Daytona Sandown Park

I used to go karting as a child so when my friend suggested going I jumped at the chance. However, as with many things, I don’t appear to be quite so fearless as I was when I was a kid!
We arrived early with an hour to spare, registered on the computer (did I want my results posted on facebook? — no thanks!), and signed in with the reception staff. With time to kill, my friend and I shared a surprisingly good pepperoni pizza and sized up the competition… uuummm, there seems to be a lots of guys here!
We were planning to watch the other racers but just as we got there the heavens opened, the nerves increased as we watched the karts sliding around on the track, the drivers struggling to control them.
When our allocated time slot arrived we got kitted up in our racing gear and went for our DVD briefing, presented by ex-​racing driver Martin Brundel.
It was time to race and luckily the rain had eased and the sun had come out to dry up the track. There were 12 of us in our group, the majority of which were young competitive lads, this could be very interesting!
My friend had decided to book us DMAX karts, the most expensive and quickest karts available. In hindsight, probably not worth it for someone like me as I never actually got my foot to the floor. We had half an hour out on the track and as expected I came 12^th (sounds better than last!) and was lapped by everyone including my friend. But none the less I did have a great time. It was a little scary at times when the boys shot past me and it didn’t turn out to be the non-​contact sport that was described in the brief! My arms very so painful by the end of the race (no power steering on those carts) and are still stiff two days later.
I would definitely go again but would maybe try and get a big group of friends together and perhaps stick with the slightly less powerful karts!

A fantastic track I have raced for years
great place to cut your teeth or just go for fun

I love go karting
Daytona circuit is adjacent to Sandown Park race course. I’ve driven here as part of a large party from the hospital where I work. I think go karting events probably work best if you can get a group together and get some exclusive race time.
Firstly, the worst part — finding a pair of race overalls which aren’t too dirty/​smelly/​sweaty followed by an appropriately sized helmet. Once you put the snug racing helmet on, you can feel those competitive driving juices start to rise!
The circuit marshals are very strict on safely and there’s an important safety briefing beforehand to go over the kart controls and flags used on the circuit.
We raced on the shorter 475m Indy circuit, which still featured 5 tight turns and several short straights, allowing quite a few overtaking opportunities.
We were on 2 stroke karts, which could still work up quite a speed and being close to the ground in karting, you get a real sensation of speed. The steering was finely tuned, allowing a surprising amount of control on precise placement of your kart for those crucial overtaking manoeuvres. Another great sensation was the ability to powerslide round corners
We each had 5 preliminary races with different starting positions on the grids, earning points towards the grand final. It was fantastic fun with some amazing overtaking, defending positions and some spins but most importantly having fun safely.
Timing was done automatically and you could go and collect the telemetry on your driving efforts and some advice from the course marshals on how to better your time.
All in all, a great evening’s entertainment. Hmm… perfect for a Unilocal event?
However, the most important bit of advice was right at the end of the session when the marshals advised us to sit in our cars for a few minutes before driving off so that we could get our civilian driving brains back into gear before leaving

Raced here a few times when i was younger i what i rember of it its was a very good race track and i had one of my best races here. We camped over and there was everything you needed basic but it was there. facilities were ok too.