Maitland, Fla - An iconic Central Florida family attraction has come to the end of the road. 

After more than 50 years in business, the Kline family is shutting down Lil 500 Go-Karts and its final lap on Saturday is a tough one for some families.

“It’s devastating. I want to cry,” said Karen Hildreth, who brought her two sons to the attraction for one final ride. “We have been coming here for so long, and it’s just so awesome to have a little community, city place for all the families to gather and to have birthday parties. We’ve been coming for years. It’s a great place to meet friends and just hang out with our kids.”

She remembers visiting with her now husband as a young couple in high school.

Ron Kline opened the kid-friendly go-kart track on February 1, 1968. Lil 500 is currently owned by his son, Randy. He says it’s time for him, his sister, and brother-in-law to retire from operating the business, and they’ve run out of family to keep it running the right way. Kline says while they would get visitors from Daytona or I-Drive, it was the locals who kept them in business for so many years.

 “It’s terrible. I’ll just go right at it. I’m thrilled that I’m retired. I’m thrilled that we’ve done as good a job as we’ve done for 54 years and after five gazillion people in one day tell me how much they are going to miss us and what it meant to them, it’s heartbreaking,” Randy said.

The checkered flag flies for the last time Saturday, January 8, at 7 p.m.