Whether you've watched one too many Fast & Furious movies, need a unique weekend activity, or simply have a need for speed—go-kart racing has your adrenaline fix covered. You can take it easy around the track or put on a helmet and transform into Daniel Riccardo, tearing up the Monaco circuit.
A little further out of the CBD, where there's plenty of space for hairpin bends and long straights to hit max speeds, Sydney delivers the goods on go-kart tracks. Here are the best spots around Sydney to book your next go-karting experience.
Hyper Karting
Moore Park
While most of Sydney's go-karting is found on the city's outskirts, Moore Park's Entertainment Quarter is hiding Hyper Karting, a 410m long racing track inside the confines of a giant indoor car park. With bright and spacey fluorescent colours and a dark underground vibe, this electric go-karting (or E-karting) racetrack is channelling some pretty serious Tron vibes if you book in a night-time session. Undercover on level five, don't stress about noise and fumes with these German-made RiMO E-karts or bad weather–just worry about beating your mates.
Entertainment Park E-Karting
Bankstown
If you've never been, Bankstown's Entertainment Park is the ultimate adult play date destination. We're talking giant bowling alley, mind-blowing virtual reality arena, an arcade, and a racing car simulator facility perennially breaking the ice. But it's the indoor E-karting track that steals the show. Not for the faint-hearted, these electric karts can race around, reaching 85km/hour speeds. Get ready for a bit of friendly competition.
Ultimate Karting Sydney
Smeaton Grange
Boasting some of the widest tracks in the country, Smeaton Grange's Ultimate Karting Sydney gives you the chance to really let loose inside its 3745sq/m indoor venue. Wide tracks can mean a little more drifting room for the professional in you or some extra space to avoid crashing for the novice deeper down. Powered by Honda 9hp 270cc engines, expect to fly around the 450m track at speed. And if you're the competitive type, keep an eye out for UKS's race events throughout the year.
Sydney Premier Karting Park
Eastern Creek
There's no doubt that our minds are immediately cast to everything speed when Eastern Creek is mentioned with the suburb housing the Sydney Motor Sport Park and every kind of racing imaginable. Thankfully for those of us in the amateur game, that also means go karting. Opened in 1996, the Sydney Premier Karting Park was once home to the Australian round of the World 500cc Championship. Today, you can don a helmet, hop into a 13HP Sodi RT8 kart and race around the track at speeds of 100km/h for the adrenaline rush of a lifetime and some genuine hot lap G forces.
Luddenham Raceway
Luddenham
Luddenham Raceway is basically a three-in-one adrenaline junkie hot spot. Aside from offering a state of the art go kart racing track, you can also take on your friends with reckless abandon by shooting them with paintball guns across several different battlefields. Or, if you prefer to cut loose in your own car or motorbike over go karts, bring them along to race around the motorsport park for designated track days. But if it's go karting you're after, the giant 600m Luddenham track offers the full raceway experience, with 12 high speed flowing corners, elevation changes, large run-off areas and LED lighting for night races.
Fastlane Karting
Minto
Operating for over two decades, Minto's Fastlane Karting offers a couple of tracks for the seriously keen driver out there. First is the 570m main track, an all-weather outdoor speedway that features 15 corners, a hairpin, and a long straight all in a street circuit style. Next is the unique 160m drift track, so you can bring all your Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift dreams to reality and show off your drift king skills. Come day or night and book in a team for the competitive race events held throughout the year.
Extreme Indoor Go Karting Sydney
Villawood
In the go-karting game for over 15 years, Villawood's popular Extreme Indoor Go Karting facility offers not one but three tracks. The fastest and longest of the three is the 500m long Extreme Track, which features plenty of straights, sweeping turns, and an overpass. Like in F1 racing, packages include qualifying sessions to determine your race positions, followed by heats and final races. That way, when you win, you can really brag about it to the rest of the group. If you're really game, enquire about the "Endurance Cup" to simulate the long-distance Le-Mans experience, with pits, driver changes, fuel stops, and team coordination all part of the multi-team race.
Spitfire Paintball & Go-Karts
Concord West
Spitfire Indoor Paintball & Go-Karts might just take the cake if we're talking about intimidating names that scream adrenaline. The Concord West venue offers go-karting, paintball, laser tag, and racing simulators if you're looking to make a full day of it with a crew. With Sodi RT8 karts boasting Honda GX270 4 stroke engines, lap timing software, and giant screen displays, you can put on the helmet and channel your inner Lewis Hamilton.
Picton Karting Track
Picton
We're stretching the limits of what we can call Sydney here, but we had to include Picton Karting Track. Just south of Campbeltown, this raceway has been around for 20 years and means business for serious drivers. To give you an idea, karts can reach 110km/h on the 640m long track's straight (as fast as you can drive on the highway, for context). Speed the 190m straight, around nine corners, a hairpin, and through 9m wide tracks prime for taking over. Throw in a little mini golf for good measure, and the day is sorted.
Keen for more adrenaline-pumping activities? Suss out these epic bucket list adventures to have in Sydney.
Image credit: Hyper Karting, Hyper Karting, Entertainment Park