A place to talk, race or watch go-kart races

Bordering Toners Lake about halfway between Janesville and Waterville is Toners Lake Karting (TLK), a place for people to race go-karts, or watch go-kart races, whichever they were in the mood for, and there were lots of them on Sunday, Aug. 16.

 

TLK is open from May through October, and usually hosts 10 to 12 big races per year. There are four adult classes and eight kid classes, the youngest allowed to race is five years old. Those 16 years and up are considered adults. There’s not a lot of money in the races, occasionally there will be a special cash race, but the main “prizes” are a trophy and bragging rights. The karts have horsepower ratings between 12 and 15, and can reach speeds a little over 52 mph.

 

As the Pioneer crossed the circular racetrack to the center to take photos, little go-karts were spilling onto the track, owner Mark Wolff warned, “Careful around these little guys, they’re only five years old.” As he said this, six children zoomed past in mini go-karts and Wolff continued, “Being this young, you can only expect so much.” The little kids looked like pros, with around ten laps to complete there was only one spin-out, which left one young driver facing the wrong way. As Mark was watching, it became clear the engine of the spun vehicle had died. While Mark hightailed it over to him, another small driver bumped into the kart that stalled. Mark slid the second kart out of the way and pulled on the ignition cord to start the stalled one; off the vehicle went, with the other not far behind. A single circle of the track constitutes one tenth of a mile; the driving space is 35 feet wide.

 

Marissa Tourville, a daughter to one of the owners, said to the sound of go-karts speeding around, “We’ve been busy this year with a lot of karts because of the mid-central series. It extends from a lot of tracks around southern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, northern Iowa and we’re one of them, and proud to be. I believe we had 65 entries today, something like that. The most go-kart racers we’ve had out here at one time was 75. Spectators, we’ve had 200 or so: It gets pretty busy.” She looked up at the sky, the sun was shining, for a while now, with all the rain lately the tracks had gotten too wet to race on. One of the photos on the Toners Lake Karting website was a picture of the owners on tubes floating on the track a few weeks ago, just to show how wet everything was. Continued Marissa, “A lot of the racers here today are from the races yesterday in Cedar Lake, Wisconsin.” She wasn’t sure where they were headed next.

 

Jan Wolff, married to Mark and co-owner of the track, drove up on her green golf cart and said, “We usually have 10 races per season, unless something happens. During Covid we could only race like twice that year. I retired from Walmart last year and stepped down from helping a lot during the races. I bring coolers of bottled water for the racers when they’re thirsty. Otherwise, I try to say hi to everyone when I can.” Her blond-headed grandson ran up with a red bottle of Gatorade, behind him was his mother Marissa who was holding a big glass of lemonade from the vendor Bizzy Blends and she said, “They have a drink named after us called TLK lemonade.” She took a drink and said, “It tastes different than lemonade, but I can’t put my finger on what it is.” While she contemplated her drink, the racetrack flagger waved his green starting flag and another race got started.

 

Marissa said everyone working at TLK were volunteers who give their time because they love the sport. She added, “We are always looking for volunteers to come out and help us. We’re all volunteering and there’s not a lot of tracks around who can say that!” For those wishing to see one of these races, anyone can attend at 8747 415th Avenue in Janesville southeast of Reeds Lake. Or find Toners Lake Karting on their Facebook page.