Oct 21, 2008

Back to basics

1st round of the MRO at the Chicago Indoor Racing last evening. It's just a small, fun, gokart racing league for fat amateurs like me, with 3 rounds over the next 2 months. I decided to enter to check my capabilities, improve, learn and have fun.

The format is pretty simple, 2 x 4 minutes timed qualifiers, one 20-laps race in order to decide grid position and a 30-laps main. I drove there twice before, on the small tracks but this time they had them combined, longer with 2 difficult sections for me.
Pre-race I learned that I actually clocked at 195lbs and not 187 like I thought. That was my first real downer and defeat of the evening. 195 bloody pounds! No way! Oh man, that hurts right there. Diet, diet, diet, I have to. I have to be serious.
So, it was all fun. I got pretty much schooled in my first try, but it was a very constructive evening. In the 20-laps race actually there wasn't a lot I could do. After 3 laps I got taken out by some dude with a black helmet that got penalized for it but it was too late to do anything, I finished 12 or 13 out of 15. In the main, I was feeling as good as one can be starting on the last row, got 3 or 4 good laps, passed 3 guys, got passed by 2 again, then made my way through traffic and passed 4 or 5 guys, then got slammed into the wall (by the same f@cking black helmet dude), had to wait for a marshal to put me back in, I got upset, didn't drive well until the end although I got my best laptime of the night towards the end. I was all over the place, sliding way too much for speed. I finished 14th out of 15th.
Well.... I'll be back!

Oh yeah, I want to thank my sponsors, AGV, Dainese, Cburtondesigns, Gap and American Eagle :) :) :) :) oh yeah, and Vitamin Water too.