New electric karting concept lands on Australia’s east coast
Aussie rally ace behind ambitious plan for nationwide karting takeoverMelbourne has received its first-ever all-electric indoor multi-level go-karting track with the opening of PowerPlay in Moorabbin.
The driving force behind the business is World Rally Championship co-driver Glenn Macneall, who currently sits second in the Australian Rally Championship after a successful outing at the recent Rally Queensland event alongside Scott Pedder.
For Macneall, diving into the world of hire karts was the perfect way to connect his competitive spirit and a need to “grow up”.
“Well, what do I actually know anything about? My passion was driving and competition, so how do you make that fun, and fun for everybody?” he said.
“It evolved over the space of about four years of going to every single go-kart venue around the world while I was competing in rallies.”
The concept is the first on the east coast for the brand, which has two existing venues at Bibra Lake and Joondalup in Western Australia.
“In Perth, we’ve now had over 100,000 individual customers who have completed around 3.5 million laps in our first venue [which opened in September 2020],” said Macneall.
“The karts have done around 75-80,000km each at the first venue, and literally every weekend in Perth we are full.
“We have construction starting on another facility in Perth next month, then the equipment is all ordered for the one after that, and then there is a plan to roll out a lot more of these every year.
“The plan over the next five years is ultimately to have 18 venues around the country.”
One of the unique aspects of the business is the electric karts themselves. The French-built Sodi Karts chassis is mated to an in-house developed battery pack, which the company is producing in Perth.
“We just finished developing our own lithium battery because nobody made one that was exactly how we wanted them, so we have taken the karts from running three races an hour to four races an hour,” said Macneall.
“They charge quicker and are lighter, so they are easier to drive.
“With the electric, we want the karts to slide, so we need that instant torque – it just doesn’t really work as well with a petrol two-stroke engine.
“It also makes a better atmosphere in the venue and there’s no horrible smell.”
While the karts provide thrills even for hardened motorsport nuts, they can also be driven by kids as young as 10 years old and over 140cm tall.
“We’re trying to attract a customer who would go bowling, because motorsport fans are coming here anyway because we love racing,” said Macneall.
“We can have a 10-year-old girl’s birthday party one session and a buck’s party the next, simply by changing the speed of the karts.
“You walk into most of these venues and they have all of these signs that say don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t do whatever – but our whole philosophy here is to teach people and help them to enjoy what is our passion.”
A cool feature of the set-up is video recordings from each driver’s helmet cam, which can be downloaded for later review and bragging sessions.
PowerPlay is located at 94-98 Cochranes Rd, Moorabbin, in Melbourne’s east.
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