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Not Ready Racing, a go kart racing team, uses Midland Radio walkie talkies for easy communication on the track.
Midland Radio spoke to Chris North of Not Ready Racing.
Chris North founded Not Ready Racing several years ago after track racing became expensive.
“Years ago, we used to do local, track racing. As you can imagine, car racing is very expensive so stepping it down to a go kart level of racing was a lot more in our budget. It’s just as much fun as any other motor sport is. “
He said go kart racing is much more sophisticated than one might think.
“Another big thing is when people think of go kart racing, they look at it as something their kids do- they putz around the track for five minutes. There is a very large scale of go karting. They are a lot faster, a lot more complex than your average, small put around track that you might find down near the lake or something.”
North said there are track all across the country and typically races last 15-30 minutes. However, there are also endurance styled events that are four to six hours long.
The team at Not Ready Racing learned about the sport through social media and the go kart community.
“A lot of this was done through social media following- going on Facebook, going on Instagram and following people who race karts or build them.
“We started to ask these people how they do go kart racing, how they got into it, and they showed us how there are all these different sub groups across the U.S. that have their own regional championships for racing. You’ll also have some competitions that aren’t regional, but stretch across the entire country.”
For North, the go kart racing community has been incredibly supportive.
“Most people think of motor sport as strictly competition where you’re out there to compete and race against other people. That is true, that is a big factor, but it also the biggest and best community that I’ve been part of. The people out there are from all walks of life, all different parts of the country, but they’re all there for the same event. We’re there as individuals racing against each other, but we’re there as a community as well.”
North knew communication was key to the team's success on the track.
“With go kart racing, we knew we’d need radios. We started doing some shopping and found Buy Two Way Radios. They talked us through the range of products that they offer. It’s well within our budget and we decided to go with a good set of Midlands to get a good baseline for the first year or two.”
Through Buy Two-Way Radios, they found the X-Talker T51VP3 Walkie Talkie.
“The standard FRS radios have been working terrific for the last few years. The T51s have worked amazing.”
The team uses the walkie talkies for communication with the driver and crew chief. This is often to relay information like lap times, vehicle issues, or the position of other drivers.
Paired with the T51 walkie talkies, Not Ready Racing uses Midland's AVPH2 Closed Face Helmet Headset Kit.
North's favorite feature of the Midland walkie talkies is how easy to use they are.
“My favorite thing is the interface and simplicity of it. We don’t like using radios that are difficult to set up, complex, added features that we don’t use. We need something that’s easy to use so it’s not difficult for the driver and doesn’t hinder his racing abilities. With Midland’s FRS two-way radios, they’re super easy to use and for the crew chief to say, “Hey, we’re going to switch to this channel or switch the feature.'
The team has even recommended Midland's walkie talkies to other teams looking for improved, reliable communication.
“We just went to a race a few weekends ago and there were a couple people there that were asking us about where we got our radios, how we liked them. We’ve been recommending Midland. Midland was our first choice and we haven’t had any issues and there aren’t flaws.”
