Motokáry Dlhá: the track that the village plan called a traffic park

On 14 August 2014 at 18:00, in the culture house of the village of Dlhá, mayor Rudolf Braniša opened a public hearing on an investment that official papers gave the modest name “Športovo-rekreačný areál”, that is, a sports and recreation centre. Behind that name was an asphalt track 1095 m long, entered in the project as building structure SO-05, and it was the subject of the dispute. The hall split into supporters, opponents and those who only listened. Less than three years later karts were already running on the field at the foot of the Little Carpathians, and today the same asphalt is also rented out to drivers of passenger cars, half an hour at a time for a group of at most three cars.

Location	Dlhá, Trnava District, Trnava Region, Slovakia; a field north-west of the village, by road III/50216, about 900 m from the village according to the 2014 acoustic study
Type	asphalt karting track, also open to motorcycles, passenger cars and autoslalom events
Length	1095 m
Width	7 to 10 m
Corners	7 left and 12 right, 9 straights (according to the operator)
Direction	clockwise; on selected days motorcycles run the opposite way
Opened	spring 2017
Operator	Motokáry Dlhá, s.r.o. (until June 2018 AUREKO-J.O., spol. s r.o.)
Main events	Slovenský kartingový pohár (including 2019 and 2020), autoSLALOMSHOW Cup (2024 and 2025)
Status	active

An idea over a beer, a field by Matildin dvor

According to a report by the TopSpeed.sk portal from March 2017, it all began one evening over a beer. Two friends, Juraj Oravec and Milan Vandák, both formerly involved in karting, came up with their own track; at first they dropped the idea, then decided to build a facility of a kind that, as the author wrote, Slovakia did not yet have. The first obstacle turned out to be land, because a large compact plot was hard to find. One was found below the village of Dlhá in Trnava District: according to official documents it was parcel no. 1525/2 with an area of 58,609 m², arable land north-west of the village, by local road III/50216, which links Dlhá with road II/502 between Doľany and Dolné Orešany.

Dlhá has 437 inhabitants (as of the end of 2021), and its first mention dates from 1296. In the plans the area was named “Pri Matildinom dvore”, that is, “by Matilda's manor”; Matildin dvor is a neighbouring built-up locality listed in the same documents. Before construction the regional monuments office in Trnava demanded archaeological supervision of the earthworks. A settlement from the New Stone Age had been recorded in the municipality's cadastre, and roughly 50 m south of the building site vegetation marks pointed to a vanished structure of unknown age. Whether the supervision found anything, the available sources do not say.

First a track, then a traffic park

The first attempt failed. A letter from the municipality of April 2014 shows that on 27 June 2012 the investors presented the municipal council with an application to change the zoning plan for a motorsport centre with a karting track, and on 1 August 2012 the council did not agree. A second application, filed on 21 November 2012, spoke of sport and recreation. The council adopted it on 12 December 2012 in this form: a guesthouse with a restaurant, a tent and camping site, a traffic park for educating children of preschool and school age, tennis courts, a recreation zone.

The plan change, numbered 3/2013, was prepared by the Trnava studio A5 Ateliér. It designated area R1 of 5.8609 ha, which turned from farmland into a sports and recreation area of supra-regional importance. The municipal council passed the change on 8 October 2013. The rules written into the plan for this area speak of a centre whose predominant function is the sports education of children of preschool and school age, and list a guesthouse, a tent site, a traffic park for children and young people, courts for tennis, volleyball, minigolf and streetball, cycle paths and a recreation zone; they say not a word about karts.

Building structure SO-05

At the end of March 2014 Juraj Oravec and Milan Vandák submitted documentation for an environmental impact assessment to the District Office in Trnava. The centre was to serve the sports education of children of preschool and school age, residents' recreation, and also as a manoeuvring area for driving schools and novice drivers; a small kart rental was allowed as an alternative option. The project included a service building, 20 garages, two tennis courts, 40 parking spaces and training track SO-05: 1095 m, 7 to 10 m wide, surfaced with two layers of asphalt concrete on 40 cm of aggregate. The regional portal trnava-live.sk estimated the cost at 940,000 euros and reported that construction was to start in June 2014 and finish at the beginning of summer 2016.

The municipality replied on 7 April 2014. The council regarded the track as a fundamental departure from the approved intention and demanded that structure SO-05 be replaced with a traffic park for children, that karts and motorcycles with two-stroke engines be excluded, that a noise barrier embankment planted with trees be built, and that the project undergo a full environmental impact assessment. On 13 May 2014 the office ruled that the project did indeed have to go through the full procedure.

An evening at the culture house

The August hearing was attended by the mayor, two councillors, Milan Vandák on behalf of the investors, representatives of the designer and of the author of the report, two representatives of the public concerned and 23 other members of the public. As the office recorded, some of them supported the investment: young girls said there was nothing in the village and even the pub was closed; one of the councillors added that the number of residents was falling and only the shop was left. Opponents, among them residents of the upper end of the village, voiced fears at the hearing and in letters to the office about noise, exhaust fumes, houses being flooded with water from 15,000 m² of paved surface on clay soil, and game being scared away. Asked who would guarantee there would be no driving at night, the representative of the report's author replied that the operating rules are approved by the municipal council and the office can order an inspection.

