1 week Ago
The owners of a "family-orientated" go-karting business have thanked their customers for nominating them for an award. Crazy Karting in Halliwell has been shortlisted for Bolton's Best Family Indoor Entertainment Venue of 2025. Co-owners Shak Rafiq, 50, and Azz Mahmood, 42, both have a background in cars – which the idea of go-karting sprang naturally from.
Mr Rafiq started the business just after lockdown in 2022 and Mr Mahmood joined a year and a half ago. Mr Mahmood said: "It started from a very humble background. "It was his kids who basically gave him the idea and from there it’s grown, and grown, and grown.
" Crazy Karting's main attraction is the go-karting track (Image: Azz Mahmood) Mr Mahmood's background working for the youth justice service has influenced their idea to make it accessible for families without spending a lot of money. He said: "We wanted to make it affordable and family centred, you can't go anywhere for the same charge. "We don't charge for the soft play at the moment because we know how hard it is for parents.
Crazy Karting has a soft play area (Image: Azz Mahmood) "We have families ourselves, I have three daughters and Shak has five children – we understand what parents are going through, because we're parents as well." Asides from go-karting, the "main attraction", they have a soft play area, games room with a PS4 and PS5 and an escape room. Crazy Karting's gaming room has a PS4 and a PS5 (Image: Azz Mahmood) However, Mr Mahmood said the staff are the most important part of Crazy Karting – giving a shout out to manager Dan Booth especially.
Mr Booth, 40, said: "Like any business, it's about a community and the community at Crazy Karting is shown by the fact people voted for us – without us even knowing about it! "We've grown out of a warehouse, it's been a very organic and natural growth. "Thank you, because we feel supported – one, by them coming and two, by taking the extra time to vote for us." Mr Mahmood said: "We take pride in our staff being friendly, our main emphasis is around family – it’s not money, money, money.
"First is the customer experience, money will come, but we want to make sure customers feel comfortable." Crazy Karting has seen customers come from far and wide, from places like Scotland – and even one family from Singapore. Mr Mahmood said: "Their flight had been delayed for 10 hours, so they did a Google search and found us!" He said a wide range of ages come to join in with the fun at Crazy Karting, and they also offer corporate team-building packages.
Bolton Ladders at a corporate team building event at Crazy Karting (Image: Azz Mahmood) Have a story? Get in touch at [email protected].
uk Mr Mahmood said: "We can have kids as young as four or five years old on our go-karts, if you go anywhere else it’s usually a minimum of eight. "We even had a birthday party for a 60-year-old. "I don’t know anywhere else that can accommodate for as young as four and as old as 60!" Speaking about the nomination, Mr Mahmood said it shows they're "doing something right".
Crazy Karting's latest attraction is an escape room (Image: Azz Mahmood) READ MORE: Horwich hair salon bringing a 'slice of Dubai' to Bolton READ MORE: Saracens owner's frustration at bags of rubbish outside business READ MORE: OhSoTilly opens in Farnworth today as owner comes through pandemic He said: "We're excited obviously, even just the fact we've been recognised – it’s a really good feeling to know we’re doing the right thing. "We just want to thank everybody who has voted for us and supported us because without them we wouldn't exist. "We're a family-run business, for families by families, I think that's the message I want to get across.
".
