About this event
Note the date change; rescheduled to February 27th at the request of the facility.
Start your Performance Driving for 2022! On Sunday February 27th, we’ll gather for karting at Lanier Raceplex in Braselton, Georgia, across the road from Road Atlanta and we'll run on a scaled down replica of the one of America's great race tracks, with Sebring coming up that's the most likely. Starting at 10 am, we’ll meet in their conference room for a safety briefing and an orientation to track and kart driving. After that we’ll walk down to the pits, fit ourselves with helmets and get in the karts. We’ll do a total of 4 sessions on the track. Afterwards, we’ll walk back up to the conference room, debrief/share what we’ve learned, and have lunch. We’ll depart after lunch, though attendees can optionally participate in the public karting sessions after lunch at additional cost.
The cost will be $115 per person, not including lunch and we’ll again need a minimum of 10 people to put this on. We’ll plan on a maximum of 26 people with MBCA members and their guests having priority. Attendees will have the option of bringing their own lunches or joining the group in ordering out for pizza.
Peachtree President and event planner Gary Edwards comments, “Karting is an excellent way to hone your driving skills and learn about handling, without the risk of damaging your expensive car. The Lanier karts are the best handling public rental karts I have ever driven. They are extremely responsive, have plenty of power and are not difficult to drive. They allow you to routinely hang the tail out and practice oversteer/counter steering. They are also the best braking rental karts I have ever driven. Note that essentially of of today's professional drivers start out in karts.”
Who should come to this event? Anyone who wants to learn more about driving or who enjoys performance driving. It’s a low cost, high learning rate and low risk option that augments what we learned from autocrossing or from textbooks. Children are welcome, but they’ll need to be at least 12 years old to participate, some exceptions can be made for those with previous karting experience.
The address is 5301 Winder Highway, Braselton, Georgia.
Lanier Raceplex was built in 1982 as a 3/8-mile dirt oval racetrack and was paved in the mid-1980s. Various NASCAR classes have used the track including the Busch Grand National series, but it closed in 2011. Current owner Jim Downing (father of the HANS device) purchased it in 2014 and completely paved the oval and infield. The kart track is laid out with flexible movable rubber and plastic barriers allowing the track configuration to be easily changed. It can also be totally removed to allow for other uses such as race car testing and setup.
In the event of rain, we’ll postpone to a later date and refunds will be issued if requested. Edwards adds, “I really enjoy driving the karts here and I’m sure you will too. You won’t want to miss this event.”
Event requirements
Participants need to be at least 12 years of age, and they need to be able to fit in the kart well enough to operate the controls. For these younger folks, the parents will need to sign the waiver form, and if the parents are not present, we will need the parent's signature notarized on the waiver form, which can be downloaded from the track's website. Inexperienced younger folks will run in a separate run group with their parents and grandparents.
There will be no alcohol consumption before driving karts. Participants will not intentionally contact (i.e. run into) other karts. Intentional ramming and excessive contact may result in loss of driving privileges. Participants must attend the safety briefing at 10 am before karting begins.