Located in the Seattle metro area is SyKart Indoor Racing Center. This Tukwila based track presents a very unique characteristic that I will explain later. First, about the karts. They offer two types of go-karts. Their standard karts have six-horsepower Honda engines. For those who qualify below a certain time, they can apply to drive the nine-horsepower karts. The gear ratio on the karts are a bit high due to the nature of the high-speed track so they have low torque and slow to speed up. Keeping the engine revving high is key on going fast on this track.
Like I said previously, this 11-turn track is very fast. Let's start off from the front straight. Turn one is a medium left at full speed. Turn two consists of two 90-degrees turn. This turn is what makes this track unique. Never have I driven a track where you must drift a corner to go fast. You initiate the drift by lifting off and navigate yourself through the turn while feathering the throttle. It's very easy to go off the line here. The goal is to hit the apex on the second 90-degree turn without loosing any power for turn three. You can easily loose time if you get this wrong.
Turn four is a right-hander where you'll see a lot of opportunities to pass. This leads to the back end straight where you take a slight left on turn six then into a left-hander hairpin for turn seven. You'll need a few laps to find out where the braking point is for this turn. The braking point varies depending on the kart that you have. A few more turns and it all goes back to the front straight.
Overall, SyKart Indoor Racing Center offers a unique experience to those beginners and advanced racers alike. A must try for those in the area.
