to handle well, but had no power, especially on the top end, they seemed to top out almost immediately onto the front straight. Add that to the very grip limited surface and not great track layout (that video looks like it might be a bit better) and we weren't exactly planning our next trip there. The "atmosphere" of not being out in a freezing cold warehouse breathing in exhaust fumes was nice and customer service was mostly good, but didn't nearly make up for all the negatives. But, that's just one data point, and that was a long time ago, maybe they've figured it out some since then.

[pylnrcr]

I ran a couple times when they first opened and to me they've made quite a few improvements since which is expected as part of their learning curve. They originally painted the track surface with some kind of asphalt paint that IMO made some areas a bit slippery. Slowly but surely it is wearing away to the concrete underneath and grip is improving in those areas, and I hear they aren't going to repaint it. The tight right-hander that was very slippery has actually been ground with a sander and if you do it right it grips well enough to engage the traction control system. One thing we found is that your body position on the kart makes a huge difference in how well they corner and grip - several of us on the, uh...heavyweight side move the seat and pedals forward which seems to help with controlling the rotation.

On the power thing I believe when the started they only had the karts at 40% capability until they had a better understanding of how they run and how people would drive them as well as the charging time needed between races. I know they're getting better at prepping and maintaining the karts. I had several where the seat wouldn't stay locked in place and move halfway through a race - that will mess with you - they seem to have gotten that issue addressed now.

Here's another video of our second race from the same night. This time we changed up the order so there was little traffic to deal with so we were able to drive a little more effectively.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K5fo-H7wlk

Bruno

[pylnrcr]

Here's a video of the new, longer layout at Buckeye Raceway. It's faster overall and flows much better than before. There is room to pass in several areas if you set up the intended victim correctly. They are still working on further improvements and plan to make the track even longer.

Since this video the 180 around the end of a row of barriers has been widened as well.

Bruno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZL0nMhh-nk

[Bub]

I went there about 6 weeks ago and my forearms were hurting for 3 days from the continual grip lock.     Fun though.. I like the look of that longer faster layout for sure.  I'll have to go back out and check it out again.