The following is the history of the Kee Kart as told by Steve Civils of Indianapolis Indiana. His family manufactured and raced this line of karts until about 1980. They have been driven by Mark Dismore and many other National Champions. Many thanks to Steve for the information and pictures below.

My father Tom Civils had a Kart Shop named Civils Kart Sales in Indy and had purchased some original KEE karts from Michiana Midget Motors in South Bend Indiana in the early seventies. Then it seems that Bob Kee from Elkhart Indiana, struggled to produce enough karts to stay in business with the manufacturing so my father was asked if he would be interested in buying the equipment used to produce the karts. He started making the KEE kart in 1972. I started racing in 1972 with one of the original KEE karts that Bob had built it was a RooKEE kart. We continued to manufacture the karts until about 1978 with several changes along the way. It was a family affair producing these karts, my Dad and I would assemble the karts and my Mother would make the upholstery for the early model steel seat karts. I got involved with Vintage Karting in 2011 introduced to it by a man named Rick Neihaus whose father Lauren bought karts from Bob Kee then later from my Dad. Rick was able to find the second kart that we had built and has restored it. I found an early kart that we made and have restored it to the original condition of 1973 when I still raced in the Rookie class. My Dad and I have seen several of our karts at these Vintage Kart events. I also have made a restyled Vintage KEE Kart that I race.
Steve Civils
Steve Civils
George Young's beautifully restored 1972 KEE Kart
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Reference Pictures