autoevolution
 

Niagara Speedway Go-Kart Track on Steroids to Open in June

North American go-kart fans, start your engines. The mother of all go-kart tracks is about to open its gates on June 1st, promising to become one of the premiere attractions on the Clifton Hill promenade in Niagara Falls.
Niagara Speedway go-kart track 1 photo
Photo: toniagara.com
The operators of the huge construction, HOCO Limited, says the Niagara Speedway is the largest elevated go-kart track on the North American continent. Four stories high, to be precise.

The track starts like all others, with ground-level tarmac allowing for insane racing among friends. All of a sudden, the flat track turns into a spiraling one, that will turn drivers on their own, very wide axis until they reach a height of some 40 feet (12 meters).

Once on top, drivers and karts would be sent down a long descending slope, interrupted from place to place by more abrupt drops.

According to MLive, the track can handle 36 karts at a time, with speeds that can go up to 15 mph (25 km/h). The speed is enough to allow going round the 2,000 feet long track (610 meters) three times during the timed five minutes race.

As a whole, the track looks solidly-built and is currently awaiting Technical Standards and Safety Authority inspections.

But the uneven slope, with its two or three humps, that brings drivers back to ground level does seem a bit scary. For reference, you can have a look at the thousands of Youtube clips showing children taking off from far less menacing-looking slides.

Hopefully, the designers of the track have taken into account possible take-off speeds for go-karts and eliminated that possibility.

We also hope workers have properly tightened the over 10,000 nuts holding the structure together to their corresponding bolts.

For reference, there are also some images showing a test run up the spiral from a driver’s point of view. You can watch it in the video below.

If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Daniel Patrascu
Daniel Patrascu profile photo

Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories