Velocity Indoor Karting - Omaha, NE

www.vik2008.com

Omaha was not a place I expected to find a kart track, so I was very excited to find that Velocity Indoor Karting was only about two miles away from my hotel. It's not a fancy place, but is challenging and fun, especially for the price - $10 races on Tuesday - and the races are 10 minutes long instead of the usual eight.


The karts have the usual 6.5hp engines and never ran out of power on the two high-speed sections. They are, however, some of the most physically demanding karts I've driven in quite a while and you feel like you are really working for each lap. If I remember correctly, I think they said these were racing karts in a previous life, so maybe that the reason. By the end of the first session, my arms were just about worn out. After a short rest, I went out again and that was all I could do for the day. I couldn't resist going back two days later, though, and after two more races I wondered if I'd be able to actually drive the rental car back to the hotel.

The track surface is fairly evenly finished with the right amount of grip to work well for low-speed turns. One of the employees pointed out a slick spot on the right side of the track just before a left hairpin that can be used to flick the back end around. I don't know if it's really any faster, but it sure was fun.

You get a timing sheet for each race showing lap times for you and the other racers. The sheet includes a graph, making it much easier to see trends.

Headsocks are required and can be purchased there for $3. These are the best I've seen at any track and I'll be carrying mine for all racing from now on.

All of the employees and customers I met there were friendly and seemed really interested in talking to me about all sorts of things, such as the best racing line, how the karts work, or even the indoor kart business. And one never knows who one will meet at these places. I was driving with a larger group when I found myself racing against someone who turned out to have been the T2 winner at the 2008 SCCA Run-Offs. It was a good time.