Pallas Karting

Overview

Pallas Karting is an outdoor karting and activity centre at Tynagh, near Loughrea in east County Galway. Brothers Michael and Tom Moloney own it and run it as a family business. Besides karting, the site offers paintball, splatball and a learner driving school. Most visitors come as groups: stag and hen parties, corporate team-building days, school trips, Transition Year classes and children's parties. Individual drivers can also book sessions online. Racing clubs use the circuit as well. Tullyallen Kart Club, which calls itself Ireland's largest kart club, holds rounds of its championship there and the Rallysport Association has run rally sprint events on the site.

Technical Specifications and Track Features

The centre has two karting tracks. The main circuit is the 1500-metre Advanced GP F1 track, which the centre describes as the longest karting track in Europe and calls a sweeping layout that tests every part of a driver's ability. It is open to drivers aged 16 and over who have some driving experience. The centre's earlier website gave its width as 11 metres and said that both tracks are timed. On the GP track the centre runs Sodi SR5 karts with 13 hp GX390 engines. The 500-metre Beginners Track is for children, families and novices, with a minimum age of 10 and a minimum height of 137 centimetres. Its BIZ Evo 3 karts have 6.5 hp GX200 engines and reach up to 55 km/h. Sessions on either track are sold in 15- and 30-minute blocks, and groups of eight or more can book a package that combines half an hour on the GP track with paintball. The driving school uses a wider network of roads and track of about 2.5 kilometres.

Facilities and Specialized Areas

Pallas Early Learning Driving School shares the site and teaches learners on the private network of roads and track, away from public traffic. It takes pupils from the age of 15 and requires no licence or provisional licence. Its dual-control cars give one-to-one tuition, so pupils can build confidence before moving on to public roads with an instructor. The paintball and splatball complex sits beside the tracks. Paintball is for players aged 14 and over, while splatball is open from the age of 10. The site also has a 2.2-kilometre configuration for rally events, and a 2015 rallycross round ran on a circuit that combined part of the kart track with new gravel sections. The centre also points visitors to accommodation in nearby Portumna, Loughrea, Gort and Ballinasloe.

History

According to the driving school, the family turned their small suckler cow farm into a karting track and has kept expanding it ever since. The karting centre opened its doors in 1995, and the site now advertises thirty years in business. Over the years it has also hosted car competitions. In May 2015, County Kildare Motor Club ran a round of the national rallycross championship on the new mixed tarmac and gravel circuit. Later, the Rallysport Association brought its rally sprint series to Tynagh. The National Karting Championships have been held at Pallas every year since 1999.