Motorsport Guide
Every way to race, explained
From your first rental kart session to a full racing license, every motorsport discipline calls for different gear. Learn the differences, then use the gear finder below to see exactly what you need.
Eight ways into motorsport
Every discipline below has its own vehicles, culture and gear requirements. None of this is legal or safety advice for a specific series — always confirm exact requirements with your sanctioning body or track before you race.
Competitive Karting
Competitive karting runs on dedicated kart circuits in sprint and endurance formats, with classes split by driver age, engine type and chassis spec. It's the most common entry point into motorsport and the proving ground most professional car racers came through first.
- Vehicle
- Small, lightweight, open-wheel karts — engine size and chassis class vary by category and age group.
Rental / Arrive-and-Drive Karting
Arrive-and-drive karting is run at indoor and outdoor rental tracks where the facility supplies the kart, helmet and often a suit. It's built for casual visitors, corporate groups and birthday parties, not for owning personal race gear.
- Vehicle
- Rental karts are detuned for consistency and durability across many drivers per day, not outright speed.
Circuit / Road Racing
Circuit racing covers everything from club track days to national touring car and single-seater championships, run on permanent or temporary closed circuits. It's the broadest category of car racing and the one most sanctioning bodies build their licensing structure around.
- Vehicle
- Anything from production-based touring cars to open-wheel single-seaters, depending on the series.
Drag Racing
Drag racing pits two vehicles side by side over a short, fixed distance — most commonly a quarter mile — decided purely on reaction time and elapsed time. It ranges from grassroots bracket racing to professional categories.
- Vehicle
- From street-legal cars at grassroots events to purpose-built dragsters in professional categories.
Rally & Rallycross
Rally racing runs timed stages on public or closed roads across varied surfaces — gravel, tarmac, snow — with a co-driver calling pace notes. Rallycross compresses that into short, mixed-surface circuits raced wheel-to-wheel.
- Vehicle
- Modified road cars through purpose-built rally cars, depending on class and championship.
Autocross & Track Days
Autocross (also called solo or motorkhana in some regions) runs one car at a time against the clock through a cone course in a parking lot or airfield. Track days let you drive your own road car on a real circuit in a controlled, non-competitive session.
- Vehicle
- Your own road car in almost all cases — little to no modification required to get started.
Endurance Racing
Endurance racing runs for a fixed long duration — from a few hours to 24 — with multiple drivers sharing one car in rotation. Comfort and consistency across a long stint matter as much as outright protection.
- Vehicle
- Production-based to purpose-built prototypes, shared between two or more drivers per car.
Oval / Short Track Racing
Oval and short-track racing runs on banked or flat circular circuits, from local dirt short tracks to national stock car series. Close, high-contact racing puts a premium on durable, certified protection.
- Vehicle
- Purpose-built oval and stock cars, ranging from entry-level local classes to national touring series.
Tell us how you race. We'll tell you what you need.
Step 1 — Your Discipline
Step 2 — Your Level
Common questions
What's the difference between karting suits and car racing suits?+
Karting suits are typically built to the CIK-FIA Level 2 standard, which focuses on abrasion resistance rather than fire protection. Car racing suits used in circuit, drag, rally and oval racing are multi-layer, fire-resistant garments rated to standards like FIA 8856 or SFI 3.2A, because the fire risk profile of car racing is different from karting.
Do I need a race suit for rental go-kart racing?+
Usually not. Most rental and arrive-and-drive karting facilities supply a suit and helmet as part of the session. Personal gear only becomes relevant once you move into owned karting or competitive classes.
What racing suit rating do I need for drag racing?+
Most drag racing sanctioning bodies scale the required suit rating to your car's elapsed time or trap speed — faster cars require higher-rated, multi-layer suits. The exact threshold varies by series and class, so always confirm with your specific sanctioning body's current rulebook before you race.
Can beginners get custom racewear, or is that only for teams?+
Custom racewear isn't limited to professional teams. Many first-time racers start with a stock or lightly customized suit and move to a fully custom, private-label kit once they're racing regularly — a manufacturer can usually scope either approach.
How do I know which motorsport discipline is right for me?+
Most drivers start with rental or competitive karting because it's the most accessible and affordable route into motorsport, then move toward circuit racing, drag racing, rally or oval racing based on which style of driving and vehicle interests them most.
Do rally co-drivers need the same gear as the driver?+
Yes. Rally and rallycross sanctioning bodies generally require both the driver and co-driver to wear the same category of certified, fire-resistant suit.
Ready to gear up?
Whether you need one suit or a full team kit, our manufacturing team can scope it — stock, custom or private label.