Kartona Electric Speedway — Attraction in Upper Grand Lagoon

Facility is nice and clean. The young woman working the front desk was very nice (at least at the beginning). She explained how it all worked and helped get us registered. Watched the safety film and then headed over to get our helmets and get assigned a kart. Everything went smoothly up until we rolled out onto the track. They start you off slow and then step it up a little more and then open it up to start racing. While the karts were going slow, the person in front of me (who was a little timid) hit their brakes. I hit mine to avoid running into the back of them, but caused a little tire squeal. Right off the bat, I have this guy, who seemed to be running the place, yelling at me to be careful. Well no kidding slick. That’s why I hit my brakes in the first place and didn’t just run into the other kart. Once the race got going it was fine for the most part. One in our group spun out and got yelled out for it. But no other incidents. Until on the last lap my kart just died. It didn’t slow down. It just died. When they came out to the track, they reset the kill switch and that brought the car to life. The kill switch had NOT been pressed by me. Homie with the attitude, pushed that button in himself and pulled it back out. When the kart reset the battery indicator was at 92%. So the kart did not die because of a low battery or because I was using both pedals at the same time (more on that later). Overall the race was fun. I wasn’t upset about not finishing the last lap. We decided to run another one. There was two races between our first race and second. As I watched the race right before our second race I saw cars beating and banging on each other. Drivers hitting the walls on dang near every turn let alone every lap and homie with an attitude stared at his phone the whole time and didn’t say a word. So, here we go for our second race. Everything was going smoothly and then our karts get slowed down and homie with an attitude starts yelling that everyone was hitting the walls. Not each other, but the walls. Again, the race before not a word. Once he let the karts start going again. There was another problem with my kart. So when I came by the start/finish line I told him to stop yelling at everybody and fix the damn karts. Apparently homie eith an attitude doesn’t like being yelled at. He thinks you pay money to go there for him to yell at you. My kart made it back around to the final turn an died again. He comes over and starts saying it’s my fault because I was using both brakes at the same time. He said that’s why my kart couldn’t make it to the end the first race (remember I said I the battery was at 92%). A lot of back and forth later, I left the kart on the track where it was. So, if you have taken the time to read this far, I will close with the facility is nice, the karts are decent enough. The racing can be fun. But if you want to drop your money into entertainment with the possibility that some dude is going to completely over react and yell at you, then this is the place for you. I for one...

I am giving this one star, because it was fun... once you actually got in the cart. The team members could work on their customer service, as well as give an overview of what to expect when you come in. We were told that we would have about an hour (understandable, there were a few folks ahead of us). However, there was no instruction to watch the safety video, and we ended up waiting two hours just to ride one lap.

My suggestion for first timers- if you can schedule a time to come, go ahead. It will avoid having to wait and watch the staff dilly dally and ride the carts for fun- with no helmet I might add.

My suggestion for management- please be a little nicer to the customers. I know you all do this process over and over, I understand it can be tedious. However, it made us extremely unfomfortable and nervous to race. Also, I understand there are “regulars” that come to the track, but for those who have been waiting, it seems a little unfair to have them ride before those who have been waiting for over an hour from their anticipated time. If management could help better schedule drivers within different heats or ask the party who is coming in if they want to race with certain people, or even have the heats back to back, that way we aren’t waiting an hour for the second part of our party to finish racing. And only charging 5 carts per round doesn’t really make sense when you have 20 chargers.

Overall, super fun but you all need to work on a system to keep the process flowing, rather than taking your time. More involvement with the customers, maybe some music, etc. If you know that you are going to have long wait times, the excitement to drive wears off and the customers need something to do in the meantime.

I’m all about supporting small businesses, but as a local, I was disappointed with my experience. I hope that visitors do not use this business as a representation of the rest of the beach.

Ps the man with the goatee- I’m not sure if you were the owner, manager or what- but scolding customers in the middle of a race isn’t going to make the rest of us want to race or return back to...

Absolutely the worst karting you’ll ever experience in Florida!’. The karts and the facilities are very poorly maintained and in a very sketchy area of town. The staff is comprised of young rude kids with no customer service skills or regard for personal safety. We had money stolen from us by the girl that works the counter. Update: you get a long response from a so called “owner” when you posted a review that’s truthfull! Any one that that goes to this place needs to under the condition these karts are in. First let me say that we are not just tourists look to “ride go kart”! My son has won 3 national sprint kart championships, 4 championships from different states, we also helped in research and development of Blueshock karts which are fully electric race karts so we know karts both gas powered and electric to say the least. Kartonas karts are a disaster waiting to happen. The staff doesn’t know how to properly run them or what flags to use. The karts all have tires that have been run so long the the wear indicator is completely gone. The tie rods are worn or bent. All the kart are severely out of line due to improper caster,cambor and toe. The screens are all cracked on them. The brake sensors and pedals are set so sensitive that if you bump the brake pedal with the side of your shoe (not press it forward) then the entire kart will completely come to a violent stop. Any one that has been on a real race track knows the dangers in that. It Causes anyone behind you to smash into or crash into a wall. This is very dangerous no kart should ever just lock up mid track. The facility itself is in a bad area. In 2020 we went and my truck got smashed into in the parking lot by another car but they have no security cameras anywhere so all I could do was file a police report and turn it in on my insurance. There has also been a shooting there. But to hear them tell it is an A1 spot. None of the video games work but can through axe at wall. lol Guess that’s why they have a 4.2 Google...