What’s Up, Wake

Join us for an exciting conversation with Adam Saad, the owner of Rush Hour Karting, as we explore the turbocharged world of high-speed indoor go-kart racing. From its beginnings in Garner in 2005 to its expansion into Morrisville in 2023, Rush Hour Karting has become a top destination for adrenaline seekers. Adam shares the story of how the business started, the challenges they faced — including a major economic downturn — and the bold renovations that rejuvenated the Garner location. Discover the unique amenities they offer, from multi-level tracks and super-fast gas and electric go-karts to ax-throwing, rock climbing, and cutting-edge virtual reality experiences. Don't miss Adam's insights on running a family business, the importance of constant innovation, and the future of go-kart racing. Whether you're a serious racer or looking for family fun, this episode has something for everyone.

00:00 Introduction to Rush Hour Karting
01:23 Meet the Owner: Adam Saad
01:44 The Origins of Rush Hour Karting
03:43 Challenges and Growth
05:55 Renovating the Garner Location
10:09 Family Business Dynamics
14:21 Gas vs. Electric Carts
15:58 The Thrill of Gas vs. Electric Go-Karts
16:13 Overcoming Trust Issues with Family Go-Karting
16:43 The Stress-Relieving Power of Racing
17:50 North Carolina's Racing Legacy
18:26 From Go-Karting to Professional Racing
19:56 The Challenges of Business Changes
20:48 Renovation Success and Customer Feedback
23:01 The Super Fleet: A New Era of Go-Karts
25:23 Lightning Round: Favorite Race Car Movies and More
27:53 Final Thoughts and Where to Find Us

Creators and Guests

Host
Melissa
Host of What's Up, Wake + social media manager + writer + travel editor

What is What’s Up, Wake?

What’s Up, Wake covers the people, places, restaurants, and events of Wake County, North Carolina. Through conversations with local personalities from business owners to town staff and influencers to volunteers, we’ll take a closer look at what makes Wake County an outstanding place to live. Presented by Cherokee Media Group, the publishers of local lifestyle magazines Cary Magazine, Wake Living, and Main & Broad, What’s Up, Wake covers news and happenings in Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and Wake Forest.

32 - What's Up Wake - GoCarts
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[00:00:00]

Melissa: Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. We are in for a treat today as we get to know the owner of the triangle's.

Undoubtedly most turbocharged destination, its first location in Garner, opened in 2005 and the second followed suit in Morrisville in 2023. Boasting the first multi-level indoor track in the state with super fast carts as well as ax [00:01:00] throwing a rock wall, massive jumbotrons, restaurant spaces, arcades.

It's quite literally a one-stop shop for all day adventure. My family has spent countless hours there over the years, so I'm going into this conversation with some spectator knowledge, but I'm excited to get to know the leader of the pit crew.

It's time to rev up the fun and have a really good time. Please welcome the owner of Rush Hour carting. Adam Sod.

Adam Saad: Well, hello Melissa. Thank you so much for having me today. I'm

Melissa: really excited to talk to you. Like I said, my family has been coming to rush hour for years. This is my first time officially meeting you.

I've seen you at a couple like media events and stuff. Yeah. But you're always busy, so. It's very nice to meet you. Nice

Adam Saad: to meet you. Thank you so much.

Melissa: I didn't realize until I was doing my research that you started rush hour with your brother and cousin.

Adam Saad: Mm-hmm.

Melissa: And that you come from a family who already has a well-known, established business in our area.

Garner TV and Appliance, which is now Garner or

Adam Saad: Appliance [00:02:00] and mattresses. Okay. I have to,

Melissa: I'm gonna have to get used to saying that new name. So how and why did you guys decide to branch out and open an indoor carting facility?

Adam Saad: That is the million dollar question. I kick myself every morning asking that same question.

So, 2005 when we opened up. Before that, though, several years earlier, , my cousin who was big into the go-karting, we were not really big into go-karting, but. He always saw it as an opportunity he kept pushing it into our heads and we're like, there's no way. Nobody's gonna do high speed racing.

