Follow the sound of revving motors on a Saturday morning outside of Kīhei. Drive down a winding dirt road behind the raceway and you’ll find a go-kart track, with a dedicated — and diverse — group of enthusiasts.
“Moms, dads, grandparents, kids. And you can race everywhere from 5 years old up to, I think our oldest racer we've had is probably, I think 80,” says Tim Hultquist.
He’s a longtime board member of the Maui Go Karters Association, a nonprofit club that’s been around since the early 1980s.
Back then, they used an abandoned stretch of warplane parking, before making upgrades.
“Instead of trying to race on World War II asphalt, we did fundraising and got a pavement area done,” Hultquist recalls.
Then came lighting, curbs and fencing, and even electronic transponders on the carts for scoring “instead of old school paper and pencil.”
With about 50 members, today’s club still runs Maui’s only karting track.
On a Saturday at 11 a.m., you’ll find kids and parents tuning up their karts together or getting in some laps.
Club President Adam Auerbach has been working to boost interest on Maui.
“It's a family-oriented, grassroots type of sport,” he says. "I think there's a lot of folks on the island that are oblivious to the fact that we have a kart track behind the drag strip."
He’s also been trying to bring back races at the kart circuit, which Hultquist says hadn’t happened for years.
“Our actual last race was prior to COVID,” he explains. “So it's been a long time since we've actually, you know, had a night race. That was when we ran at night.”
Hultquist got the driving bug back in high school, tinkering with his dad’s home-built kart.
“It was like an old, you know, basically like a lawn mower engine with the only brake was it just had a pedal that the metal pad would rub against the tire,” he laughs.
That’s all it took.
“I was hooked, yeah, from day one,” he chuckles. He went on to become a mechanic, and now uses that experience to help others in the club work on their karts. “Every time you see somebody come off the track for the first time, you just see an ear to your grin.”
Along with having fun, Auerbach says getting involved also imparts life lessons for kids.
“It teaches them work ethic, discipline, competition, mechanical ability, how to work on things, problem solving,” he says, leaning over his kart as he does maintenance.
Karting can be a starting line for the big leagues
“In Formula 1, those guys still practice in karts, come back to karts to stay in shape,” Auerbach explains. “So this is the starting point.”
For 14-year-old Maui driver Judah Du Bois, Formula 1 is exactly where he hopes to go.
His interest in racing hit the throttle when he was 6 years old playing video games. He started karting at the Maui track when he was 12.
“This was my only option on Maui, so that's kind of what I started doing here,” he says. “I bought a used go-kart from the mainland for about $2,000.”
With no racing opportunities locally, he took his passion to the mainland.
He recently competed in the Formula KFX National Championship in California, where he finished his second official race in fourth place.
“It was still an amazing second-ever event,” he says.
Du Bois says kart racing is a challenging sport.
“First off, it's very physical. As you see, your neck goes under a lot of stress.”
Gravitational forces are significant when driving upwards of 70 miles per hour around the curved track.
“You can also experience up to 3G when cornering. You also have to be very strong to turn the wheel, because the steering wheel is quite heavy and a go-kart, since there's no power steering if you have if you add power steering.”
While he may not be old enough to hold a driver’s license yet and has chosen an unusual path for youth from Maui, he’s determined to make it happen.
“My dream is to represent Hawaiʻi on the world stage in motorsport, the same way surfers and musicians have done for decades,” he wrote, via email.
Though many consider karting a fun hobby, it’s more for Du Bois.
“Oh, I've always been serious about this,” he tells HPR.
Now, he’s set his sights on Formula 1 racing in Italy, and hopes to move there for more racing opportunities as he gains sponsorships to help cover costs and works his way up towards his goal of becoming a professional race car driver.
In the meantime, kart racing at home on Maui is making a comeback.
For the first time in six years, the club held a time trial race last weekend.
“We had a very successful race,” Auerbach says. “[We’re] getting a lot of people reaching out to us by email asking to get their kids involved.”
He calls the event a “catalyst” for more to come.
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