Full Tilt Race Shop

           Keith Raffa, an industrial electrician by trade, started the Full Tilt race shop in the fall of 1997. The idea for the shop came from a friend named Tom Casey, whom Raffa credits for getting him involved in shifter kart racing in 1996. Full Tilt offers 2 cycle karters in both junior and senior divisions anything they might need: engines, chassis, scaling and general technical support. He even makes 'house calls' to the karters trailers to act as troubleshooter for those karters having performance and handling problems.

When Raffa was starting out kart racing he was a frequent customer at Bensalem's Grand Products race shop, which is 10 minutes from his house in Trevose Penn. In 1997 he asked Mike Tetreault of Grand Products if he could sell a shifter to someone he knew wanted to buy one. Tetreault said yes and asked Raffa if he wanted to be a dealer of their products, Raffa agreed and Full Tilt was born. (Grand Products is a major US distributor of karting products and kart imports which come to the Bensalem Penn location directly from overseas, enabling them to get import chassis as well as domestic kart parts with equal ease.) 

Raffa states "From the start I wanted to offer everything a 2-cycle racer wanted or needed".  His shop is full service with one exception, engine blueprinting, which he sends out to people who specialize in that area. " I feel it's important to bring my entire shop to the customers at the track, instead of having a storefront location." Explains Raffa.  He started with one 20-foot trailer and now has two 28-foot trailers, which he brings to the kart tracks every race weekend.  He acquired one of his trailers from a customer. John Fitzpatrick was so appreciative of the help and technical advice Raffa had given him, that Fitzpatrick sold Raffa a fairly new 28 ft trailer he had bought and had hardly used at 1/2 the price he originally paid for it.

Raffa started kart racing in his mid 20's in 1996 and ran a limited schedule at Ace Lane Jr's kart course at Flemington Speedway. It was during this year he met and befriended Matt Hamill who would soon be winning kart championship under the Full Tilt banner. In 1997, the first year shifters ran at Flemington's kart course, Raffa ran his first full year of kart racing and took the Shifter Championship at Flemington. Hamill wanted to run in the shifter class for the 98 season and when he asked Raffa for advice on where to get a good kart, Raffa offered Hamill one of his if Hamill would join forces with him and help promote Raffa's business. 

After winning numerous championships driving under the Full Tilt banner, to include the 2000 SCUZA tour championship, they parted ways. Matt Hamill retired from karting in 2000 to pursue other ventures and Raffa is shifting his focus away from his own racing toward his Full Tilt business.  These days he is more concerned with helping his clients succeed.   

This winter, Raffa is planning on enlarging his business by branching out to offer kart rentals. The new venture will be geared toward people interested in finding what it feels like to drive a kart or to companies looking for something fun and different for their employee parties.

Those interested in contacting Full Tilt Race Shop can call 215-651-6733.