Lil 500 Go-Karts was loud, a little sweaty, and a whole lot of fun. For nearly 54 years, this family-run track handed greater Orlando kids a steering wheel, a gas pedal, and just enough freedom to feel like Richard Petty for three glorious minutes. Grown-ups loved it too, mostly because it was cheap and wore the kids out.
It opened before Walt Disney World. It launched the career of the guy who later built Fun Spot America. It had a giant metal slide that could practically toast your legs in July. And it closed on the family’s own terms in January 2022, with a line of locals waiting for one last lap.
Buckle your four-point harness. Here’s the story.
Table of Contents
First Things First: Maitland or Fern Park?
Ask a longtime local where Lil 500 was, and you’ll almost always hear “Maitland.” That’s fair. The mailing address and most of the publicity said Maitland. Technically, though, 150 Atlantic Drive sat just north of the city on U.S. 17-92 in unincorporated Fern Park, inside Seminole County. When local TV covered the final weekend, reporters correctly called it the Fern Park track that Randy Kline’s parents started.
So yes, it had two hometowns. What it never had was a tourist vibe. This was our place, the one you went to for a birthday, a Saturday with nothing planned, or a reward for surviving a week of school.
Ron and Mary Kline Place Their Bet
The story starts in 1967, when Ron and Mary Kline moved their family to the Orlando area. Ron wasn’t new to this. He’d already owned several businesses, including go-kart tracks, and he and Mary could read the signs. Walt Disney World was coming, and Central Florida tourism was about to take off.
They picked their spot like true racing fans. The site sat between Orlando’s growing tourist corridor and Daytona International Speedway, and the original main track was a pint-sized version of Daytona, complete with recognizable turns and its very own pit area. Daytona had its 500. Fern Park had its own little version.
The gates opened on February 1, 1968. That’s more than three years before Mickey moved in down the road in 1971, which makes Lil 500 a rare survivor from the pre-Disney era of Central Florida roadside fun.
Ron, who went by Ronnie among his industry buddies, ran the place on three rules:
- Welcome families.
- Treat women well.
- Keep the women’s restroom clean.
Mary reportedly checked on rule number three herself. Honestly, a business plan that includes restroom inspections by the co-founder deserves some respect.
The Summer Job That Sparked Fun Spot
Here’s a fun bit of trivia to pull out at your next family cookout: Lil 500 helped give us Fun Spot America.
In the late 1960s, a college student named John Arie Sr. picked up work at Lil 500. At the time, the property had both a go-kart track and a mini-bike track. Ron Kline clearly liked what he saw. He invited Arie to become a part-owner and set him up to run the mini-bike concession around 1971 or 1972.
That was Arie’s first taste of being his own boss in the attractions business. He went on to develop Fun ‘n’ Wheels and later founded Fun Spot America, and he has pointed to Ron Kline as the mentor who got him going.
So the next time you’re screaming your way down a coaster at Fun Spot, tip your cap to a mini-bike track in Fern Park. A good chunk of Orlando’s homegrown amusement history traces back to Atlantic Drive.
That Giant Steel Slide (Ouch, Hot!)
Ask anyone who grew up here in the 1970s about Lil 500, and there’s a good chance they’ll bring up the slide before the karts.
This thing was big. It was a multi-lane slide made of galvanized steel, with a long climb up and a bouncy ride down over a series of humps and dips. No water, no splash pool. Just you, gravity, and a sheet of Florida-baked metal. Anyone who rode it in the summer remembers exactly how hot that steel got, and probably a few of the backs of their legs remember too.
Keeping order at the top was a young Randy Kline, Ron and Mary’s son, who spent part of the 1970s wrangling kids waiting their turn.
Sadly, nothing lasts forever, especially metal in Florida humidity. Randy later explained that the protective coating on the galvanized steel wore away over time, and rust moved in. The family shut down damaged lanes one by one until only two were left, then took the whole slide down for safety.
Here’s the frustrating part for history buffs: nobody seems to have recorded its exact height, how many lanes it started with, who built it, or what year it came down. We know it was up and running by the mid-1970s. We also know people are still talking about it 50 years later, which says plenty.
A Family Affair From Top to Bottom
Randy Kline started working at Lil 500 when he was 12 years old and eventually managed and ran the whole operation. His sisters, Kathy Kline Cirilo and Connie Kline, handled operations and bookkeeping.
Robert Cirilo, Randy’s brother-in-law, later took over daily operations and kept the karts running. By the end, that fleet numbered about 33 go-karts, which is a lot of spark plugs and oil changes. Even the next generation pitched in, as Randy’s son, Robbie, supported the website through his marketing and web-design business.
That family touch was the Lil 500 secret sauce. There was no pricey gate and no all-day wristband. You bought rides one at a time, grabbed a picnic table for a birthday party, or brought the whole team out after a game. The person selling you tickets might have been a Kline, and they probably remembered your face.
