GoPro Motorplex

This place is incredible. The staff and the facilities. Did 3 races with the wife and we had a blast. Not your amusement park go karts. This is legit kart racing. Can’t wait to go back.

I was invited to go go-​kart racing at the GoPro Motorplex, and I’m not a huge race fan, I drive a Honda Civic, but I’m up for fun adventures so I went on Saturday afternoon.
After driving to what felt like the middle of no-​where (Lake Norman is out of my bubble), we arrived at this awesome go-​kart track. We set up our racer profiles (tip: make your racer name actually something fun and not just your name) and headed over to watch some of the races.
The helmets & safety talk is in a seperate building from registration and will show you what car number & race results in there as well. They gave us a quick safety talk when it was our turn to race — which left me scared. Like I said, I’m not a huge racer, but all this talk about «take this line when going into curve 3» totally freaked me out.
They called our race number and I went to sit in my car. Uncomfortably. I barely reached the pedals. And that was it. Go time.
We had a full race — all cars were filled so I scooted around the track, got passed a bunch, but made it through without spinning out or going off track. After 10 minutes of racing, we got the checkered flag, did our cool-​down lap and headed in. Pretty intense for go-​kart racing. I was done after just one race. They count your best lap time, and send you fun charts afterwards with how you did.
Really neat thing for out of town guests, or for a Charlotte staycation.

Fun way to kill some time. If you want to experience real racing, in gokart form, come here.
Awesomeness:
The karts are fast
Everyone goes out together.
Pole position is the winner (fasted lap)
9 – 10 laps per race.
The complex keeps track of your statistic (you get a email the next day).
GoPro mounts exist on the helmets if you have one.
Big outdoor track with curbs, not walls.
The track is awesome allowing you to rip into the corners at high speed. There are no walls on the edges of the track, so you can spin out in the grass (read: fun). Careful with braking into the turns, as the karts only have rear brakes (non-​abs), so you can lock them up and spin out.
FYI: you start to get tired after 2 races. Buy the # of races approprately.

This is not the kiddie go-​kart track at the local arcade, this is racing! What a great time, but not for the weary. Fast karts where you actually have to know how to race to get around the track. You have to brake to make it through certain corners and understand late apexes to have a chance at a fast time.
The track is based on the Kartdromo Parma in Italy, where many famous Formula-​1 drivers got their start. It is an honor to be able to experience something like this so close to Charlotte.
All of the karts are sturdy, powerful, and relatively safe. Safety however may depend on who else in on the track. When I was there a few kids with Nascar last names beat the hell out of me, but I dominated the rest of the crowd. There were a few people that I wish had asked to start at the rear of the field, if you don’t have the balls to go fast, please get out of the way.
As per the facilities, they are relatively bare bones. That isn’t a complaint. I’m sure that track wasn’t cheap to build and everything is fine for the time being. It looks like other construction is happening and with the GoPro sponsorship, I’m sure the funds are there to make it happen.
I highly recommend this place. Expect to pay $ 25 a ride, but well worth it. I’d even say this is up there with the White Water Center as places I would send tourists when in town.

My favorite place to go in the greater Charlotte area. If you have an interest in karts or what it feels like to be on a fun, challenging track I suggest you try it out. I went from a regular at Victory Lane, to a regular at GoPro. I’ve run so many rental sessions, and ran one full rental league. It’s not unusual to see drivers of all types out there from first timers to top tier professional drivers. To be clear, I don’t claim to be any good, I do it because I enjoy it and you can’t help but enjoy it. Still in two of the league races I finished 5^th which was a high point an better than I had set as a personal goal in league. One of those was starting from 15^th and fighting my way up. That was such a thrill.

This is indeed a state-​of-​the-​art facility!
My number one favorite track in the Charlotte area for arrive-​and-​drive rental karting!
The owners have designed this 0.7 mile, eleven turn track around a famous Italian kart track. You have the opportunity to rub elbows and bumpers with some of auto racing’s best on any given day!
The track is challenging and you’ll want to stay all day to get the most seat time possible and crank out some fast laps. The track staff is very friendly and professional.
Occasionally, the track will hold team endurance races throughout the year.
There are garages that can be leased out for racers who own their own pro karts, as they share track time opposite the rental karts — every 10 minutes to be exact.
REMEMBER: Check the website calendar to make sure they don’t have any private parties scheduled!
(Don’t show up ten minutes before they close and expect to race … and then leave bad Unilocal reviews! — Use common sense and have respect)

I’m a frequent race car driver who just started attending the motorplex. I have had family in town for the past three days. The motorplex closed at 8:30 PM two of the nights, and 9:00 PM the third night. I was there at 7:50 PM the first night and they told me I couldn’t race. The second night I showed at 7:45 PM and again, the doors were already locked. Finally the third night, I bring my group of friends at 8:15 PM and the girl behind the counter greeted me with «Actually, we are running our last race right now». Mind you, it was 8:15 PM and they close at 9:00 PM. I pointed out to her that there was still 30 minutes left to race before closing hours. All she had to say was «yeah, I’m sorry.» I guess I’ll be attending Victory Lane Karting again, they’ve never turned me down for my business! Ever!