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I’m wondering if there are others participating on this board who were involved in karting in CO 30 or more years ago. I raced here from 1986 to 1992, before we had to move to Texas for a job. Our primary venue at that time was the old Boulder track. Over those years we also raced at Second Creek Raceway, Continental Divide Race Park in Mead, and the Aspen Sports Car Club track at Woody Creek. We even did a race or two at Colorado National Speedway. This was right before the IMI track was built, and Valley Kart was the main local shop.
I retired last year and we finally moved back to CO. I’m hoping there are others who will post on this thread. If you have photos, please include them. Anything on karting here from the 60’s on up. Would also like to hear more about the time just after the above. We knew at the time that the Boulder track’s days were numbered, and there was talk of a track at Bandimere, but that was complicated by the possibility that the Bandimere site would be sold and the dragstrip moved. Of course, the dragstrip is still there and the Action Karting track was built. Not sure when though.
I’ll start it off by a larger version of my avatar photo, taken at Boulder around 1989.
I learned something interesting this week. I wonder how many current racers here know that at one time, the IKF Grand Nationals were held in Colorado? Much like most of the tracks I raced on here, the track where they were held is long gone. It was called Beacon Hill Sportkart Roadway, and was located 7 miles north of Pueblo. It really was quite an amazing track – too bad it didn’t survive. Interesting place to choose to build such a great track. The 1962 IKF Grand Nationals were held there.
The website would only allow me to post three photos – here is one more – what the location of the Beacon Hill track looks like now.
Cool stuff JB!
My history in CO karting starts in 1997. At that time IMI and Bandimere were the two active tracks, although there was little to no crossover of racers between the two. We raced at IMI – most people were running flathead Briggs of some variety, with a few Yamaha KT100s floating around, and shifters becoming popular.
SKUSA got big nationally in the late 90s thanks to the SuperNationals, and started the ProMoto Tour in 1999. A local SKUSA regional series developed locally, the track out near Falcon was rediscovered (then called CRE, now SBR – the track had existed for many years but nobody was driving on it) and there were races at Bandimere, IMI, CRE, and Second Creek. Grand Junction was built a few years later, then Centennial. Other than Second Creek shutting down, that’s our current complement of tracks.
I know there are a few people still floating around that were involved in CO karting before I was. Hopefully they post up.
Here’s a photo from the late 90s at IMI.
Second Creek was actually a pretty good place to race. It seemed to be pretty tight for sports cars but a very good long track for karts. I had a friend who raced in the Spec Racer class in SCCA races there, and the karts were doing comparable lap times. I still haven’t found all of my pics since the move, but I have a few. The first one is me holding my very young son (now 30!) next to my first Hutless in the pits there. The second photo was taken at the end of the left turn as you head down the straight. You could really draft down that! I don’t recall that the track was as long then as it ended up – we didn’t race the whole section on the east side.
Jeff – Regarding SBR: It’s pretty obvious that the track was there for quite a while and was also longer. Hopefully, I’ll be there next Sunday to catch the CKT race. I made it to the first one at Action and it was good to see so many karts. I think we were lucky to get maybe 30 back when I was racing.
Actually, SBR was never longer – what you see in the satellite view was a planned expansion that was graded but never paved in the early or mid-2000s, under the previous owner.
Agreed, Second Creek was a super fun long track, but dangerous with all the walls. I had a ridiculous drafting battle there in 80cc Junior one year. I vaguely recall that a 125cc Shifter may have held the track record out there for a little while.
I don’t recall a lot of walls at Second Creek at the time – most of it was wide open except that last turn before the straight. I felt the same way about Mead – in fact I only raced there once. Some of their “walls” were old 55 gallon drums. Not so bad in a car with a full body, but hitting them in a kart would not have been a good thing.
Same with the races at Colorado National – the karts were very fast around it, and you could really draft. Only raced the first race – one of the guys slid up the track and hit the wall pretty hard and got hurt. I passed on the next one.
Too bad they didn’t add that section to SBR – looks like it would have added a couple of good passing spots.
i raced KT-100 back in the late 80’s early 90’s here in Colorado. There was a track off of the west side of the boulder turn pike in someone’s back yard. I will search for a picture. Anyone know the name of that track? Also we used to race in the parking lot of bonanza flea market in north Denver. I paid for the hobby by mowing lawns in the summer. Wish it was that easy now!!
I always knew that track as the Boulder track, even though it was in Superior. It was right at McCaslin and the Boulder Turnpike. I’ve found aerial photos of the area before the track was built, and after it was gone, but have no photos of the track. Any you can contribute would be great.
This thread is awesome!! I didn’t start racing karts until 2007…not in CO until last year. BUT, I live in Boulder, so would love to see photos of the ‘Boulder’ track!
Too bad that Second Creek is gone, sounds like a fun place with similar speed to perhaps Streets of Willow in California….
Thanks for sharing JB!
So, the Superior track, when I began in 91, was called Curly’s track. I ran there for 2 seasons before the track closed due to the land being sold to a home developer. You can still see the cat-tail pond that was to the east of the banked left hander (turnpike turn), from the free way, if you are south bound on 36.
I have several pictures of the track, but they are in the individual corners and not of the track as a whole.
When the track closed IKAC moved to Bandimere in the upper parking lot for a season, until plans were finalized to build what is now, Action Karting. My father John, and I, designed the original track, the first and second extensions. This was my home track until I began running SKUSA pro tour in 1999. IKAC also ran at Mead motorsports park north of Denver. We stoped running there when we had a major accident entering the front straight, in the kt100 class. Lots of wall there.
EGunderson – Boulder was a fun track. I’m working on getting some better pictures of it. I’ve included a diagram of Second Creek below – we did not race the whole track in karts – we used a cutoff that I’ve attempted to indicate with a red line. You can still see the remains of the track on Google Earth – second photo.
Josh Ferguson – I had forgotten that they called the track “Curley’s” – you are correct, although I mainly just knew it as the Boulder track. By all means if you have photos, post them, even if they aren’t the whole track.
As far as Mead goes, I agree completely about the safety of the track, which is why I only raced there once. 55 gallon drums are not what you want to hit in a kart. I identified the track incorrectly in my first post, which I have corrected. It was actually called Continental Divide Race Park, similar to the sports car track that was down by Castle Rock and now completely gone. They did actually run some enduro kart races on the one at Castle Rock at one time. As far as Mead goes, we all just called it that. For those who never raced there, you can still see remnants of the track along I-25. The bridge over the track is the most obvious feature that’s still there – lower left in the photos. First pic is the track in 1999, the second what it looks like now.
Before it closed, we raced Second Creek with SKUSA. We ran the full track. The 125 shifters were hitting close to 130 mph in the draft. The 60cc shifters were as quick around the track as a F Ford. A friend who raced a Corvette came out to watch. It blew him away how quick the karts were. All the shifters were quicker than his car.
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