Nobody's gonna spend $20 on a race. You know, we're used to the family centers like Adventure Landing, where you pay $2 50 cents, now it's $5 a race, nobody's gonna pay $20 a race. Mm-hmm. And we kept saying, that's a stupid idea. Stupid idea. And then we started doing some research and this high speed racing is huge in Europe and in Asia.

the main thing companies, team building company in, in the early two thousands, late nineties, that's a huge buzzword. Companies were trying to find good ways to retain the, your top talent. It's not just so much about money anymore, it's about the, the extra [00:03:00] benefits, the joy of the company. So company outings was huge then.

So looking into team building and things like that. Yeah. Team building, team bonding is, is really becoming a big buzzword. Mm-hmm. So looking into that and seeing how operations worked in, you know, I said in Europe, Asia, um, was becoming really big. So, and there was about 40 of these places in the country, that's it, 40 in the entire country.

Melissa: with the, with the fast tracks, with multilevel. Oh, there's, yeah,

Adam Saad: there's, there's thousands of the little kitty with the go-kart with the butt next to the put putt. Exactly. But only 40 real carting like ours. So we said, let's give it a shot. So 2004, we bought the land, built the building.

2005 we bought the go-karts and we opened it up to our surprise, it, it took off.

Melissa: Right away. Rush hour was a hit.

Adam Saad: Uh, definitely not right away because there was the learning curve when we first started selling it to people.

Corporate being our big thing. So we'd get in touch and I was doing all the cold sales myself and. Find the, uh, lead person in the company to talk to. Finally convinced 'em that we're new, all you know, great carts, fancy [00:04:00] building, blah, blah, blah. And they're like, great. I'll bring my kids over.

It's a good, my grandkids are coming next weekend. No, leave your grandkids. We want you and your company and your do. Okay, so explain that. So we changed our tagline. Am I wearing a shirt? You can't even really it, but what we didn't change our original tagline. Serious adult fun. Mm-hmm. So kind of encourage people.

So we had that huge learning curve to get over that. These are carts meant for you, where an adult can be a kid again.

Melissa: Yes.

Adam Saad: Then our momentum started taking off and then came 2008. And you probably weren't alive yet, Melissa, in 2008, but we had That

Melissa: is hilarious. I love you. I knew I was gonna like you, Adam.

Adam Saad: We had a really, really big problem happen with the economies, you know, the big bust.

Melissa: Yes. And so

Adam Saad: that brought us all the way back down to ground zero. It even below ground zero. So me and my two partners, we took, uh, refinanced our houses, took everything we could to put money back in the business, and then we redeveloped ourselves.

We found out that a lot of the big companies, like in this area, you know, we have SaaS. Cisco. Mm-hmm. Lenovo, all these companies they would do this extravagant team outings where they would take their company to Mexico or to Las Vegas or a cruise. Now that times are [00:05:00] tight. So we started approaching them and say, you know, forget the big extravagant, um, bonanza, bring your crew to rush hour carting.

It's a lot less expensive, it's more affordable, it's more reasonable, you know, uh, media-wise to do something like that. So. We established ourselves as the affordable company Audi. And then from there it started growing again As the economy got better and we reestablished our mojo.

Melissa: I think I'm coming from the other side that you didn't really want, which is just the family coming in.

Adam Saad: Oh, no. We want everybody trust it. I know. I

Melissa: do. I do know you want everybody. I do think that when you opened Morrisville, I looked at Morrisville as close to RTP. Yeah. Yeah. That seemed to be more conducive to the, the company atmosphere. Absolutely does. Yeah. Um, and the having the, the team groups coming over.

I continued to look at, at look at Garner's location as kind of the, the families like me going Then you, you flipped everything on its head this year.

Adam Saad: Yeah.

Melissa: And you decided to renovate the Garner location as [00:06:00] well.

Why did you decide to renovate the, , garner location?

