Push Kart Races

My neighborhood looked a lot different when I was younger. There was one industrial building behind my house that was abandon and the rest of the space was either wooded or abandoned farm fields. The houses on my block ended just past the court and the condominiums on the other side of Green Road were only about half built. The cool part about the condos not being finished was that they had a long parking lot that on an incline that wasn't being used. In other words, it was a perfect race track for push style go karts. 

I think my fascination with go karts started when we had a neighborhood garage sale and one of the older kids in the neighborhood sold his go kart, I think it was Tom Houtman. It was a really nice kart with a fiberglass body and a metal steering wheel. I really wanted it, but my parents wouldn't buy it for me. My next door neighbor Jon Norris ended up getting it. We were good friends even though he as a little younger than I was. I was a little jealous that he got the kart, but in retrospect, I am happy I didn't get it. Building my own go karts was a lot more fun.

When I started building my own kart, I had to scrounge around for wheels and other parts. I originally attached the wheels with lag bolts into 2 x 4's, and the steering mechanism was just a rope that you pulled either on the right or left to turn. Jon had his fancy kart, and one of the kids in the court had a nice one that was all wood built from a kit, but the rest of us had to build our own. 

Race days were always fun. We would parade our karts down the street to the hill at the condos. If we made it to the hill without our kart falling apart, it would be considered a successful day. I always had to bring my tool box with me to handle repairs along the way and between races. 

Once we got our karts to the top of the hill, we would line up for the race. Jon was always the one to beat because he had the fastest kart. Speed was important, but impact resistance also played a part it the races. Now it wasn't like the races were planned as demolition derbies or anything. Most of the crashes were caused by some type of mechanical failure. Either a steering system would go out or a wheel would fall off. Of course there were those times where it was just fun to take out your opponent. Typically after each race we would have a small break to execute repairs to our karts, then we would line up again.

At the end of the race day, we would parade our karts home again. The parade home often looked a lot different than the parade to the lot. I can remember a number of occasions where my friends and I would be carrying my kart home in several pieces. We were often pretty scraped and bruised from the various crashes. 

Other than the nice karts that Jon and the other kid had, the rest of us would be rebuilding our karts between race days. I had the opportunity to change my designs or upgrade from lag bolts to axles when I was able to afford the parts. I remember buying metal rods from the hardware store and drilling holes for the cotter pins to hold the wheels on. Of course then I attached the axle to steering arm by bending 6 penny nails over the axle in several places. Nails were the preferred method for building things back then. Battery powered drills and screwdrivers didn't exist yet. Power tools were pretty much off limits unless I had my dads help, or I could sneak using them without anyone knowing. 

The one iteration of kart I remember most was this monstrosity I built out of 2 x 4's and 1 x 4's. It was double the width of anything I built before and it had a deck and roof made out of homasote. Homasote isn't water resistant at all, so this was a very short lived version, but it was definitely one of my favorites. It took several of us to push it to the lot, but it could carry two or more kids down the hill. It was slow and steering it was like turning a freighter, but it had mass, so collisions weren't a problem. The only time my kart won was if the race turned into a demolition match. Once it got moving, there wasn't much that could stop it. It sat outside on the side of the house, so it wasn't long before the rain caused all the homasote to dissolve. Eventually I scavenged all the parts I could and built a new kart. Building the karts was half the fun anyway. 

When I go through the old neighborhood these days, it is really hard to imagine the open spaces that used to be there. There are so many more houses, and the condos are all built now. There is retail, restaurants, and hotels. I hardly ever see kids in the neighborhood now. They are all inside playing video games I guess, and they only play together if they have a scheduled play date. I can't imagine any parent in today's society letting there kid parade off down the street with a pile of 2 x 4's nailed together with 4 wheels and a rope, but that is what we did, and I learned a lot of valuable skills building those karts.