Some of you know that I own an indoor kart track in Winnipeg, Canada and I am looking for some cool ideas that we could try to increase business. What program or idea does your local track do that is cool? What keeps you going back to your local track? I don't want pie in the sky ideas like bridges or banked turns and anything involving banana peals, paintball, lasers, VR or karts crashing simply can't be done. I'm looking for stuff that can be done without a megadollar investment. Thanks
How about corporate team building stuff?
Sponsor competitions between local businesses. Get local businesses to field teams, and go head-to-head. Make an entire league (like bowling leagues)
Seems like you could encourage a lot of participation, especially during normal business hours (which are probably slow for you)
...then you could do the same thing with other groups- schools, clubs, etc.
One local bar vs another?
Craziest thing I ever saw..... 24 hr kart race indoors in the winter to keep car guys laughing until spring.
Backwards racing? Bumper karts? Ultimate flag frisbee in karts?
Weekly racing league. Like for 10 weeks. Points accumulation for the first 10 places so more than a few get their name on the points board.
Only count the points for the 8 best races so that someone that misses a week or two has a chance to stay in the running.
Another way to incentive people to race is time brackets. If enough people are interested you could have 3 races per night per class.
Come up with some lap time cutoffs for 3 groups so people can race against others with less of a chance of being lapped. Push the improved drivers up to the next class as needed. Have food and drinks to sell. (soft drinks of course).
Sandbagging can be discouraged by giving the faster classes better prizes.
Mom's morning out? Little tikes racing (in de-rated karts)?
Axis vs allies? Battle of the sexes?
Mario kart. You buy some green plushy turtles. People can try and pick them up and huck them while driving. My local sykarts did this. Hilarious fun.
when you get tagged by a turtle you pit. Last man standing (driving?)
also, obstacle course. Use traffic cones.
Have your corner workers hurl banana peels on the course with no warning.
And don't let anyone know you're doing it.
The local indoor track does "ice man" enduros where they cover the track in baby powder and let the drifting ensue.
How about a charity race. They could get pledges of so many cents per lap from people and then each team turns as many laps as they can in the time period. Maybe do it for 8 hours and have trams of 4-6 people.
Trophies for most laps and most money raised.
I once entered a Krispy Creme challenge (foot) race. Along the route there were places you had to stop and eat doughnuts.
Maybe a go kart Tim Horton’s version. Every 10 laps you have to pit and eat a few doughnuts.
Pick whatever your slowest day and time are and offer crazy cheap rates.
What kind of promos do you have currently?
I agree that targeting businesses is a great idea. Team building events are once-a-rarely thing so "leagues" seem better. Offering leagues with promotion and relegation would be a way to put drivers in classes Amin's simile talent levels.
Some kind of drifting sounds cool.
Racing with a trailer would be funny.
How about driving school?
Does your facility serve food or drinks or have any other revenue generators? The local Andretti's (indoor karting) near me has video games, a kitchen and a bar/comedy club (though I believe the latter part failed to gain traction) as well as a "ropes course". All in a big old industrial building.
When I was planning my never-to-come-to-fruition track, I had the crazy idea of putting paintball guns on the front of the karts and targets on the back. Hit a target and it slows the kart in front down.
In reply to T.J. :
This gets me in everytime. I usually take off a work day with buddies and hit the track that way
Have several classes for beginners, so they can race against others with the same skill level so it's not so intimidating to get started. When they win one, five or whatever races they must move up to the next level until they start to win then they must move up again. It will keep newbies coming back to increase skill and also build the racing at higher levels. Have a special race for parents and kids where their combined positions determine what place they come in overall.
OHSCrifle said:What kind of promos do you have currently?
I agree that targeting businesses is a great idea. Team building events are once-a-rarely thing so "leagues" seem better. Offering leagues with promotion and relegation would be a way to put drivers in classes Amin's simile talent levels.
Some kind of drifting sounds cool.
Racing with a trailer would be funny.
How about driving school?
Does your facility serve food or drinks or have any other revenue generators? The local Andretti's (indoor karting) near me has video games, a kitchen and a bar/comedy club (though I believe the latter part failed to gain traction) as well as a "ropes course". All in a big old industrial building.
We have a fall open league and a winter open league. We also have really good deals on our slowest days and have an all-u-can-race pass on Sundays. We have bulk race packages, LeMans races (multiple drivers per kart, team with most laps wins). I want to serve food but we haven't got the space for a regulation kitchen. I also want to serve alcohol (not as problematic as you would think) but I can't get my business partner on board with it. Speedworld Website
Do you serve anything? Like soda and chips?
The biggest issue for me is price point. We have a pretty nice track that's a city over from me. They hit you at $18 for about a 7 or 8 minute session. I've gone once or twice. I've driven past it without stopping over a dozen times. $10 for the same session and I stop every time I'm nearby. So long as their carts are always running, I guess they can charge whatever they want. To me, $18 for less than 10 minutes of time is past the "pain point".
I did the mariokart thing once.
It was AWESOME!
Except we used water balloons. Water balloons WILL make a kart spin out if it hits a tire.
Are Food trucks a thing in the great white north? Might be a way around needing a kitchen.
In reply to _ :
Yes, we have chips, candy bars, Red Bull, soda but that's all a pittance for income
kazoospec said:The biggest issue for me is price point. We have a pretty nice track that's a city over from me. They hit you at $18 for about a 7 or 8 minute session. I've gone once or twice. I've driven past it without stopping over a dozen times. $10 for the same session and I stop every time I'm nearby. So long as their carts are always running, I guess they can charge whatever they want. To me, $18 for less than 10 minutes of time is past the "pain point".
We are the cheapest kart track within 700 miles. 3 races (30 laps) for $41.00 (Canadian) in our faster karts, $65 for 2 hour all-u-can-race pass (guaranteed 15 races) and buying races in bulk gets you $6 per race. Our prices can't be beat, which is probably why none of the big chain kart tracks are interested in Winnipeg
Figure 8 racing ?
How many hours are you open now ?
and is the idea to add hours ?
californiamilleghia said:Figure 8 racing ?
How many hours are you open now ?
and is the idea to add hours ?
You can't be serious about figure 8 racing. We are open from noon to 11:00 pm during the week and noon to midnight on weekends
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