I passed by with some friends last night to the Pro Kart Racing track off the 6th ring road. The track is located next to the drift track and a motocross track but to get to that whole area is a bit tricky since you need to take an unofficial exit off the 6th ring road but I’ve got a link to the area on Google Maps at the end of this post to help you out.
The track opened up a few months ago but the weather now is perfect for it. You don’t need a driving license to race on their track, you just need to be 14 years old or older. The cost is KD5 for an 8 minute session which is a lot longer than it sounds and I would say is 4 or 5 laps around their large track. The last time I had done go karting was in Lebanon back in 1995 so don’t really have much experience with it. The karts seemed pretty fast once they picked up speed but acceleration was pretty weak. The karts mostly had incredible grip on the track which made my ride back home in the FJ seem like I was driving a boat.
We raced at night which I highly do not recommend. They had issues last night with their flood lights (some were not working) which resulted in patches of the track that were pitch dark. Even the patches that were lit up weren’t really that bright. I would imagine things would be a lot more fun during the day since other than the fact you would actually be able to see the track but you would also be able to see your friends. Since they open up at 5PM there really isn’t much daylight hours so you would have to get there early.
The track is fairly big with a lot of great turns and a good amount of straights. One of the guys in our group races on the Bahraini national karting team and he obviously kicked all our asses. I came before last on my first try since my first couple of laps I was still getting used to the karts and then managed to pick up pace on my last laps. My second race was a total disaster since I came in last. After my good last laps in my first race I came in to the second race too confident and ended up going into the turns too fast and spinning out. I spun out at least 6 times and by then I was just too far behind to catch up.
Karting was a lot of fun but next time I would definitely want to go back during the day. Here is the location on the [Map] and here is a link to their [Website]. They’re open daily starting from 5PM, each race session is KD5.
