Kartódromo de Viana do Castelo

Overview

Kartódromo de Viana is a karting complex at Lugar da Areia in Chafé, in the municipality of Viana do Castelo in northern Portugal. Spread over eight hectares, it has two circuits, a fleet of more than 100 four-stroke karts for rental and group races, and a calendar of more than 100 races and events a year. The complex is managed by Troféu Apetecível Unipessoal Lda. Its main circuit is a regular venue of the Portuguese karting championship and opened the 2026 season of the Campeonato de Portugal de Karting.

Technical Specifications and Track Features

Circuit A, the main track, measures 1,117 metres. The circuit describes it as built for official grade 1 racing as well as leisure driving, and the Portuguese federation, FPAK, lists it with a reference width of 10 metres under homologation 72/2024, issued in March 2024; an earlier homologation, 38/2017, covered the same 1,117-metre lap. The start and finish line sits on the long straight in front of the tower building, with the grid painted just behind it, and the lap winds back and forth through a series of nested hairpins across the infield. Pole position is on the right. For the 2026 championship opener the X30 Senior and KZ2 finals were set at 20 laps, or 22.3 kilometres. Circuit B is a smaller track of about 465 metres and eight metres wide, used mainly by the karting school for children and for leisure, and both circuits are equipped with timing. For endurance events the two can be combined into a single 1,585-metre lap.

Facilities and Specialized Areas

The main building contains a control tower with a timing room, rooms for race officials, briefing rooms and secretariats, a VIP room and terrace overlooking the whole complex, pit boxes, a medical post, offices, changing rooms and kart storage. A separate building houses workshops and the technical control area next to a large paddock, and conference and training rooms are available. A restaurant and bar seats 80 to 100 people and shares its building with shops run by karting businesses and teams, while a further building holds another workshop, a fuel station, a kart wash and storage. Rental drivers use Sodikart RT10 karts with 390 cc engines on Circuit A, and SR5, two-seater and 160 cc children's karts on Circuit B. Drivers with their own karts can rent the track by the day or take an annual track and garage package.

History

The circuit has hosted national karting under successive FPAK homologations. Clube Automóvel do Minho ran the Troféu Bridgestone there in December 2018 and the Champions of the Year meeting with Riakart in November 2023, and the track held rounds of the Campeonato de Portugal de Karting in March 2025 and March 2026. Alongside federation racing, the operator runs its own amateur competitions: the Troféu Kartódromo de Viana, an individual series linked to the Sodi World Series, and the Endurance Championship, which in 2025 consisted of five events from two-hour races to the 7H International Endurance, contested by teams of two to seven drivers.