Adam Saad: So, um, 20 years, we, this is our 20th anniversary. We up in 2005. This is 2025. And the one thing I've learned in business is if you stay complacent. You just are happy with how things are just rolling around. You're gonna die, somebody's gonna get your lunch.

Mm-hmm. You gotta constantly reinvent yourself. You gotta constantly evaluate the market, see what's changing, and you have got to go at it or else you will die. Like I said, other people will be, will figure out what you're doing wrong and they'll take advantage of that. So part of the growth, part of the, uh, the reconstructing was let's give garner the boost in the arm like we did in RTP.

So when RTP came about, now it's, it's the new, shiny, beautiful thing with the big jumbotron and yeah, all the new fancy video games and whatnot. So every time I'd walk into Garner, there'd be a tile coming down here. This outlet wasn't working, the coffee machine was broken. It was always something little.

It just started really annoying me. You, I was tired of putting bandaids on it. Mm-hmm. Then 20 years we had RTP. I was like, you know what? Forget this, we gotta [00:07:00] do it. Right. So. We said if we're gonna stay in business here in Garner. 'cause our other option was close it down in Garner. This is R TP is making all the money now Garner.

Oh, really? Wasn't losing money, but it was staying flat.

Melissa: Oh, okay. And so our options

Adam Saad: were, let's just sell and concentrate on RTP. And that's a, that's a losing attitude if you ask me because you, we have a good idea. We have a good venture. It's just, it's old. And you would've had a lot of

Melissa: upset people because In my family, like your family father.

Yeah.

Adam Saad: So we borrowed three and a half million dollars. It ended up actually costing four and a half million dollars because of everything that's going on right now with the tariffs and the uncertainty. It's amazing how there's no stable prices. You sign signed with a builder for one price and it's up a hundred thousand dollars next month.

I mean, it was crazy. Yeah, it was ridiculous. We went over a million dollars over budget, but yet the whole project was four and a half million dollars and we gutted out the whole entire thing. Yeah. And we wanted to make it a more state of the art. B, we wanted to add more amenities. So back in the day when we first opened up, all you needed was one amenity to really survive.

And we had fast go-karts. We had really nothing else. We had a restaurant, we had a few video games, but [00:08:00] really just fast go-karts.

Melissa: Go-karts, yeah.

Adam Saad: These days though, you can't survive off of one amenity. It's, we're an arena called FEC Family Entertainment Centers. And now we got Topgolf everywhere and these high-end movie theaters and bowling arenas, and there's so much more competition in this.

High-end FECs that you cannot operate on one standing amenity. So you gotta have more. And I mean, you've seen, I dunno if you've seen, but like acting facilities open and close left and right. Mm-hmm. We've had, uh, golf driving simulator places open and close 'cause they had just one thing to rely on.

Mm-hmm. You gotta be able to entertain multiple people. You. That's one showing how times have changed that we had to adapt to. So now when we reopen Garner, we added driving simulators. We got the big virtual reality time, mission room. I dunno if you saw that is really cool. I did not. I

Melissa: heard about it.

Oh, it's

Adam Saad: phenomenal. Um, multiple lanes of ax throwing. We got the rock wall we added. Great. And just, you've only seen half the video games. Now we got another 50 video games coming. That place is gonna be full. Wow. It's gonna be completely Chuck e. Cheese on steroids when we're done with it.

Melissa: It, it really is a [00:09:00] location.

That is for everyone. You might be intending it for the, the serious adult fund that, that is on your tagline. But like, well, lemme tell you a little

Adam Saad: bit about serious adult Fund since you mentioned that up. Mm-hmm. So here was our mindset, uh, and well, not our mindset, here's what actually evolved out of it.

So serious adult fund. 'cause we were trying to figure a way to educate people that we are not about kitties, we're about adults. Mm-hmm. But of course, you know, we have junior cards for ages eight years and up.

Melissa: Yeah.

Adam Saad: But here's what I learned, that demographic. Will come organically. If one kid, all it takes is one kid to have a birthday party with five other kids, all five of those kids are gonna want to have their parties there.

