(By Eric Rood) – The grand days of the SCCA racing on temporary street circuits is long behind the world of road racing, but a few holdouts still host wheel-to-wheel racing on closed public roads in this country. Certainly, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb runs on public roads, as do the grands prix of Long Beach and St. Petersburg. But those lack the charm of small towns hosting motorsports. Luckily, there are a few cities that host kart racing in downtown locales and Rock Island’s kart racing certainly looks the part of old-school racing.
The track configuration is pretty basic: The circuit traverses three city blocks with six 90-degree turns and while that doesn’t sound that crazy, for 125cc karts that top out at more than 70 mph, a two-block rip at wide-open throttle is a bit nuts. Add to that equation city streets that, although in good shape, still have rough surfaces and asphalt seam repairs and two brick crosswalks in the middle of every corner to give drivers plenty of kidney-bruising action. Oh, yeah, and the racers are fighting for corners with a dozen other racers. Karting is generally an intense motorsport battleground, but this is some old-school white-knuckle racing.
