British Universities Kart Championship

[jonas_mcrae]

Hi all
Does anyone has experience in the BUKC?? Im a studen at Essex University and Im thinking of joining the team. I've red the rules and the format of the races and they sound ok. I dont want to start a career or anything like that, and I dont have much experience karting (only raced on the local track) but all around the BUKC sounds like a good way in have loads of fun with costs that are reasonable even for students. Anyone knows how good the karts, the organisation and the races are??

thanks


more info
http://www.bukc.co.uk/2007/bukc2007/home.php

[CCFanatic]

Lucky. Some US schools have Formula SAE, which is only for engineering students.

Did some research.
BIZ Rentals karts. The karts look good. Never drove one, but from what I have read, they are pretty decent karts. Biggest Rental kart company in the UK, so you have more than just a small garage based company. Bridgestone tire give you exceptional grip. Not a shifter kart series, so the learning curve is not very high.

Buckmore Park is one of the best purpose built karting courses in the world. Clay Pigeon is another good karting circuit (made my only British Superkart start on). Found it fast and flowing.

I say, do it. You might never get a chance to do something like this again. For the costs, you are in a very fun and friendly atomsphere.

[patnicholls]

Hey Jonas,

I raced in the BUKC between 2002 and 2006, coming from just doing indoor stuff and not knowing what to expect at all. It's a bit of a step up, but absolutely and completely worth it - you should definitely go for it.

It looks rather like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tE-Uzb5YQQ

And there's plenty of other clips going round on YouTube of BUKC action.

The karts don't have gears, and they're direct drive (i.e if you spin off, the engine stalls and a 'pusher' kart comes and gives you a shove to get you going again) which sounds a bit daunting but the handling is electric. They're a lot lighter than a standard corporate hire kart and do about 80-85mph top speed, and the acceleration is superb.

The championship is run by Club 100 (who do many UK-wide series and also a 10-hour race at Spa every year) in conjunction with 3T Racing, a company founded by students for the purposes of running the BUKC and the British Schools Championship, so they're easy to talk to and such like. Value-wise it's brilliant too - about the same cost as doing an indoor session and you'll definitely enjoy it more

The races are a mix of 30-min individual ones or 1-hour ones for a pair of drivers, so you get a decent race length as opposed to piddly little sprints as you sometimes get.

So yeah - highly recommended!

Pat
Motorcycle Racing Forum Mod

[raikk]

Hey Jonas,

I raced in the BUKC between 2002 and 2006, coming from just doing indoor stuff and not knowing what to expect at all. It's a bit of a step up, but absolutely and completely worth it - you should definitely go for it.

It looks rather like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tE-Uzb5YQQ

And there's plenty of other clips going round on YouTube of BUKC action.

The karts don't have gears, and they're direct drive (i.e if you spin off, the engine stalls and a 'pusher' kart comes and gives you a shove to get you going again) which sounds a bit daunting but the handling is electric. They're a lot lighter than a standard corporate hire kart and do about 80-85mph top speed, and the acceleration is superb.

The championship is run by Club 100 (who do many UK-wide series and also a 10-hour race at Spa every year) in conjunction with 3T Racing, a company founded by students for the purposes of running the BUKC and the British Schools Championship, so they're easy to talk to and such like. Value-wise it's brilliant too - about the same cost as doing an indoor session and you'll definitely enjoy it more

The races are a mix of 30-min individual ones or 1-hour ones for a pair of drivers, so you get a decent race length as opposed to piddly little sprints as you sometimes get.

So yeah - highly recommended!

Pat
Motorcycle Racing Forum Mod

wow that looks so fun! I wish we had something like that in Canada .. this would be a great way for me to get used to racing formats and all..

[jonas_mcrae]

Hey Jonas,

I raced in the BUKC between 2002 and 2006, coming from just doing indoor stuff and not knowing what to expect at all. It's a bit of a step up, but absolutely and completely worth it - you should definitely go for it.

It looks rather like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tE-Uzb5YQQ

And there's plenty of other clips going round on YouTube of BUKC action.

The karts don't have gears, and they're direct drive (i.e if you spin off, the engine stalls and a 'pusher' kart comes and gives you a shove to get you going again) which sounds a bit daunting but the handling is electric. They're a lot lighter than a standard corporate hire kart and do about 80-85mph top speed, and the acceleration is superb.

The championship is run by Club 100 (who do many UK-wide series and also a 10-hour race at Spa every year) in conjunction with 3T Racing, a company founded by students for the purposes of running the BUKC and the British Schools Championship, so they're easy to talk to and such like. Value-wise it's brilliant too - about the same cost as doing an indoor session and you'll definitely enjoy it more

The races are a mix of 30-min individual ones or 1-hour ones for a pair of drivers, so you get a decent race length as opposed to piddly little sprints as you sometimes get.

So yeah - highly recommended!

Pat
Motorcycle Racing Forum Mod

thank you for that info
I think ill go for it, also a friend of mine is going to do it. Just have to contact the club president and ask how things are going to be for 2008. Will tell you how progress goes.

thanks again

Jonas

[Viktory]

I'm the captain of the University of Nottingham's team this year

Raced last year, I had only done arrive and drive karting, indoor and outdoor before so it's a big step up but it's so much fun! At one of the events I was just a couple of hundreths off the best lap of the nottingham crew (a couple of tenths of the record of the day overall) which I was very happy with.

Since I'm the captain now I'm probably doing all of the events, not gonna be cheap, but great value for money. Might see you there, should be loads of fun!

[dwf1]

Is anyone entering next year?

[Viktory]

I'm captain for the nottingham squad, so yeah

[jonas_mcrae]

Almost sure Essex will have a team this year!

Thanks! Bump!