PLEASE NOTE: THIS PAGE IS CURRENTLY BEING WORKED ON AS AT 01/06/2023.
Where do you begin with your Karting adventure?
I read many time about people wanting to start karting and don't know where to start so I hope this little guide is helpful. Please bare in mind that I am an amateur with little experience doing this as a Lad and dad having fun, there are far more people out there with a wealth of knowledge and experience.
First, the MSA, Motorsport Association are the ruling body over all Motorsport in the UK and they have all the need to know info. Each year they publish a book called "The Year book" or the "Blue book" and you can download a copy from here. Karting is a subsection called "The Gold Book" and you will fond all the rules and regulations that almost everyone adheres too.
Karts, classes and kit - what do I need to get on the track.
So where do you spend your hard earned cash? First thing to consider is your age, as this determines your "class". A class is a specification of kart and engine combo that races together to keep it fair basically. Its no good having an 8 year old in a Honda Cadet up against a late teen in a Senior Rotax, there just no competition.
Age
Your age will play an important part in what and where you can race - at least the drivers age. The Table below taken from the MSA Gold book defines the standard. The Karting section is on page 377. 
So you can see there are many different classes for each age group and now you ask what is right for you.
The best option now is to find out where you are going to race, whether its a national championship or a local track championship and look at what they race. You will find that across the country certain tracks or championships will run different classes. You need to look for popular entries i.e. how many karts are on the track and what is that class. There is no point to turn up to race with your kart and there are only 2 entries for that class.
We started with Honda Cadet (GX200) and then moved to Junior Rotax, as our local track Hooton Park has large grids in these classes.
Homologation.
Another term you will come across is "Homologation" that is defined as "Homologation is the granting of approval by an official authority. This may be a court of law, a government department, or an academic or professional body, any of which would normally work from a set of rules or standards to determine whether such approval should be given." - Wikipedia.
Basically, the MSA is the governing body and have a set of rules, i.e. Homologation, that must be adhered too in order to be allowed to compete - that's COMPETE not PRACTICE.
Karts and Engines
Bare in mind I am only 3 years in to the sport and learning as I go below is a brief and probably somewhat limited guide to karts. As mentioned, the aim of this piece is to get you started - where you go from there is all up to you.
In general there are 4 classes based on age, Bambino, Cadet, Junior and Senior
Bambino and Cadet are relatively simple to explain on what Kart you need.
Bambino
The Bambino is the smallest of the karts and are suitable for kids between 6 and 8 years old.
They only run a Comer C50 engine.
Cadet
Cadet Karts have a wheel base of 900 to 950 mm, that's the length between the rear axle and the front axles. The most popular are Project one, Synergy and Zip.
Within the "Cadet Class" there are various engine options, Honda GX160 for MSA racing and the growing popular GX200 for IKR, these are the most popular but there are other engines out there. IAME Cadet is a Parilla Gazelle 60cc engine and Rotax Micormax.
Mixed engines do not race together, however they may share the same time on the track depending on numbers.
Check out the local track or championship and find out what the engine of choice is.
Junior
Once your child reaches 12/13 the next step is to enter the juniors, however there is a limited section in between Cadet and junior in the Rotax engines call Minimax that you may wish to consider.
Juniors have a full sized kart and again a number of engine options are available. The Most common engines are listed here:
Rotax Max - Junior age, It is one of the most powerful junior classes, with top
speed about 75/80 mph.
X30-X30 by IAME,
TKM - is a BT-82 piston-port engine.
There are various chassis to choose from and a good number of manufacturers. OTK are the dominant chassis and are branded as Tony Kart, Kosmic, Esprit and probably a few others I do not know about.
MS Kart, X-Kart (TB Kart from Italy), Sodi, Birel ART are other manufacturer options you may come across.
Senior
Championships and Practice.
Depending on what you want to do and your budget you might just want to buy a kart and race round the track trying to improve your own lap times and have a fun day out. Most tracks have what's called "Owner Driver" practice days. You literally show up, go to the office, sign the waiver and pay your money. You may be asked on your first time there to have your kart inspected, just to make sure its safe and you've not done anything stupid like strapped an 1000cc R1 engine to it.
Best call ahead to make sure they are open for O/D Practice.
Now you have a couple of practice sessions done, got the thrill of racing with others you will want to enter a race or tow, so without further-ado read on...
Understanding Championships and where you can race.
IRK or MSA.
So you may have heard these terms banded about, but what are they?
In short, IKR is independent Kart Racing and MSA is Motor Sport Association.
IKR - As it states, these championships are "Independent" of MSA. I.e. The do not have to follow the strict rules imposed by MSA. That said, most IKR events follow most of the rules and their "Independent" rule books will refer to section of the gold book.
Most tracks will have a club that has an IKR championship, Hooton Park has two, the Indikart and the Indikart+ (as of 2023) which are mainly classed as IKR events. These are typically once per month event with a practice on the Saturday with the race on the Sunday.
MSA are championships controlled by the MSA with the rules strictly enforced as per the Gold book.
With MSA Races, you need to have an MSA licence before you are allowed to race, a practical test and written test must be complete before racing.
We have found the the IKR events are far easier to access than the MSA events and still have large grids for some epic racing.
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