The Karting Adventure 2011

So, there we were...all four of us. We came from great distances...Armada, Ortonville, Troy...battled the bitter cold (35 degrees). We came dressed warm. Almost as if we were going ice fishing...but more exciting. We were in a foreign land of Sterling Heights...

Ok...anyway. Team Forst was in action (Emmanual's - "Eman" idea, not mine) at the Kart2kart two hour team endurance race on December 29th. It was an evening event. It was a simple idea. Four guys who like racing, or have in the past raced anything from dirt bikes to snowmobiles to Mustangs to Big Red Tractors to...probably toy cars and slot cars, put together a team and race. Our goal was simple, don't look like morons...LOL

Strategizing a bit, we went with heaviest (That would be I) to lightest. I was going to start, and frankly I won that by a lot! (And note, Vidhyesh - "V" had to get out his iPhone at this point to convert from kg to lbs...I prefer weighing myself by kg from now on.) We pulled Kart number 17...no idea how fast the kart was, but we knew it was not as fast as #9 or #10. Those karts had half to a full second on all the karts, and it would show.

Luckily for us I strapped into the kart and was sitting first on the grid. Worked the belts tight and away we went for qualifying. 40 minute session. We would do driver changes to practice and give everyone time to practice and feel ready for the race. After the first lap...some other karts were still in the pits...I would say...advantage!

My quickest lap until a switch to V was 29.13...now that isn't much based on a pole time of 27.66. But that was good enough for ninth out of 12, good for our team, my teammates went faster. Eman turned a 28.93, good enough for 7th. I also will note...I never beat the 30 second barrier prior to that day. I felt pretty good after the session, my foot was a little fatigue, but nothing too bad.

Our only hiccup in qualifying was getting stuck in the pits during the driver swap between V and Scott. The stop was about 16 seconds slower then the other average stops during qualifying.

We completed 76 laps during qualifying, 3rd most. We were quite happy with that stat.

So to review qualifying...we didn't look like morons...7th out of 12, not bad for first timers.

Before the race cap...We did all dress for cold. The warehouse in which this place is run...indoors, is definitely not heated and to keep out that bad exhaust gas (CO2) the dock doors remain open in the back. So long thermal under jeans, and two long sleeve shirts was the dress code for me. Plus racing gloves, racing shoes and of course my All-American helmet with markings of getting out of my rolled over car...yep, better avoid the crazy driver! The other guys had winter gear as well, mostly snowmobiling attire.

To the race. We started Formula One style...it was cool. This driver does need to learn on how to push the green pedal down a little harder at the start. Everyone keep their cool to start, nobody going backwards, but I was soon running 8th and then 9th. According to the nice racing chart provided by Kart2Kart, by lap 12 I made a lap time of 29.09, and ran some consistent times in the 29s. Even had a lap of 28.93 which matched Eman's qualifying time.

I remember being tired about 10 minutes into the driving stint but everything kinda goes numb after a while. You get into the zone, listening to the engine, trying to keep the revs up. Watching the line of the driver in front of you trying to go just a little quicker. Watching the pit board, with lap times, and trying to stare at the screen for placement. I was very happy with the place, just not the place on the track. We were as low as 10th, before other drivers started to peel off for driver changes.

When the driver change occurred, I jumped out helped V get into his seat and belt up and pushed him away. My legs were close to jello but my smile was perfect. I grabbed a quick drink to join the other members out near the pit board. We were 5th. We had a great pit stop, it worked out well.

Vidhyesh had a good run, not the fastest, but it seems he was passing cars on a regular basis.

Scott took the karting over for the third stint, he went fast, the track seems like everyone was getting more aggressive. More bumping, etc. But he turned in the team's fastest time of 28.60.

Eman took the last leg. We were 6th at that point. We were a lap ahead of the team behind us and a lap behind the team ahead of us...follow?

With about 8 minutes to go the kart ahead of us broke something. They got a new kart, and something was wrong with that kart too. So we finished 5th. Kart #9 and kart #10 finished first and second, 9 laps ahead of us. #10 spun twice and was still 6 laps ahead of us. The last place team was 24 laps down.

So again, we did pretty good for the first time team. 5th out of 12...similar to the first my first time out at Mid-Ohio.

We will begin 2012 with a bang January 26th, the next enduro. Eman, said something about it being cold or something. We will be looking for kart #9 or #10 and hopefully improve our position. Of course...no Waterford Hills regular were there this time...we will see next time.

So until next time, be safe and make quick driver changes!