Acousticians from the Bratislava firm EUROAKUSTIK measured kart runs on a test section at a karting track in Bratislava. They assumed the centre would operate from 16:00 to 20:00 and that karts would complete 350 laps in total during that time; they found that at the nearest protected point outside buildings the limits would not be exceeded. The company Matilda from Bratislava, represented by a lawyer, commissioned its own assessment for a family house in Matildin dvor, 220 m away according to that assessment. It concluded that with eight karts on the track the limits would be exceeded and an earth embankment would not be enough. In the office's final opinion its conclusions were summarised, among others, by this sentence:

The name of the construction is misleading, since this is a classic racing karting track with all aspects of environmental impact.

The draft operating rules of July 2014 divided the week: on Thursdays from 9:00 to 14:00 the track was to be, on request, a mobile traffic park for children, and from Tuesday to Sunday from 14:00 to 21:00 a karting track. The noise barrier embankment was to be 2.5 m high and grown over mainly with deciduous trees. At most ten four-stroke karts with a Honda GX 270 engine could run on the track at the same time, at speeds of up to 60 km/h.

On 27 October 2014 the District Office in Trnava issued its final opinion, recommending implementation subject to conditions. Among them were four-stroke karts only and a ban on taking them outside the centre, operating rules with a riding schedule and number of drivers, official confirmation of the kart's maximum speed, check measurements of noise at the handover of the construction, a planted embankment and archaeological research.

April 2017

Today's operator, the company Motokáry Dlhá, has been in the commercial register since 4 December 1996. It was founded as AUREKO-J.O., spol. s r.o., with Juraj Oravec among its partners; in June 2016 the partners changed, Milan Vandák joined them, and running sports facilities, a camping site and garages was added to the company's business activities. As publisher of the centre's website it still signed under its old name in May 2018.

The TopSpeed.sk report of 5 March 2017 described the centre as already operating, although the final details on the track were still being finished. According to the author, the zoning plan change alone took a year, the permits almost three years and construction a little over a year and a half; the investors designed the track profile and the facilities themselves, and in time took on a third partner. In March drivers with their own karts could go out on the track, and a rental with Sodi RT8 karts was announced for the beginning of April. The centre's website, captured by the internet archive in May 2017, announced those karts from 15 April 2017, and the price list gave 10 euros per person for 10 minutes and 150 euros for an hour's rental of the whole track.

The author of the report called the track the fourth longest in Europe, and the operator still advertises it as the longest in Slovakia. The latter claim should be read with a caveat: the Slovak Karting Center at Slovakia Ring gives a length of 1172 m on its website. Since 14 June 2018 the company has been called Motokáry Dlhá, s.r.o.

A cup, slalom and motorcycles the wrong way round

The KartingSport.sk service was inviting people to kart races in Dlhá as early as 13 May 2017. The regulations of the fifth round of the Slovenský kartingový pohár series, held here on 17 August 2019 by the association Karting Team Topoľčany, described the track as run clockwise, 1097 m long and 6 to 10 m wide. A year later Dlhá hosted the third round of that series, on 22 August 2020.

In recent seasons the track has taken autoslalom. The autoSLALOMSHOW Cup series opened its 2024 and 2025 seasons in Dlhá (30 March 2024 and 12 April 2025) and returned here towards the end of the season, on 26 October 2024 and 20 September 2025. In the results of the September 2025 round, recorded under the name “GoKart Dlhá”, the shortest combined time, 3:39.124, belongs to Filip Krajčovič in a kart entered as “GoKart 125”, and second is Ľuboš Čelin in a Tesla.

The operator also organises its own amateur races under the name Dlhovský výfuk (výfuk is Slovak for exhaust) on its own karts, drawn by lot before qualifying: for September 2025 it planned a sprint for ten karts and a two-hour race for two-person teams. On selected days, most often on Mondays, the track belongs to motorcycles. A day ticket costs 40 euros, every machine is measured before going out, the exhaust must be standard, and noise at full throttle must not exceed 100 dB. In the calendar some of these days carry the note “opačný smer”, that is, riding in the opposite direction; groups booking karts can add such a run for 10 euros.

Half an hour for three cars

For the amateur driver the most interesting part is the standing offer “Jazda vlastným osobným autom”, that is, renting the track for your own car. The date is arranged by email, and bookings are taken for days from Monday to Saturday, between 9:00 and 16:00; half an hour costs 120 euros including VAT, and you drive in groups of at most three cars. Only standard road-registered passenger cars are admitted, with a standard exhaust system, no tuning and no race cars; the driver must hold a driving licence and be at least 18, and wearing a helmet is mandatory. Before going out you pay a 100 euro deposit, refunded if the barriers are left untouched, and for moving the barriers the operator charges at least 100 euros excluding VAT. Driving is on the asphalt only, cutting corners across the grass is forbidden, and the safety rules are signed on site.

Anyone who needs the track for longer can rent it without karts: an hour costs 210 euros from Monday to Thursday and 250 euros from Friday to Sunday, a full day until 19:00 2,000 and 2,500 euros respectively, all including VAT. Owners of private karts and minibikes pay 35 euros a day, but give way to rental customers and do not ride on Sundays and public holidays. The rental has 12 Sodi RT10 karts with a 9 hp Honda engine; 10 minutes cost 14 euros, and from October to March karts are rented only by prior arrangement.

Next to the track stand a restaurant with a 70-seat terrace overlooking the track, a playground, a pumptrack bicycle track opened on 1 May 2021, and the Karavan Town campsite, which according to the operator opened in spring 2022. On the home page the operator posts the track record, 1:04.384, without saying who set it, in what, or when. Anyone who wants to take their own car onto the track signs, before driving, a declaration headed “Športovo oddychový areál pre deti a mládež”, that is, “sports and leisure centre for children and young people”. Below it there is space left for the date and signature: “v Dlhej, dňa”.