Competition levels

Different Levels of Sprint Racing

Being a person new to karting can be a lot to take in if you have never been involved before. The sport can be broken down into four participation levels: social, club level, state level and national level.
Depending on what sort of time and budget you wish to put towards the sport will determine which levels you wish to take part in.
DPE Kart Superstore can help you no matter what level of kart racing you choose to take part in with race day trackside spares, one on one driver coaching, and race day tech support available as part of our service.

Here are the different levels of racing broken down into detail.

Social Karting

Karting Australia offer a social license (E Grade) that allows you to participate in practice days at any karting Australia affiliated track with your own kart. The social license is roughly $100.00 cheaper per year than a competition license and it
still gives you a taste of what its like to drive a sprint kart and experience the tracks you may wish to compete at.
Competing might not be for everyone, some people may just like to drive a kart fast around a track on your own or with your mates, the social licence gives you the opportunity to drive your own kart under safe controlled conditions.

Your social licence does let you have a taste of racing if you are unsure if it is something you would like to do, as it allows you to compete in one club event per year.

Club Level Racing

Club racing is know as the "grass roots" or entry level to competition in the sport. It requires a competition license through Karting Australia to compete in, and you will get to enjoy the next step of karting in a friendly environment that allows you to race against people in similar equipment & age bracket to you.

Club level racing is where you get to learn your race craft with different racing scenarios like random grid or reverse grid starts. 
Don't think that club level racing is a lower level of competitive driving, most club racing if ultra competitive with most of the state and national level drivers competing at club events to keep their skills sharp.
Club level racing allows you to enjoy racing at a local track to you at an affordable price.

State Level Racing

Once you have advanced from the entry level licence grades, learned some racecraft and gained confidence at club level you can look at racing at state level. This is where you will compete with a little more of a serious approach against different competitors from your state in State Championship "one off" or "series" events . You get to race at different tracks from your local tracks and have the opportunity to compete for unique State champion coloured number plates.

The budget for State level racing does get more expensive, as you need to allow for travel and accommodation on top of your usual racing budget, with a lot of teams these days even travelling to the tracks for practice weekends prior to the event.

National Level Racing

This is the highest level of racing in our country and to compete at this level you must have an ‘A’ or ‘B’ grade licence. Our two National Series, "The Australian Kart Championships" and "The Rotax Pro Tour" conduct multiple events for their respective series throughout the year at tracks in different states. 
 Doing well in either of these two series will not only give you the chance to be crowned Australian Champion and run a unique number plate for the next twelve months but also usually gives you the opportunity to compete overseas at International World Championship type events.  
The budget to do these events is obviously far higher than competing at club and state level events, but this is to be expected as these series are the pinnacle of
our sport. These events also usually require a lot of time off work to be taken.

Club competitors will quite often embrace the opportunity to run the round of the national series that may appear at their home club track as a one off event. It gives them a taste of an elite level event with out the cost of travel and accommodation.

Don't hesitate to talk to us at DPE about whats right for you.