Innovate, Be a Leader

Build the Dream

My group of friends went to a Karting complex (F Dream) that we live near by yesterday. On paper the place isn’t necessarily the greatest facility but its clean and has everything and more than what you would come to expect from a locally ran business.

Sticking to the Karting trend because its just what has been on my mind recently. I realized that for all the things that K1 does well they don’t go the extra mile they could go. After my group’s night concluded last night we experienced an extremely in depth racing event. It all included complimentary gloves and head sock (Balaclava), a 10 lap practice round, 5 laps of qualifying, 15 lap final race and a trophy presentation with carbonated water (or champagne for 1000Y). Apparently I was all too willing to spray the celebratory drink all over the place. When the host handed me the bottle of Icy Spark I immediately started shaking it and wanted to celebrate accordingly but he told me to stop because I guess he didn’t want to get wet. LOL. See the pictures and video below. It's a Celebration!!!!

Point being that if you lack on paper the facilities to compete with the big time establishments, you do it better with your customer service and ability to make the occasion meaningful and memorable. K1 did this well I thought but F Dream went above and beyond my previous standard.

Now the goal would be to create this same atmosphere of excitement and memorable occasion as a minimum but then innovate in a special and meaningful way that would cause the customer to just have to say “WoW”. My first idea for the innovative centerpiece of my new establishment would be different from whats a normal Karting track might have for their starting grid. I think you could compare it more to that of a smaller scale version of the starting gates for Motocross, starting all Karts on a separate downhill and/or filter like section leading into the first turn of the circuit. (Much like below but you’d have to imagine Karts on asphalt instead of the dirt bikes but would certainly be very exciting.)

I’ve always really enjoyed the idea of a tighter, bowl and banked type of track, again nothing massive. I believe this can be done better with a small footprint that we can expand from and the first track can be given that small, intimate and important feeling. Plus as a racer slightly banked turns are always going to be easier to navigate and get faster because they pull you closer into the correct line as opposed to a flat track.

My thought for an ideal location would be here. Expense and the need to buy out the Donut Bank and the cleaners would be completely prohibitive but I just always thought it would look great here. Ideally it would cover the acreage of those two lots together and sit on the opposite side of the lot as “Sky Zone”. (Lot Pictured below)

This sits on one of the busiest intersections in all of Evansville, IN. The area encompassing all of Donut Bank and the Cleaners parking lot and surrounding entrance roads. Approximately a football field sized area at the corner of Green River and the Lloyd Expressway. Obviously this is an ideal, but maybe. If not here for the ideal of traffic and free “eyeballs” then certainly something cheaper and more able to be excavated in a specific way would be available, but this is the ideal and we would make it work.

Now for a draft of what the facility could look like within that size of a framework I think it could look something like this. Build on the smaller acreage and make it extremely exciting and a centerpiece of family entertainment as well as a competitors dream. The lil’ 500 is a good example sitting on a similar but definitely smaller sized lot. They still jammed in 3 different tracks.

You can use the regular cars and the lane widths to easily compare lot sizes.

Imagining all of this and maybe the grandeur of what it all can be. Its all about getting there and getting the opportunity.

”If you build it, they will come” - Field of Dreams

PS,

Check out the first half of the final here from my friend Nash's perspective. He starts behind me in the pits.