This is part of my series where I kart across all of Thailand, publishing them in the order I visited them. For more about deciding to do this and how I went out and about and got from place A to B you can read my intro article to the series, I Kart Raced Across the Entire Country of Thailand. Also worth checking for some general safety comments for karting if you’re new to it, as safety is not always priority #1 out there…
Name: Krabi Kart Speedway
Website: http://www.krabikart.com
Facebook: Krabi Kart Speedway
Location: map
Cost to get there: I was in Krabi Town, at the Orange Tree House hotel (meh) – I hired a tourist agency right by my place. We settled on 400 baht for me to go, race, and come back. It’s a bit of a trip from where I was at so pretty good price overall I think.
Cost: These guys offer 420cc and 560cc 4-stroke karts, nice… I don’t recall but think they may have been cash only. Lockers available as well for stuff.
Track: This track is beautiful. It’s also pretty challenging, and I think a favorite along the Thai racing circuit as well. I don’t know how to do the back end any way but slow, which you don’t mind since you get to take in the sights along the way anyway! A lot of pics for this amazing looking track.
Popularity: I went out each session alone on whatever day of the week I was there. Sad face.
Karts: As noted above, 420cc and 560cc 4-strokes – pretty big. However I had my confidence shaken and never really restored here with the karts.
Part of getting faster on a karting track is finding out where you have been braking and don’t need to, where you can just get away with lifting off the gas. Or even not lifting off the gas at all and going full out.
While exploring one of the corners, a few minutes into my familiarization lap (sorry, no video, it would have been interesting…) – my rear wheel fell off. I was probably going 35+ when it fell off. I pretty much did a 180 then slid backwards and sideways into the wall. What can be seen here is the tire sliding on the right and some metal from the chassis sliding on the left. In the tire wall you can see an igobyplane sized dent.
It was around this corner that no one saw, and I stayed in my kart like you are generally supposed to. I seemed to be unhurt, thankfully. No one was coming around which was strange, since they knew I was the only one there, I’m sure they heard at least the rpms and exhaust noise totally changing, plus me being quite absent as time went on… eventually I just got up and shut off my kart. I starting walking back on course only to find my wheel, so I picked it up to show the guys that I really have a lot more fun when my karts have 4 wheels on them. By this time one guy did see me, and was bringing out another kart. You might think I’d take a break at this point rather than get into one of their karts, but hey I’m not that smart. Overall here was my experience with them:
- 420cc kart 1: felt good, until it felt not so good, then quickly very not so good as my wheel fell off and I went into the wall.
- 420cc kart 2: the replacement for that session, although required an iron man suit to steer it. The back of this course is pretty slow and tight, and it was crazy hard to do with this kart. I think they were giving me extra time, but I came in before the session was flagged as over once this kart really started exhausting me. I told them about it and…
- 420cc kart 3: this is the one in the video below. I think they found the one with the loosest sloppiest steering around for the weakling to drive. It was like the opposite of kart 2, although I guess I still prefer that. Really the first kart felt good until that whole wheel falling off thing.
- 560cc kart 4: you can see me futzing around a little on this one as I kept feeling my leg get wet, not sure what the setup is all down there but I think some gas was blowing out on me or something. This was the best feeling kart but by now my confidence was still pretty shaken overall, and it still did not feel great to me. Possibly that was just psychological at that point though. It’s certainly a challenging course as well – and you can note my overall lap times between these karts were not all that different.
Timing: Not taken.
Overall: I wanted to like this place so much, because let’s face it – it’s gorgeous. Where’s a prettier kart track than this? I’d like to know. It’s also a big reason I decided to add more kart tracks to my trip and really go crazy trying to visit a lot of them. In the end though, a pretty sour experience on the maintenance issues and comfort in the karts here. It’s suuuch a nice track though that I would absolutely have to give it another chance some time though. Hopefully by the time you visit these problems will be resolved with the karts running in top notch shape. Would love to know anyone else’s experiences here.
Video: If you click the title on the embedded video, it will open up in youtube and you’ll be able to full screen it.
420cc:
560cc:
Other tracks in Thailand:
Phuket
1. Patong Go-Kart Speedway
2. Phuket Kart Speedway (100cc and 125cc 2-strokes)
Hua Hin
3. Go Kart Hua Hin
Chiang Mai
4. Chiang Mai X-Centre Drift Karts
5. Chiangmai Speedkart
Ko Samui
6. Samui Go-Kart
7. EasyKart Samui
Krabi
8. Krabi Kart (420cc and 560cc 4-strokes)
Pattaya
9. EasyKart Pattaya
10. Bira International Circuit (no arrive and drive; rotax rental)
11. Pattaya Kart Speedway
Bangkok
12. MSL Motorsports Land
13. EasyKart Bangkok (RCA)