Definitely. And all the parents are gonna wanna bring their other, you know, their siblings, kids over here. Mm-hmm. And it just develops on its own. Like wildfires. So I never, ever advertise for kids doing promotions for kids because I want all my advertising promotion to come to adults. No company wants to bring their kid to a, or bring their company to a Chuck E.

Cheese. So if they get the illusion, it's all about marketing. You know? All about marketing. Yeah, very true. Change that mindset. Mm-hmm. So if we convince people that we are there for the [00:10:00] adults, we are there for the adults, we get more corporate crowds. And like I said, the kids are gonna come automatically on Saturday and Sundays, and the company's gonna come Monday through Friday.

So it works out beautifully like that.

Melissa: You mentioned marketing, and I'm thinking about how you grew up with a family business.

Adam Saad: Mm-hmm.

Melissa: And. Did, did, did all of this just come naturally ingrained to you? Did you open a business and, and hit the ground running because you kind of, you kind of had a blueprint, at least of as to how a business should run?

Did you use some of what you learned from your family,

Adam Saad: Melissa? Many, many, many years of lots of alcohol and drugs, if you wanna know the honest truth.

Melissa: Okay. All right. Spill it. Yeah,

Adam Saad: yeah, yeah. A little bit of everything. Yeah. I grew up with my family business, garner TV and appliance. Mm-hmm. I mean, before I, well before I could drive, basically after I could walk, I was delivering refrigerators and washers and dryers.

I mean, yeah, they, they cracked the way, put us to work from the get go. But yeah, they, they ingrained in us a sense of, um, entrepreneurship, which I'm very grateful for. [00:11:00] Yeah, we just took it and looked for an opportunity, and the opportunity was team building, company outing. Mm-hmm. So yeah, we used everything we could and still involved with the family business today, so we all help each other out.

Melissa: Okay. Yeah, I, I always hear both sides of the whole idea of doing business with family. Never do it. Highly recommend it. So what would you say is, would be your advice for, for somebody going into business with family members?

Adam Saad: Do it with caution. Yeah. Every business I've ever been a part of or or f friends that I know, it's always the same.

It, it's never, it's, it sounds good on paper. Then when you execute it. There's a lot of checks and balances, you end up correcting a lot of stuff. Garner TV appliance had some problems with same family members and found a nice exit. Our business, same thing. My cousin's no longer with us. Um, we just couldn't see head to head on a lot of things, but we found a good way to exit and now I got a smooth, much smoother harmony, just me and my brother there.

So now I definitely recommend family business 'cause nobody will trust more than your family. But I think the main problem is it's not so much about [00:12:00] trust family stealing from you, but it's about you have so much passion about it. Everybody feels a little bit differently. So my passion thinks I should do things X and your passion says you should do things Y.

So we both have the right attitude and the right loyalty to it, but it's just we have different visions mm-hmm. Of how to get there. Mm-hmm. So I think that's the problem, just not seeing eye to eye, but just so you have a good way to get out of it or to resolve it, you'll be fine.

Melissa: How do you work through the differences like that?

You know, you're talking about with your brother therapy,

Adam Saad: I was

Melissa: about to say, do you go into the, the boxing ring?

Adam Saad: A lot of vacation to separate for each other. But at the end of the day, if you're, if it's not working out, look, you don't wanna go somewhere where you're not happy every day.

And if it's not working out, you're, I. And you're misery go home and cry to the wife every night, it's not worth it. So,

Melissa: yeah,

Adam Saad: you gotta find a way to make yourself happy and

Melissa: it's not worth messing up a relationship too. And the, you know, at the end of the day, which I'm sure is hard at times. It

Adam Saad: is. And I'm very happy to say with my business on tv, all of our businesses and all my, well, not all my friends, but [00:13:00] most people that I know when they do exit with the other family, keeping the good relationship is so important.

Yeah. So you can still see each other for Christmas years. Definitely. You don't wanna work together every day. Definitely.

