Monday, November 21, 2011

First race!


I capped off an abbreviated karting season this year in Englishtown, NJ with my very first race! The last race of the year is called the Turkey Race, and the winner of each class brings home a trophy and a turkey. That almost pays for 1/100th of the travel expenses, entry fees, fuel, parts, and Xanax required to corral two hyperactive fur balls. While I didn't bring home a turkey, I had great fun, and turned my best lap times yet. Here's how it all went down:

Saturday: practice. So-so, lots of traffic. No personal bests, but with a rare full, free weekend, I decided I was ready to finish the season off with a bang. 
Sunday: earthquakes of doubt and remorse. What had I gotten myself into? Went out for 4 practice sessions, and felt okay. My times were decent, especially with no one to follow. Now for the qualifier... lots of rules, something about flag order, crossed flags, count laps.. hmmm okay zoom! The qualifier felt good. Most of the regulars turned a few laps and went in. Since I was there just to get more experience, I took all 8 qualifier laps and posted a personal best. Afterwards, I helped the pit crew change out a bent axle on another kart. I'm becoming quite the grease monkey. Who knew axles were so bendy? We finished in time for my pre-feature, which had a slightly different protocol. Whatever. I started at the back of the pack and hoped for the best, and I brought it as best as I could. Another personal best! (And I didn't even get lapped.) By this point, I'd turned nearly 50 laps and was pretty tired, but I wanted to see if I could get even faster in the feature. Since I already let the cat out of the bag (no turkey for me), it's pretty clear what happened at the feature race. I got tired, I misread the flagger and I did not best my previous times. But I beat one guy in my run class (take that, team Ferrari!), I had a blast, and Ralphie and I will be back next year.