Full Throttle — 145 Products

Phone: 833-351-5278

Full Throttle Indoor Karting was the brainchild of two friends and racing fans. Aaron Banfield and Joe O’Gorman were both IT professionals working together at Cintas Corporation. The two were friends, and their lunch conversations were often about racing. Both men were amateur racers, lifelong racing fans, and had the desire to be self employed – ideally in something related to racing.

Banfield started looking more closely at the Indoor Karting industry and realized there was a great opportunity in Cincinnati to open a centrally located, high quality indoor karting facility. He convinced his friend, O’Gorman to “take a look” at his rough cut idea. The two started working on their plan, and looked at multiple buildings, asked a lot of questions and eventually had enough information to make their first loan application with the Small Business Administration. Their loan application was graciously denied, but they took away some key points to be more ready for the next attempt.

The two friends were persistent, and tried a different approach. They put together an information packet, and began seeking external investors. They pitched the idea to dozens of people, and managed to find 13 that were willing to invest a small amount of money to take a risk on this startup venture. They went back to the SBA, and with their group of investors, were able to secure a loan, a lease, and put their plan in place.

Construction started in June of 2011, and they were ready for customers on September 3rd , 2011. Full Throttle Indoor Karting opened its door with a 51,000 square foot facility, a fleet of 18 adult karts, and 10 youth karts. Customer response was overwhelming, and the pair of newly found entrepreneurs had to adapt to the demand quickly. The staff grew from the original forecast of 20 employees to nearly 40.