Melissa: Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yeah, it's like not talking about politics at the dinner table. Sometimes you have to separate, you gotta some things.

Adam Saad: Exactly.

Melissa: [00:14:00] Okay. The Garner location has gas carts.

Exactly. And the Morrisville location has electric carts. Yes. You just renovated the garner location, like we mentioned. Now both tracks are multi-level tracks. Yes, the the carts are really fast. Is it true that they go 40 miles an hour? Is that right? And how do, how am I letting my kids

Adam Saad: back to the marketing side of it?

It is definitely true. They go 40 miles an hour, but they will not get 40 on the track because by the time you get close speed, you can make a turn.

Melissa: Yeah, that's true. There are a lot of turns on the track. Okay. If you actually go

Adam Saad: out on the road, they'll go 50, 60 miles an hour. Easy [00:15:00] on a straightaway. Wow.

Oh yeah. But they're, they're here. They won't, they won't go over I don't wanna say on air, but they'll go close to 39 miles an hour.

Melissa: How? Did you come to the decision to do electric carts in Morrisville versus gas carts?

Adam Saad: Because like you said earlier, you see the vibe in RTP as being more of a corporate feel, so mm-hmm.

They want the clean, the, the, you know, the fumes, no noise. Mm-hmm. Aspect of it. That's much more of the corporate feel and. Kind of where we're heading right now as a society going to the more, you know, the green, if you will.

Melissa: Yeah.

Adam Saad: But Garner is still a lot of the good old boys and the real racing enthusiasts.

It's the rubbing

Melissa: is racing type of crowd is not racing

Adam Saad: at rush hour carting. Yes. But that is the mindset you'll get

Melissa: in trouble if you, if you rub and race at at rush hour, folks, we've learned that it's too fast, it's

Adam Saad: too dangerous for that.

Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. But

Adam Saad: the nice thing is they're 22 miles apart, so you can experience the best of both worlds.

I mean, they're completely, completely different machines. Mm-hmm. The electric don't make much noise. You just feel like you're kind of driving a remote control car, but it's got so much torque and it accelerates like that. Mm-hmm. Um, the gas though, you [00:16:00] feel the rumble, the thing is whole vibrating and you really feel an engine behind you.

So, and the gas ones will actually go faster. It's just the, the electric ones have more acceleration so they go faster. It's totally different feel. Exactly.

Melissa: Okay. And I admittedly have been to rush hour a lot, but I have never been in the cart.

Adam Saad: Really? No, I have not.

Melissa: I've, I think it comes down to trust Adam.

I don't really trust my, my husband, my sons to not, you know, throw me off the, the, the track.

Adam Saad: We'll put them in a junior cart and plus I would make

Melissa: them mad. No, we'll put them

Adam Saad: in the kitty cart and let you ride in the big cart. An advantage and maybe

Melissa: opposite, maybe put me in the kitty cart and them and the adult carts.

But no, they, they do love it. And. It is a place that you can go and you don't have to do the the racing. I enjoy sitting and watching of, and eating, eating, but go at back to racing restaurant for a

Adam Saad: second. I wanna tell you why you were gonna love it for that eight minutes. You're behind the wheel.

You're not worried about the payroll or what's gonna be for [00:17:00] dinner tonight. Mm-hmm. taxes are due, blah, blah, blah. You only thing you were thinking about is, how am I gonna pass Bubba in front of me? That's it. You are sweating. You got your hair standing up. Well, I don't have mine arm, but you probably would.

But the point is, you are just so concentrated. You relieve all your troubles away.

Melissa: Yeah.

Adam Saad: We have people come in that are already just stressed out and had a bad day and had a bad life and everything else just miserable to the world. They'll get off the track, the biggest grin. Mm. And it's just like, and they're opened up, they're talking, they grab their time.

She, I beat your button, turn three and blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Bragging rights. The, the difference of emotion that you get from that little bit of a. Uh, what's the word? The adrenaline rush. Mm-hmm. It's, it's phenomenal and it really makes people a big stress reliever. You need to try it with your family, I'm telling you.

