Kart-Club Kerpen

Kart-Club Kerpen e.V. im ADAC runs the historic 1,107-metre outdoor layout known as the Erftlandring and Raceworld Kerpen, in Kerpen, in the Rhein-Erft district, 25 km west of Cologne. This is the karting club where Michael Schumacher, seven-time Formula 1 world champion, and his brother Ralf learned to drive, taking their first laps in the 1970s, when their father Rolf worked at the circuit.

An ADAC-affiliated club, it regularly hosts national competitions, the IAME Series Germany and the Rotax MAX Challenge Germany, in the Mini, Junior, Senior, DD2 and DD2 Masters categories. On site, a webcam streams the track live, and there is a restaurant, a campsite for drivers entered over several days, a kart shop, a rental track known as the Rookie-Track or Raceworld Kerpen for amateur sessions, and the KCK Kartschule school for training young drivers. The club addresses racers of all levels as well as families and enthusiasts.

Kerpen lies in the Rhein-Erft district, 25 km west of Cologne, 30 km south-west of Düsseldorf and 80 km north of Aachen, near the Belgian border. Cologne raises its 157 m Gothic cathedral, UNESCO-listed, alongside the Römisch-Germanisches Museum and the chocolate museum. Aachen keeps the palatine chapel of Charlemagne, from 805, the first site inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1978, Brühl lines up the UNESCO-listed Augustusburg palace, the Phantasialand park is 15 km to the south, and Düsseldorf, with its Königsallee, closes the horizon to the north-east.