Bring go-carts to fairgrounds
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As everyone in the county knows, the second full week of September is traditionally the biggest week of the year around the whole county as everyone who can walk, limp, stumble or crawl, makes their way to the fairgrounds. Whether it be to see people you haven’t seen all year, ride rides or just walk around and eat candy apples, pretty well everyone heads to the fair. There’s not a night when the place is not packed.
However, when the fair departs at the end of the week and the rides are taken down and the displays removed, the fairgrounds becomes a quiet place for the next 51 weeks aside from volunteers who come there to maintain the area and get it ready for the next fair. Why not do something during these weeks to make use of the grounds and make a little money for the fair and charity?
Well, while it may sound dumb right off the bat, I’ve come up with a great idea for using the fairgrounds. It came to me Saturday while I was eating at a food booth, looking at the then-still-empty midway. What I saw was about an eighth mile oval of asphalt, surrounding a grassy middle. Nearby, where I was sitting, were food booths operating all around, making money for various clubs and churches. It then hit me, what if we could take advantage of this set up year-round, maybe on a monthly basis. How you ask? Go-carts.
This is no joke, so hear me out. If you’ve been to any vacation spots like Gulf Shores, Daytona or Gatlinburg, you’ve noticed the go-cart attractions are always full, charging around seven bucks to ride a go-cart for 10 minutes. The sport is extremely safe when you use go-carts with bumpers on them like those used at the tourist traps and I can tell you first hand, racing them is great fun.
Why not use that eighth of a mile hunk of asphalt for a public go-cart track just one weekend a month? There would be very little improvements to be made, aside from some temporary barriers to encircle the place.
Whomever sponsored this could purchase the go-carts which could be re-used endlessly provided a small engines expert were part of the sponsorship team. Along with open runs on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, you could have semi-pro go-cart racing on Saturday evening and charge admission.
Why do it? Well, firstly, it would be a big money raiser for its sponsor since, after paying the start-up costs, gas and insurance, it would all be pure profit. Second, it would give clubs and churches a chance to make extra money on a monthly basis through their food booths if they chose. If they didn’t want to operate, they could sublet their booths to other charities during the race weekends.
Fourth, would be the social aspect. It would be give folks another excuse to mix and mingle at the fairgrounds more than once a year.
Also, a chunk of the profits could go to fair improvements. And, let’s not forget go-carts are fun and something like that could bring in some tourism by folks who decide to come over to Warren County those weekends to ride or see the go-carts race.
I mean, it won’t break my heart either way, whether we do it or not, but I think something like this would be making great use of facilities already available to us which are being under used.
Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at news@southernstandard.com.