Melissa: Okay. All right. I'll try it next time. Gary, you got me on air making a promise. My husband's gonna hold me to it for sure. 'cause they've been trying to get me in a cart for a while. North Carolina's the home of nascar, as we all know. Yeah. We alluded to the fact that Garner has, you know, some kind of serious racers.[00:18:00]

My son, my oldest son was in the Raps league. Mm-hmm. Which is a, what is a youth league? What age is that?

Adam Saad: Uh, eight years old to th to 14 years old.

Melissa: Okay. So he aged out at 14 and he's a big guy too. So he, um, he was barely fitting in the kitty carts by the time he aged out. That being said, there were some really fast kids out there and very, very good at racing.

Adam Saad: Absolutely. Yeah. So

Melissa: I'm wondering if anybody has left one rush hour and gone to a higher level of racing. Did they start out at rush hour? Like Jeff Gordon? I've always heard that Jeff Gordon started out before he went into nascar. He was a A go karter. Yeah, he was a cart racing. Has anybody left Rush hour and headed to Wake County Speedway or

Adam Saad: Wake County?

Speedway, yes. But mm-hmm. Onto Indy or, or Formula One? No,

Melissa: not yet,

Adam Saad: but not yet. But yes. Um, the, the majority of Formula One racers, uh, a lot of NASCAR racers, the majority of [00:19:00] indie racers, they also are out in the Go-karting circuit. 'cause that's the best way to get your foot in the door. With not the kitty go guards, but the real racing machines.

Mm-hmm. Understand the apex, the lines of the track, how to pass, how to do things properly. So almost all the professionals did get their starting in the Go-Karting arena. And yeah, we've had several of our people go to, um, there's different circuits and the Midget car circuits. Uh, wake County Speedway, we've had several.

That's my favorite one

Melissa: to watch at Wake County. Yeah, the midget ones. Yeah.

Adam Saad: We've had several, several people do that for my

Melissa: place. Okay. So what about you? Do you get on the track and race often?

Adam Saad: Heck no. They kick me off. I'm one of the slowest people out there. Are you really? I have no idea how to race.

No. My gosh. It's not, not not my forte. Oh

Melissa: my gosh. Okay. That, see, that not me surprises me. That definitely surprises me. I would think that, you know, you would, you'd be out there after hours and burning rubber.

Adam Saad: I know my limitations. I let the professionals do their thing and I just write the paychecks.

Melissa: Okay. That's a, I mean, that's a great kind of boss right there now. I, I, I kind of talked to you about this before we started [00:20:00] recording, but I, I wanna talk to you about, as a business owner, you decided that you needed to make some changes to the Garner location. Mm-hmm. But you also have people that have been going for many years.

They were perfectly happy with the Garner location.

Adam Saad: Change is hard.

Melissa: Change is hard especi, especially as we get older. Yeah. Yeah. And some people might go and say. Well, gosh, I really liked the having the single level track. Mm-hmm. And I mastered it, and I want to keep on doing that. How, how do you balance as a business owner dealing with the, the roon and I, I'm gonna, my husband?

How do you deal with people that don't really want the change that you brought to the new location? Not new location, old location, garner.

Adam Saad: So lemme tell you. So something very interesting. So we closed down for three entire months. Mm-hmm. For the renovation. We closed from, uh, the middle of February, all the way till June.

We have next June 5th. We have a lot of loyal customers, a lot of regulars, a lot of [00:21:00] league racers and whatnot. Oh, they were all pissed off. They were extremely mad. I got were they got hate mails? I got threat mails. Oh no.

Melissa: Okay. So it was not just my husband.

Adam Saad: Well, no, no, no. Definitely. He was one of 'em too, by the way.

I didn't wanna tell you. I be bet.

Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. He sent you a real nasty letter.

Adam Saad: So here's what ended up happening though, because once you have a membership rush hour, you can use it. Either location, you know, all your credits, same price, everything. So a lot of 'em then, 'cause what else are they gonna do?

