Back To Go Karts
I have always loved karting. I started karting when I was 8 when my dad took me out on a kart track. I was instantly hooked. For several years, I would spend time at the tracks at least once a month.
Lately, I have been karting less often because it turned into an expensive hobby. Now, I usually go karting around 4-5 times in a year. Last year, I had some financial trouble and I was forced to cut-back on some expenses. Karting was one of the luxuries I had to sacrifice. It has been almost a year since I have last driven a kart.
Things have gone better now and I have been looking forward to returning to this hobby. I got really excited when a couple of the racers in my car club invited me for a kart night last Saturday. I didn’t think twice. I grabbed my helmet, and headed straight for the track.
When we got there, there were already 2 pro kart drivers on track. We had a short chat with them while we waited for our turn at the pits. I am guessing that they were a French racing team based on their accents and the design of their helmets and suits. They were really friendly, and offered us some advice on how we could get good lap times on the track.
There were seven of us on the grid. On pole (first person in the grid) and 2nd at the starting grid were the 2 fastest drivers of the club. Next to me on P3 was another fellow club member. I started in the middle of the grid at P4. Behind me was our club president and the last 2 slots were taken up by the 2 pro drivers.
The start of the heat was uneventful and we gave each other ample room to get through first corner. After that, everyone seemed to settle in the same order we were in the grid. For me, the first half of the lap was routine. I was exploring the grip limits of the kart, and was progressively braking later and taking the corners faster as my tires got up to the right temperature.
The 2nd half of the first lap was a real surprise for me. I did not know that they changed the layout of the tight and technical mid-section of the track! I found myself completely lost trying to look for the proper lines and braking points. At one point I almost turned into a wall because there used to be a corner there!
While I was orienting myself to the new layout, I heard a kart approaching fast behind me. I knew I was slow, and it was pointless to defend my position since this wasn’t a real race, so I decided to let him pass. I moved over to the outside of the racing line, and allowed him to pass from the inside. I wasn’t surprised to see that it was one of the pro karters. I glanced over to my left and saw that the 2nd pro was lining up for a pass as well so I let him through.
I took the opportunity to learn from them by following as closely as I can. They were driving the wheels of those karts! I was amazed at how they could take the corners with millimeters to spare from the barriers at full speed. They were so close to the barriers that sometimes their karts would actually touch the them at the apex. I was barely keeping up, and the gap between us was becoming a bit wider after each corner.
I was successful in following them for several corners until the guy who started 3rd on the grid spun out at a chicane directly in front of us. The 2 pros moved out of the way effortlessly. I on the other hand, clipped the rear end of the stalled kart. It slowed me just enough to lose sight of the pros.
I ended up alone for the rest of the race. No one was in front or behind me so I took the liberty of exploring the new track layout and experiment with different lines and braking points. I also started exploring how shifting my weight affected the way the kart handled in some of the new corners.
I felt my lap times improve as the session went on. I would sometimes catch a glimpse of the timing board and I was a little pleased that my times were steadily improving. My times at first were in the 1:04’s and as the session progressed, I saw my times go down to the 1:03’s and later into the 1:02’s. Unfortunately, the session ended before I truly had the confidence to push at the new section of the track.
I went straight to the timing booth after the heat to see how I performed. The pros were lapping at a whopping 57 seconds per lap with a best lap of 56 seconds! I on the other hand was lapping an average of 1:03. I got a best time of 1:02.246 seconds at the final lap. The fastest driver on the club was lapping consistently at 1:00-1:01 and had a best time of 59 seconds. I finished 5th overall, and was 3rd place within the club.
I am a little disappointed with the times I posted. On the old layout, I was consistently doing 58-59 seconds per lap. I am usually within a second per lap to the times of top 2 drivers of the club. The layout was also new for them, and yet they were 2-3 seconds faster than I was. The dismal times I posted just shows how rusty I really am.
I know that I am losing time at the new segment of the track, particularly at a long high speed left sweeper that exits into a hairpin-left that is immediately followed by a tight 90 degree right hander. The exit speed from that tight sequence of corners is important because there is a long almost straight section after that. If you bleed too much speed on those corners, you won’t have enough speed to take advantage of the next flat-out sections of the track. This will consequently make you lose a huge amount of time. Hopefully, I could make up lost ground and get more competitive times the next time I come out on track.