MRP - South Bend Indiana
A lot going on this month. Karoline and I decided to head up to Red Bud for the AMA Motocross National and see Ricky Carmicheal's last race. You can find photos and a write up in the road trips section.
We decided since we were so close to South Bend that we would venture over to MRP and check out their karting facility and seewhat they had to offer.
They run two tracks. One in Buchanan Michigan and the other near South Bend Indiana.
One pain was trying to get the date and rental set up. It took a multiude of phone calls and emails which is very discouraging to anyone wanting to rent a kart or try one before deciding to go into karting. After 18 trys I finally got that sorted out.
Other than that issue the facility and the people at MRP are top notch and the South Bend track is awesome!
Brent Ebert is the main guy their and he was really helpful throughout the day (actually the three hours I had my rental for).
I had a few rental choices. 4 stroke, air cooled 100cc Yamaha or liquid cooled Rotax 125 in Briel chassis's.
I chose the Yamaha based upon the rental price (325.00 for three hours) and having ran them many times I felt like this was a good choice to go out and have a fun day.
Right off I fell in love with the Briel chassis and the setup. I started off running 55's and ended the day in the low 49's.
The track is around 3/4 of a mile with a lot of elevation changes, off camber and blind corners. Basically you have to do a good job rotating the kart and staying in the throttle. Lots of wide open throttle on this track disite the many corners. There is one slow hairpin corner on the track and the final turn is somewhat banked (an almost Monza like turn) onto the front straight.
I was told that this was an excellent time given my lack of seat time, no knowing the track and the tires had been raced the previous day. 47's is the fast time for the 100cc Yamaha class.
I know where I can make up that time and now it's just a matter of going back and doing it.
The track was so much fun and I had such a good time that I am contempleting renting the Rotax in August and running one of their races days.
If you want to try out karting. I mean real karting, not that indoor wimpy stuff. I highly suggest checking MRP out. Well worth the price.
