Maui’s go kart track no longer a ‘ghost town’ with first event in six years on Nov. 15

The Maui Go Karters Association track in Pu‘unēnē once was a thriving venue in the 1980s, ’90s and early 2000s, with races that drew competitors from around the state and Mainland and throngs of cheering fans.

But when Adam Auerbach first saw the half-mile track when he moved to Maui with his son in early 2023, it was a “ghost town.” That was disappointing and not what he expected based on the club’s website.

But while the 58-year-old thought the track, part of the six-venue Maui Motor Sports Park, was great, “it was a shadow of its former self,” he said. “So that’s why I got involved. I stepped in to try and fix and remedy that.”

He first became a board member of the association and in March was elected president, with grand plans to bring back the glory days of the track, the only Superkarts USA-sanctioned track in the state.

The comeback of the track begins on Nov. 15 with a “time attack” event, the first race day there since 2019.

“Before we return to wheel-to-wheel racing, we’re putting together an exciting time attack event to get everyone back on track — literally — with some fast, clean laps,” Auerbach wrote on the club’s website. “This solo timed format gives each driver clear track space to chase their best lap time. It’s a relaxed and fun way to sharpen your skills and shake off the off-season rust — no race-day pressure, just pure driving.”

The time attack is racing against the clock. The first event will have four divisions. A drivers meeting will be held at 8:30 a.m. and warmup session is at 9 a.m. with racing to start soon after.

Auerbach and his 20-year-old son Adam Auerbach Jr. were members of the North Nevada Kart Club when they moved from Reno, Nev., to Maui. The elder Auerbach had visited Maui four times on vacation and decided to make it his home. The Auerbachs work from their home in Kula, running the online retail business that Auerbach Sr. has owned since the mid-1990s.

“I just got to the point where I was financially independent,” Auerbach Sr. said Friday. “I liked Upcountry a lot. … It was just time for a change.”

Auerbach Sr. has revamped the club’s website, and has been working towards next Saturday’s race day that he says is the first step in a long-range plan to bring the club back to prominence. 

Tim Hultquist, the association’s longtime treasurer, remembers the track’s heydays decades ago when race days would sometimes draw 50 to 100 drivers or more. In those days, regular-season schedules were held and visiting drivers from around the state and a few from the mainland would compete there. 

Crowds of hundreds of spectators would attend the races at night under the lights when the state championship races were an annual event at the club. 

The 66-year-old Hultquis still gets in his kart for weekly Saturday practices that have been part of the revival under Auerbach’s leadership. He believes the time attack will jumpstart participation.

The track has not held a race day since before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all operations in 2020.

Hultquist will take part in the event in his 125cc touch-and-go kart that has a water-cooled engine and can reach speeds up to 70 miles per hour. Higher-level shifter karts can reach 80 mph.

“I think it should help,” Hultquist said of the time attack. “Time will tell, but there’s enough of the shifter guys that have been egging for it to happen. So once they get the bug and get more of their group out, then the other groups kind of follow in after that.”

When he was 15, Juan Frate started go-karting at the Maui track in 2003 after moving to Maui from Argentina two years earlier. Now, he owns two karts, practices every Saturday and recently bought a junior kart for his 12-year-old nephew.

Frate, now 37, remembers growing up at the track and longs for a return to its glory days.

“For me personally, for the past four or five years, I’ve just been practicing, letting people use my karts to hopefully get them into the sport,” Frate said. “I think this time attack event will be great to generate interest again.”

Entry fee for the time attack is $35 per driver and $5 for one crew member who must wear a wrist band and will be allowed in the pit area. Admission for spectators is free. Each driver will get 2 to 3 sessions of 8 to 10 minutes each. 

The fastest single lap will be the winner of the division, which include touch and go juniors, touch and go seniors, 125cc shifter ROK class, and 125cc shifter stock Honda class.

Prize money will be given to the top three finishers in each division: $100 for first place, $75 for second and $25 for third.

As of Friday, Auerbach said more than 10 drivers have signed up for the event, a modest number that he expects to grow over the next week.

Getting this far has taken a lot of legwork. Practices at the track were nothing more than casual when he arrived in 2023.

“It came from just a casual practice day with guys walking around and flip-flops … just making it their own little personal club to, ‘Hey, this is a race club. I want to be a part of it,’ “ Auerbach Sr. said. “It’s a huge step.”

The next step is to establish a regular-season schedule, which Auerbach Sr. envisions to be seven races once a month from March to September or October, beginning next year.

Now, club membership dues are $125 a year for a single person or $200 for a family plan.

The longterm goal, in either the end of 2026 or 2027, would be a state championship race with other racers from around the state and possibly mainland racers coming back. There are go-kart clubs in Hilo and on O’ahu.

“We want participation from all the other islands,” Auerbach said. “We don’t want this just to be a Maui thing.”

The cost of owning a racing kart can be a hindrance. New karts can cost $8,000 or more. But Auerbach Sr. said used carts can be purchased in the $4,000 range. The club also owns two used karts that interested parties can try out on a Saturday practice day.

Auerbach Sr. also organized a cleanup day at the track in May to clear keawe brush and other debris from around the track to make it safer. Old tires also were lined around it as bumpers to diminish any effects from wrecks.

Longer-term projects include renovating the light poles and race tower that all have termite damage, although the race tower which doubles as a concession stand is still usable.

The revitalization of the track is a dream come true for the father-son team of Gary Eckert and 14-year-old Alex Eckert, an 8th-grader at Kīhei Charter School. The younger Eckert has been racing go karts for more than 2 years, but has never been part of a race day on his home track.

Gary Eckert brings his son to the track for every practice and is a close observer as Alex practices in his Tony kart with a Rotax 125cc Max Evo senior engine. It has a restrictor plate to limit the speed, as required for drivers under the age of 16.

“Whenever I tell my friends that I do go-karting, they’re like, ‘Oh, where do you do it?’ “ Alex Eckert said. “I say, right over here in Maui Motor Sports Park. … .They’re usually so surprised because even to me, it doesn’t seem like the type of place that would have a go-kart track.”

Alex Eckert is hopeful that the time attack event will grow the numbers in the junior ranks that now have only a handful of participants.

“I’m pretty excited,” he said. “I’m hoping for a good result. … And obviously, maybe that can hopefully, somewhat grow an audience and make more people know about or become interested in the go-kart club.”

As Adam Auerbach Sr. runs the show on Nov. 15, Adam Auerbach Jr. will be racing in the ROK Shifter division. 

“We want as many kids to come out and watch or participate as possible because that is how to grow the club, from the ground up,” Adam Auerbach Sr. said. “It truly is a family-oriented sport.”