Pitt Race - Track Review

The next track that we were fortunate enough to visit was Pitt Race in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Now we had a 15-hour road trip from Orlando, and we drove it on the Monday after the SKUSA Pro Tour event, towards Pittsburgh, and we were greeted with an amazing facility.

Now this is a car racing circuit as well as a kart racing circuit, and you can just tell a lot of money has been spent on this facility. The paddock in itself is massive. You can see that it's a car racing and kart racing paddock sort of joint together.

They've got a facility where you sign in for the car racing. They have a shop underneath, so if you need any of your car racing needs, you can get that there.

On the opposite side is the kart racing, a smaller facility to check in and to get your registration done to get on track. Really cool pit garages that are alongside the racetrack in itself. There are some kart shops that are based in those pit garages.

So, you open the roller door, there's your shop there for your chain lube, your chains, and sprockets, any of your maintenance needs. Makes it easy to get on track, which is cool.

The track in itself, it's wide open. There's plenty of runoff between corners, plenty of grass out there.

I probably found it was my most enjoyable racetrack that I've ever driven in the USA, and I don't take that lightly because I've driven at about 17 or 18 different tracks in the USA. But I thought that the Pitt Race facility and the kart racing track itself just offered so much for the driver.

There was some really fast sections. There were some undulating areas where it sort of went uphill into downhill braking zones. Some really tight and twisty sections of the racetrack that were hard to get right for our first time there. Then you sort of lose sight with some of the karts as they go up and over this little rise and there's a couple of switchback braking zones there that lead into the main straight as well.

You're going through this fast chicane. It was flat out in the KA class that I was in. I reckon it'd be flat out in X-30, but a slight lift-off in the shifter karts onto the main straight.

It was quite slippery the day that we were out there because they have their winter break, so the track is closed for a few months to let the snow pass and things like that in the seasons. An enjoyable track that from lap one to the end of the day, I never got bored of the racetrack.

The team at PittRace were helpful in getting us on track, allowing us to use a drone to capture some really cool footage of our racing lines but also of the facility itself.

But plenty of paving, like you are driving to the car racing facility just to check out the track and it's all paved, the road out there, and they've got grandstands out there and it's exceptionally well maintained. The whole facility itself, you're not seeing weeds around. All the grass has been mowed. I don't even know how big the facility is. It must be a couple hundred acres probably, but exceptionally well maintained.
They must have quite a few ground staff just literally maintaining the facility and the upcoming races.
The paddock space is huge, so I can't see why they couldn't accommodate big races, big race teams, large marquees, it shouldn't be an issue. I'm not a hundred percent sure whether it had lights that facility, I just can't remember looking out for those things. But if they race under lights there, I reckon it'd be incredible with some of those up and downhill parts of the racetrack.

It's quite technical. I was driving a few different lines to some of the local drivers just to see what would work and what wouldn't work and there's a couple of parts of the racetrack that have almost like this sealant in the corners, so there's not a lot of grip on some of these parts of the track. Obviously, they will rubber up when more karts drive around.

A little bit of heat gets into the track as well. We were there in March, so it was a little bit cooler, but as I said, I can't speak highly enough of the Pitt Race facility, the car racing facility, the people who helped us get on track.

Lorraine down at the Pitt Race facility there was really accommodating to get us on the track, have our videographer out on the circuit as well to capture cool footage. Allowing the drones to go up so we could get some cool shots and some cool angles for you guys to see as well.

If you guys want to get onto the Pitt Race facility, I'm not a hundred percent sure what they have in terms of a rental program there. They weren't out there the day that I was there, so you'd have to check out Pitt Race on Google and see what they have available. Also, they've got an Instagram page @PittRace as well. Don't forget to check out the upcoming track guide we have for Pitt Race track too.