Three Tracks, Five Bucks: How Lil 500 Worked
By its final years, Lil 500 ran three tracks, so everyone from preschoolers to hotshot preteens had a place to race:
| Track | Who could ride | Why it was fun |
| Family Track | Mostly young kids, with no minimum age listed | Two-seat karts let a parent drive with a child, and special single cars were also available |
| Moto Track | Ages 8 and up | An off-road-style driving experience |
| Fastrac | Ages 10 and up | The fastest racing on the property, complete with four-point harnesses |
The price? Just $5 per ride on every track at the end, with birthday and group rates on top of that. The park was open from noon to 9 p.m. daily and employed about 12 people.
Sure, a few tourists found their way over from Daytona or International Drive. But the Klines always said locals kept the lights on. Randy talked about watching kids who once raced there come back with their own children, then their grandchildren, and even their great-grandchildren. Four generations of the same family taking laps on the same track is the kind of customer loyalty most businesses can only dream about.
So Why Did the Track Close?
When the news broke, plenty of folks figured money was the problem. Land values, slow sales, the usual suspects. Randy shut that idea down quickly. The park was not closing because of financial trouble.
The real reason was simpler and a lot more human. Ron and Mary Kline died within about a year and a half of each other. Randy had already retired, the remaining family operators were in their 60s, and Robert Cirilo was ready to hang up his wrench, too. There wasn’t another generation ready to take on the long, hands-on days that a kart track demands. Randy also said would-be buyers tended to underestimate just how much work the place required.
The family had kept it in the family for as long as they could. Then they picked a finish line.
The Final Lap
On a Wednesday, the park’s website broke the news: Lil 500 would close for good at 7 p.m. on Saturday, January 8, 2022.
Central Florida responded the way you’d hope. Long lines formed as families rushed in for one more ride, including parents who’d raced there as kids and now stood in line with kids of their own. It was, in a word, bittersweet.
The checkered flag dropped just shy of the track’s 54th birthday.
What Happened to the Property?
Spoiler: it’s not another go-kart track. In May 2022, plans surfaced to swap the old raceway for a three-story, 91,799-square-foot self-storage facility on the roughly 1.5-acre site. The project, called Atlantic Drive Self Storage, was associated with The Nuvo Co.
The plan then made its way through Seminole County’s review process. On May 9, 2023, the county granted future-land-use and zoning approvals for the site. Later that month, county staff recommended vacating portions of a utility easement and relocating a water main so construction could move ahead.
Of course, a stamp of approval isn’t the same as a crew with a backhoe. Long after those votes, locals were still asking online whether anything would ever happen with the old lot.
A Few Mysteries Still in the Pits
For a spot so many people adored, Lil 500 left a surprisingly thin paper trail, especially for its middle decades. Nobody has fully pieced together how the tracks changed over the years, when the mini-bike operation wrapped up, or exactly when the slide came down.
There is one fun clue, though. A 2020 legal notice out of Sanford shows two companies, Zip Slides, Inc. and Maron, Inc., registering the Lil 500 Go-Karts fictitious name at the Fern Park address. “Zip Slides” sure sounds like a wink at that famous slide, and “Maron” could be a mashup of Mary and Ron. It’s a tempting theory, but the notice itself doesn’t confirm it, so let’s file it under “probably, maybe.”
The rest of the answers are likely hiding in old newspaper ads, county permit files, family photo albums, and the memories of folks who worked or raced there. If you’ve got a shoebox of faded snapshots with a kart or two in the background, congratulations. You’re holding a piece of local history.
Why We Still Miss It
Lil 500 never tried to be a theme park, and that was the whole charm. It was gasoline, tire smoke, picnic tables, five-dollar tickets, and a family that knew its regulars. Central Florida grew up and sprawled out all around it, while the little track on 17-92 stayed pretty much the same.
In a region that loves to tear down and rebuild, Lil 500 hung on long enough to become a shared memory for more than half a century of locals. The engines have gone quiet, but those laps still count.
🔥 If you're fascinated by Orlando history like I am, well, there's plenty more where this came from, right here.
Sources:
https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/lil-500-go-karts-closes-after-over-50-years-of-racing-memories
https://www.orlandoweekly.com/arts/maitlands-lil-500-go-karts-was-a-good-time-up-to-its-last-day-31251541/
https://baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2022/01/06/final-lap-for-iconic-lil-500-go-karts
https://blooloop.com/theme-park/in-depth/fun-spot-america-rides/
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2022/01/05/bitter-sweet-ending-lil-500-go-karts-to-close-saturday-after-nearly-54-years/
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/01/05/iconic-lil-500-go-karts-closing-after-54-years/
https://www.storable.com/resources/roll-up-5-25-22/
https://seminolecountyfl.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?m=l&id=/matter.aspx?key=2420
https://www.reddit.com/r/orlando/comments/1h5uc36/is_anything_ever_going_to_happen_with_the_lil_500/
https://www.mysanfordherald.com/article/public-notices-oct-14-2020