There's no other track anywhere between here and Charlotte. So they actually, let's go to RTP. So they took drive to R tractor to RTP and what happened? And, and these are the guys that never will drive electric cars. They said, I will cut my arms off before I'll drive an electric car that is garbage electric, believe

Melissa: it or not, people out there listening, there are people that are like that.

Oh yeah,

Adam Saad: no, it, it's gas or the end of the world. Mm-hmm.

Melissa: So

Adam Saad: anyway, they said, well, might as well go nothing else here. Brave reviews. I didn't have a single person complaint, and they became regulars in RTP. So that just shows you these diehard fans can change their minds. Mm-hmm. You just gotta open the door [00:22:00] to 'em.

And same thing about the contract. They're like, we don't want, I heard the same thing so many times. We don't want a multi-level track. We don't want a multilevel track. Mm-hmm. The, the real track is the, you know, the single level. They all came back and said, wow, what an experience.

Melissa: Yeah.

Adam Saad: Yeah. The only problem was so when he first opened up, I've never had governed these go-karts.

They were always ungoverned. That's part of the way you can go as fast as you can. Your governor limits your speeds on 'em.

Melissa: Okay.

Adam Saad: But this new track is really fast. It's got a big downhill, then a sharp curve.

Melissa: Yeah.

Adam Saad: The average, regular racer. Probably you definitely like me, could not handle that without going straight into the wall.

So I had to say that I made a big executive decision that we were gonna keep the governors on these carts when we have 'em back up in Garner. I had to, because you know, 90% of our customers are just regular people looking for something to do for fun. They're not Jeff Gordon Jr. Mm-hmm. So we kept the governors on and lo and behold, that was the biggest complaint from our regulars.

These carts are a lot slower. It's not that they're slow, they, they top out at a certain speed just for safety. Right? Yeah. But to make them happy, I said, just, just gimme a little bit of time. We still gotta break in the track. We gotta figure out, well, we don't know what we're doing.

We don't know where the track marks do say we don't know anything yet. We're learning it. [00:23:00] After, um, we felt a little bit more comfortable. I un unleashed the Super Fleet, so I got five new go carts that are 270 cc compared to 200 cc for the regular carts that are a lot, a lot bigger engine. And I took the governors off so they're even faster than we've ever had before.

These are the fastest carts we've ever had.

Melissa: Wow. So I

Adam Saad: said if you are a regular here, you achieve a Sergeant Track time, you get the right to Super Fleet.

Melissa: So that's how it works. You have to, hit a certain time, track time. You have to,

Adam Saad: you have to achieve and consistently the computer will track it.

It actually makes you a different status. You're a pro I can't remember the third tier. Then you're a legend when you reach a legend status. You can ride the, the Super Fleet. Oh. But the computer figures it out for us.

Melissa: Well, that's actually a really good idea too, businesswise, because then you have people that want to come back so that they can keep on achieve working that status towards that status.

Yeah.

Adam Saad: But that's about always listening to your customers and your feedback. Mm-hmm. You know, I wasn't planning on doing that, but I had so much negative feedback about it. Uh, we had to do it, and we did it. And again, they, they, they're much happier now about this now. So you gotta constantly change. Listen to what they're saying and adapt.

You know?

Melissa: Yeah. [00:24:00] And sometimes ignore because you have to listen to your gut as the business owner and know what's what's best in the long run. Mm-hmm. Yeah. There's a fine

Adam Saad: line to watch. You just gotta figure it out.

Melissa: Well, I encourage everybody to go to the Garner location because it really is so different.

I cannot. Believe you guys did that much change in three months.

Adam Saad: That was the most unbelievable part. Yeah. Not a single person said it could be done. Even my contractor said, I will not sign a guarantee. Mm. I said, you just do as best as you can and we will make it happen. And how did it happen? By me and my partner being there every single day, doing every single thing that was needed.

Mm-hmm. Pushing everybody to the limit. You know, you set your mind, you set a goal to it. We had a, um, a big, looked like a, a robot made of all go-cart parts right in the center of all the construction with a countdown time where time around got from Amazon, count down how many days till we opened.

