Grand Nationals 9

Please read the Grand Nationals FAQ, it should answer 99% of your questions!
The GN9 Livestream on will be broadcast on KartChaser!

All of Friday and Saturdays racing action will be streamed for Free. To watch Sunday’s LCQ and Feature, simply sign up for a Kart Chaser subscription for only $9.99

CKNA LiveStream Link

Kart Chaser

Registration opens this week!

Early access begins the afternoon of August 28th at 9am Eastern. If you raced ANY CKNA event in 2025, you will be granted early access by logging into your RaceSelect account!

Registration will open to all on Monday, September 1st!

Grands 9 Penalty Board Link

Grand Nationals FAQ

Grand Nationals 9 News

CKNA’s Grand National is the largest race in the world for 4-cycle karting. GN8 broke every record again, attracting over 600 entries and resetting our mark as the largest 4-cycle event EVER!

The changes to last years schedule we’re so well received, we decided to leave things relatively unchanged from 2024. This means we will be sticking with split format, grouping classes into Morning and Evening sessions on Friday and Saturday. This allows us to accommodate a large number of participants without having 4+ hour waits between races. Lights will be brought in again, allowing us to run past sunset if needed! 

Saturday did get a bit long last year, so we will only be running one of our Saturday Night Featured events this season, the Briggs & Stratton “Outta-the-box” Challenge. This season, we will be featuring the Junior drivers so a whole new set of people will have a chance to participate. Details on that event will be available closer to the event further down this page, and will have a separate registration.

Of course there will still be a huge offering of door prizes and awards for our participants like always. And in typical CKNA form, the majority of those will be randomly drawn for so everybody has a chance to win something great! All of these door prizes will be given away via our Instagram and Facebook pages, so please make sure to follow us there!

As always, New Castle Motorsports Park in Indiana will host us in 2025. This world class facility has the size and staff to handle an event of this magnitude and is widely considered to be one of the best racing surfaces in North America! We are privileged to have such a perfect home for this event.

Registration caps will be enforced immediately at the opening of registration:

Kid Kart = 30

Cadet, Sportsman = 50*

All other classes = 60*

*The first 3 classes to exceed the cap prior to September 14th will be allowed to increase, changing their class to the A/B/C/D format. Depending on entries, we may be able to increase additional classes as well.

Grand Nationals 9 Format

The exact event time line will be finalized a week prior to the event… here is a general overview of the changes this year:

There are no on-track activities on Wednesday. The entire day is set aside to form the largest karting paddock in North America!

Registration staff will be available the majority of the day to get racers checked-in, so PLEASE take advantage of the entire day we have made available to do this. Tire pickup will also be available.

Pre-tech is also available on Wednesday throughout the day. Again, things get CRAZY on Thursday, so please take advantage of the non-racing day to get this out of the way.

All classes will have 4 rounds of scheduled practice. The tentative class order will be:

  • Sportsman
  • Legends
  • Heavy
  • Cadet
  • Kid Kart
  • Light
  • Junior
  • Masters
  • Medium
 

We will also be holding short awards ceremonies for each of our CKNA divisions on Thursday. Each class will have a scheduled time to come to the lobby, stand on the podium and receive their awards. Sr. Light, Medium and Heavy will take place after practice, and the remaining classes will be held throughout the day.

All classes will have Warm-up, Happy Hour and qualifying sessions; followed by their first heat race of the event. Classes will be broken into Morning and Evening sessions.

Morning Session Classes/Order:

  • TBA
  • TBA
  • TBA
  • Kid Kart
  • TBA
 

Evening Sessions Classes/Order:

  • TBA
  • TBA
  • TBA
  • TBA

All classes will have a warm-up session, followed by their second and third heat races. Classes will again be broken into Morning and Evening sessions, but the groups will be flipped. Kid Karts will always run in the Morning session for safety reasons.

