The WKA was founded in 1971 and is located directly behind Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina.
The WKA comprises five national touring series - the Bully Clutches Gold Cup for oval karts, Bridgestone/George Kugler Manufacturer's Cup driven by Mazda for sprint road course karts on asphalt, Vega Road Racing Series presented by Summit Racing Equipment, Briggs & Stratton Speedway Dirt and Rage Karts Speedway Pavement.
The WKA sanctions a number of divisional series and tracks, mostly located throughout the eastern half of the United States.
The Gold Cup Series is a four-race tour with races at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina, G&J Kartway in Camden, Ohio, New Castle Motorsports Park in Indiana and Pitt Race (Formerly BeaveRun) in Wampum, Pennsylvania.
The series competes exclusively on sprint-style road courses and all classes are powered by Briggs & Stratton 4-cycle engines.
Top American race drivers such as Jamie McMurray and A. J. Allmendinger occasionally compete in the series, which travels to locations such as Daytona International Speedway, Michiana Raceway Park in Indiana, Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, New Castle Motorsports Park in New Castle, Ind., Pitt Race (Formerly BeaverRun) in Wampum, Pennsylvania, GoPro Motorplex in Mooresville, North Carolina, and Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Like the Gold Cup, the tracks are sprint-style road courses that are generally around 1 mile (1.6 km) in length.
Again, unlike the other WKA series, road races begin from a Le Mans start.
At road racing events, karts line up in a traditional "Le Mans" style starting formation.
Even four-cycle powered karts reach top speeds around 80 to 90 mph (130 to 145 km/h) at Road Racing events.
WKA road racers reside mostly in the midwest, southeastern, and eastern half of the country.
The series is a five-race tour in 2009, visiting New Castle, Ind., Chapel Hill Raceway in Humphrey, New York, Riverhead Raceway on Long Island, OCR Action Sports Track in Rougemont, North Carolina, and BeaverRun (now Pittrace) in Wampum, Pa.
Unlike sprint-style and enduro-style karts in which the driver sits in the center of the chassis, oval-track karts feature an extreme left driver offset for a high percentage of left-side weight which greatly helps handling on an oval track.