So it was front and center, so all the contractors could see that. Yeah. They all hated 'em. I had one contractor try to unplug them. We, we put a battery backup on it, so that didn't work. Wow. So, um, yeah, that, but that puts everybody, you know. To the fire. And on [00:25:00] top of that, us being there when there was a problem, we could run.

You know, I personally, I can go run to, um, Winston-Salem, pick up a party. You know, we made it happen by being there and just staying true to, to our, our goal.

Melissa: Yeah. I walked in the first time I went after the renovation and just jaw to the floor. Could not believe that that much had been changed in that sort of amount of time.

Adam Saad: It was a lot, a lot of sleepless night. I bet it was.

Melissa: It is time for our What's up Roundup, where I give a lightning round series of questions and I'm using the word lightning very, um, very seriously here because my first question for you is, what is your favorite race car movie?

Adam Saad: Boogey, boogey, Boody. Um.

Talladega Knight. Yeah. That I couldn't remember the name of it. Yes, yes.

Melissa: Well, you remembered the most important

Adam Saad: takeaway. I mean, that movie. 'cause it, it, it is such a serious sport and it's everybody's, uh, so into it ar and you gotta win NASCAR sponsorship, blah, blah blah. But they make so much light, [00:26:00] heart fun of it.

Yeah. And that's what it's all about in life. You take the hardest, most serious thing, but you gotta add a little bit of light lightheartedness to us and you'll succeed.

Melissa: Yes, very good point. Mm-hmm. I saw an interview with Will Ferrell and, and he said that he played it the entire role very seriously, and I guess that's why it comes across so funny.

Exactly. Because it shouldn't be that serious. But, uh, but yeah, that, that is definitely my top three. It's lesson, everything in life. My very favorite race car movie, my oldest son was born. I, I joke he was born with a hot wheel in his, in his hand because he has loved cars since a very young age.

But Disney Cars movie is certainly very high up in the ranks for us. It should be, yeah. Hence the lightning round series of questions. So chow to all my Disney cars lovers out there. I come and I sit and I watch my family race at at rush hour, and I'm ordering from the restaurant Good food

Adam Saad: too, isn't it?

Melissa: It is good food. What is your favorite thing to order? Do you have a standard [00:27:00] I.

Adam Saad: Pizza.

Melissa: Yeah. I actually have never had the pizza there. Well,

Adam Saad: the thing that we do though, we make everything from scratch. Mm-hmm. We make our own dough, we make our own sauce for the pizzas. Um, all the toppings are fresh, so it makes a world difference.

You make everything from scratch. Yeah. You can really feel and taste the difference, but we have some awesome pizzas.

Melissa: Okay. Then I'll try the pizza next time I'm around. And finally, if there is one celebrity you would like to personally race at rush hour. Who would it be

Adam Saad: besides you? Besides

Melissa: me? Besides Melissa?

Yes.

Adam Saad: I'll come and

Melissa: race you.

Adam Saad: I'd rather

Melissa: race you than, than my husband and my kids.

Adam Saad: Um, Michael Jordan, how can you say no to Michael Jordan?

Melissa: That would be actually a great one. Another North Carolina guy come by and a NASCAR

Adam Saad: man. Now that, as you know, he owns a NASCAR team. That's true. Yes, that's very true.

Melissa: I forgot about that.

That would be a, that's the perfect answer

Adam Saad: if you got, come on, Michael Jordan down. Yeah, please.

Melissa: Thank you so much for being here today.

Adam Saad: Thank you for this, Melissa. I really enjoyed it. And,

Melissa: and where can everybody find out more about rush hour? Is it just [00:28:00] rush hour carting.com? Oh, no.

Adam Saad: Much simpler now. Rh k fun.com.

Okay. Six letters. Okay,

Melissa: perfect. Thank you so much, Adam.

Adam Saad: Thank you for this. And Melissa, thanks.