Morning Session Classes/Order:

  • TBA
  • TBA
  • TBA
  • Kid Kart
  • TBA
 

Evening Sessions Classes/Order:

  • TBA
  • TBA
  • TBA
  • TBA
 

Saturday will also include the Briggs & Stratton “Outta-the-box” challenge, as well as a BBQ hosted by the great staff at NCMP

Things go back to our traditional Sunday National format. The morning will commence with warm-ups for any drivers who did not transfer automatically to the finals via the heats, followed by Last-Chance-Qualifiers giving those racers an opportunity to race their way into the Finals.

Sadly, not all drivers may make it to their feature race. Classes that had the higher class limits will have the top 56 drivers in heat points automatically transfer to the main event. The remaining drivers will compete in the LCQ race in a last chance scramble where only the top 4 will advance.

We will then re-load the field with all the Final’s competitors and complete a quick round of warm-ups prior to the beginning of the Finals.

As always, each class will line up right on the track and be interviewed live on Kart Chaser!

Sunday’s class order will also revert back to where we started on Thursday:

  • TBA
  • TBA
  • TBA
  • TBA
  • TBA
  • TBA
  • TBA
  • TBA
  • TBA
The final is WINNER TAKE ALL for the title of Grand National Champion

Grand Nationals 9 Class Structure

  • Kid Karts, 5-8 years old (200lbs Kid Kart Chassis / 215lbs Cadet Chassis)
  • Cadet, 8-10 years old (245lbs, Red slide)
  • Sportsman, 10-13 years old (275lbs, Green Slide)
  • Junior, 12-15 years old (320lbs, Yellow Slide)
  • Senior Light, 15+ years old (340lbs)
  • Senior Medium, 15+ years old (365lbs)
  • Senior Heavy, 15+ years old (390lbs)
  • Masters, 35+ years old (390lbs)
  • Legends, 50+ years old (375lbs)

Grand Nationals 9 Fees

  • Pre-entry: $445 (Friday – Sunday)
  • Late fee: $100 (registrations between 9/17 – 9/23)
  • Walk up entry: $595 (registrations after 9/23 only available at the track)
  • Thursday Practice : $75 (This is optional)
  • Event Pit pass: $60
  • Sat-Sun Pit pass: $40
  • Sun only Pit passes: $30
    • (Other than visitors whom remain in the lobby or patio area immediately adjacent to the main building, everybody on the property at NCMP will be required to have a pit pass. Pit Passes are not included with entry, and must be purchased at the track when you arrive.)
  • Reserved Pit Spaces: Starting at $75 (Contact NCMP)
  • Fuel: 87oct sold by NCMP
  • Transponder Rental: $75 for weekend
  • Tires: Current MSRP price (+$10 to cover shipping expenses)
 

Every driver pre-registered by September 9th will receive a complimentary GN9 t-shirt when they check in. Please make sure to select the correct size when registering. One t-shirt per racer regardless of number of classes. We seem to run out of shirts every year because people select the wrong size. Therefor if you would like to swap sizes, we will allow people to COME BACK to registration on Friday and swap your UNWORN shirt if a different size is still available.

All competitors will be required to buy a set of Spec. Vega VAH tires during registration. These will be the tires required for all scored sessions for the weekend.

Spec rain tire is Vega w6. Competitors are not required to buy a set with registration, but must present their rain tires for scanning during the posted times. Competitors not presenting wet tires will be scored as a “Did Not Start” if the Race Director calls for mandatory rain conditions.

A limited number of rain tires will be available for sale at the track, but will be $50 more than they were online. This additional fee will be donated to CKNA’s designated charity organization for this event.

Grands 9 Saturday Night Featured Race:

The Briggs “Outta’ the Box” Challenge

The “Outta’ the Box” Challenge tests the abilities of the team and driver on the most level playing field yet. Teams will be given a brand new Briggs 206 engine for the event, and will compete to see who can install the engine the fastest, and who can go the fastest on the track!

This year, the class will only be open to Junior aged drivers only, because we want a whole new set of teams to undertake the challenge!

Registration for this special event will open closer to the event, and be separate from the Grands 9 Registration system.

Details and rules to follow: