If you want to go racing in the South of Florida, the AMR Motorplex is located just outside of Miami. Homestead (previous name of AMR Motorplex) has been around for quite some time and it's in an old NASCAR car park. Directly across from the kart racing facility is the Homestead NASCAR circuit where they hold the NASCAR races at.
So, it's a cool way to get people into the sport because you go to a NASCAR race and across the road you can see where the kart racing track is. Now originally when I went to that track in 2009, it was literally in a parking lot. So the surface itself was very bumpy. There was no fixed curbing, there were more barricades around the track and some cones to distinguish which way the track went in a couple of different spots.
In the last 12 or 13 years, things have evolved quite well there. It's recently been purchased by the same people who own GoPro Motorplex. So, they've put some funding in, got rental karts there, resurfaced the layout of the track, painted the curbing, put some exit curbs, make it look a bit more like a racetrack.
Like I said, it's in a parking lot. The track itself can be quite aggressive, I would say with the curbing. It's faster to take some of these curbs, but you’ve got to hold on for dear life. The fastest way sometimes isn't the most pleasant from a feeling point of view. You attack those curbs quite a lot, especially in the first complex of corners when you go in the anti-clockwise direction, and you feel the karts getting airborne. The cadet kids are not going to be able to run over them.
The actual layout itself presents heaps of passing opportunities. It’s got some straight braking zones, which present an opportunity for the drivers behind to set up the pass quite easily. They have nice long straights into a hard braking zone. There are also some fast and flowing sections where not so much you can pass on those, but you can get a bit of a slip stream in between those straights to then set up your passes at the end of the straights.
It's not really a motor track. Obviously if you've got a good motor it's going to help you, but the straights there are long enough, but they have those little kinks that in some classes aren't flat out. You’ll have to lift off and if you have the kart set up well, you can carry more speed.
The pit area itself, it just looks a little bit run down. It's nothing fancy. There are some containers there that can be rented out to store your equipment. You’ve got kart shops out there that have containers loaded up with karts and parts for arrive and drive packages.
When you go to some of these other racetracks, you can see which ones have had a little bit more money spent on them from the start rather than it feels like it's a little bit of an afterthought at AMR Motorplex.
From a track point of view, it races in both directions. We've had races in both the clockwise and anti-clockwise direction during the winter. From a personal point of view, I probably liked the anti-clockwise way and that's the way that I have raced it previously.
In the clockwise direction, it was my first time driving the track in that layout. It's probably harder in the clockwise direction just because the nature of the first few corners being so fast and then into quite a tight right-hand corner. This then leads into a double left-hand sweeping corner and then into another, almost like a chicane to a hard braking zone. That does get kind of tricky. The last complex of corners, you can use some curbing, but you don't need to use them all where the anti-clockwise direction you can use them all. The speed and angles that you’re hitting these curbs on and where you want to end up are a little bit different between the two.
The facility itself, the grandstands, the viewing areas are adequate, but once you've been to other racetracks, you sort of feel like it's a little bit left behind.
In saying that they’ve got lights there, rental karts all day, so that's a good way to get people into karting. I think that's the key for them to try and utilize the lights and the corporate facilities and trying to run promotions within the NASCAR timeframe in the lead up to or after it.
To showcase that if you want to start in NASCAR, you don't have to start in karting, but that's a good place to start your motor racing career. We've seen a lot of NASCAR, IndyCar drivers who have raced at Homestead. We're looking at the Kyle Kirkwood, Oliver Askew & Jamie McMurray.
So that's the AMR Motorplex track review, make sure to check out our track guide on AMR Motorplex which will be avilable soon. If you guys want to know more information about the homestead circuit itself, then go and visit amrmotorplex.com
So, it's a cool way to get people into the sport because you go to a NASCAR race and across the road you can see where the kart racing track is. Now originally when I went to that track in 2009, it was literally in a parking lot. So the surface itself was very bumpy. There was no fixed curbing, there were more barricades around the track and some cones to distinguish which way the track went in a couple of different spots.
In the last 12 or 13 years, things have evolved quite well there. It's recently been purchased by the same people who own GoPro Motorplex. So, they've put some funding in, got rental karts there, resurfaced the layout of the track, painted the curbing, put some exit curbs, make it look a bit more like a racetrack.
Like I said, it's in a parking lot. The track itself can be quite aggressive, I would say with the curbing. It's faster to take some of these curbs, but you’ve got to hold on for dear life. The fastest way sometimes isn't the most pleasant from a feeling point of view. You attack those curbs quite a lot, especially in the first complex of corners when you go in the anti-clockwise direction, and you feel the karts getting airborne. The cadet kids are not going to be able to run over them.
The actual layout itself presents heaps of passing opportunities. It’s got some straight braking zones, which present an opportunity for the drivers behind to set up the pass quite easily. They have nice long straights into a hard braking zone. There are also some fast and flowing sections where not so much you can pass on those, but you can get a bit of a slip stream in between those straights to then set up your passes at the end of the straights.
It's not really a motor track. Obviously if you've got a good motor it's going to help you, but the straights there are long enough, but they have those little kinks that in some classes aren't flat out. You’ll have to lift off and if you have the kart set up well, you can carry more speed.
The pit area itself, it just looks a little bit run down. It's nothing fancy. There are some containers there that can be rented out to store your equipment. You’ve got kart shops out there that have containers loaded up with karts and parts for arrive and drive packages.
When you go to some of these other racetracks, you can see which ones have had a little bit more money spent on them from the start rather than it feels like it's a little bit of an afterthought at AMR Motorplex.
From a track point of view, it races in both directions. We've had races in both the clockwise and anti-clockwise direction during the winter. From a personal point of view, I probably liked the anti-clockwise way and that's the way that I have raced it previously.
In the clockwise direction, it was my first time driving the track in that layout. It's probably harder in the clockwise direction just because the nature of the first few corners being so fast and then into quite a tight right-hand corner. This then leads into a double left-hand sweeping corner and then into another, almost like a chicane to a hard braking zone. That does get kind of tricky. The last complex of corners, you can use some curbing, but you don't need to use them all where the anti-clockwise direction you can use them all. The speed and angles that you’re hitting these curbs on and where you want to end up are a little bit different between the two.
The facility itself, the grandstands, the viewing areas are adequate, but once you've been to other racetracks, you sort of feel like it's a little bit left behind.
In saying that they’ve got lights there, rental karts all day, so that's a good way to get people into karting. I think that's the key for them to try and utilize the lights and the corporate facilities and trying to run promotions within the NASCAR timeframe in the lead up to or after it.
To showcase that if you want to start in NASCAR, you don't have to start in karting, but that's a good place to start your motor racing career. We've seen a lot of NASCAR, IndyCar drivers who have raced at Homestead. We're looking at the Kyle Kirkwood, Oliver Askew & Jamie McMurray.
So that's the AMR Motorplex track review, make sure to check out our track guide on AMR Motorplex which will be avilable soon. If you guys want to know more information about the homestead circuit itself, then go and visit amrmotorplex.com
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