Llandow Kart Club
Llandow Kart Club is the only MSA registered kart club in south Wales, and is based on a disused airfield belonging to the South Wales Karting Centre, with history dating back to World War II. The track, is approximately 1050 metres in length, and is raced in a clockwise direction. The circuit has 9 corners, 6 of which being right-handed. There is a saying in the world of karting: "If you can drive well at Llandow, you can drive well anywhere." Many well known stars in the world of karting have raced at Llandow: Tiffany Chittenden, Macaulay Austin, Henry Surtees, George Line, Jack Davis, Alex Albon and others, have all raced at Llandow, and most have struggled to keep up to their normal "Superb" driving standard. This is because Llandow is possibly the most technically challenging kart circuit in the UK, and requires very accurate driving to succeed here. Llandow has been compared by many, to the legendary Parma track in Italy.
Llandow is licenced by the MSA to run the following classes:
- Cadet Honda
- Cadet Comer
- Cadet WTP
- Mini Rotax Max
- Junior Rotax Max
- Junior TKM
- Junior TKM 4 Stroke
- Junior Honda
- Junior Blue
- Intermediate Biland
- KF3
- KZ3
- Senior Rotax Max
- Rotax 177
- Rotax DD2
- Senior TKM
- Senior TKM 4 Stroke
- TKM Extreme
- Senior Honda
- Senior Honda Heavyweight
- Formula/Senior Blue
- Super ICC
- KF2
- KF1
- KZ2
- KZ1
- Mini Moto (Organized via the South Wales Karting Centre)
History
Llandow has an extensive history, and although the club is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, Llandow Kart Club can be traced back over 50 years, and has links with Cardiff Kart Club and St. Athan Kart Club. Llandow was resurfaced in 2005, with high-traction, high-porous tarmac and the corners "Surtees", "MacWhirters" and "Chandlers" were also added at this time.
Facilities
Llandow has gained a number of facilities since its first year in 1999, and are listed below:
- Food and drink Machines
- Toilets
- Showers
- Changing rooms with lockers
- Floodlights
- Pit bays
- Hot food on site
- Advanced lap timing system
- Race commentary on race weekends
- Overnight camping on race weekends
- Full disabled access
Circuit layout
Here is a diagram of the Llandow Kart Racing ciruit. The track is raced in full, with two cut-throughs being used on the first rolling lap of a race, and the first cut-through is used on the second lap, after which, racing procedes as normal. The cut-throughs are depicted by the dotted lines. The first cut through is at "The Hook" corner, and the second is at the "surtees" corner.
Videos
In addition to the circuit map above, to get a full understanding of the track, many drivers have added their own videos to Youtube, most notably:
- Lap of the track from central view (Ferdinand Ball - Senior Honda)
- Assorted "Slide Show" of photographs around the track (Jamie Warren - Junior Honda)
- Easykart UK at Llandow
- Llandow Senior Rotax Max onboard camera
- Llandow before track extension (Ben Gilliard)
- Senior Rotax Max at "Raymonds" corner
- Llandow via Mini Moto
(Please click on reference number, at the end of each video description to be taken to the video link)