Summer Go Karting meet anyone?

[CRGkart44]

Yeah the owner of my track was just a shady/sketchy dude and a prick. He was involved in some shady things and was a douche. He no longer is the owner. At my track there was no anarchy or anything.. it was one of the more popukar tracks but no one liked the owner. Well, if you bought you're way onto the team and were favourited, then maybe you liked him :nonono:. I only raced for 2 years, and like I said I won the championship in my first year and got a scholarship to be on the "National Team" in an air-cooled 2 stroke Maxter 125cc (started off in a 4 stroke Honda) and then IMO, I was totally ignored until I switched classes to SR. half way through the year and then I got more attention in the last 3-4 races. I actually got a mechanic to help set me up (cool guy) and was starting to finish way better. I already had a wicked setup (so much grip that I lifted 2 wheels in one of the sweepers.. wicked weight jacking effect lol) but he refined it a little. Also my driving style just got better as the year went on. Also, the "National Team" that I was on was more of a regional team. I did races across Ontario, but the National races didn't have a class for my karts. Rotax is the big thing up here.

The first track i raced at was awesome. Always packed and hard to get your gear in the pits if you arrived late. Then it was sold to this rich dude who was only interested in starting a team and so his son had a private track. He played favoritism horribly. I refused to be on his team because i was already on a great but small team(2 sprint drivers at the time, more of a road racing team) and i had to run his karts and motor.. which were JUNK. After all this money and time he spent on this team i was still beating his drivers AT HIS TRACK. He obviously hated it and we would never use track support. If we NEEDED a sprocket or something, we would buy it. but his mechanics never touched my kart so they had no clue what my set up was. Anyways, after winning so much all of a sudden his drivers and employees would happen to be on the track in qualifying or races "tuning" and some how always got tangled up with me and knocked me out. I got pushed off the back straight right in front of the race official and the guy didnt get the black. So needless to say, after that we took ~30lbs off and had a blast destroying karts on the track.. even had the black flag thrown at me. haha.

Rotax is huge everywhere.. awesome class!

Also, I don't mean to brag, but I was a little Jacky Ickx/Ayrton Senna in the rain. I was fastest in the rain at my track. One time, the weather was ••••. For practice, qualifying and the pre-final it was wet and I was fastest for all 3. Qualified 1st and Finished 1st in the pre-final. Then the weather instantly cleared up after our race. I checked the radar and it said another cell was on the way. I stayed on wets because I thought it was gonna rain. Well it didn't and I got screwed for the final. That was my most heartbreaking but fun weekend. Mosport is also a sick track. Not the Car track, but the go karting track there.. also not the DDT. That had HUGE elevation changes and wicked banked/blind turns. That was THE funnest track I've ever done.

Dont get me started on rain... I LOVE THE RAIN!!! Damn.. at a regional race we ran with some pipes(i had a can exhaust) they are a little bit faster usually. I lapped the ENTIRE field, twice in the feature race. In one of the heats on the last turn of the last lap, my engine stalled. i was able to run across the finish and they said my kart needed to as well, so i ran back and pushed it across and still won the race. AHAHA the track was less than a half mile and ~30 sec laps on dry.

How fast did your karts go? Mine were clocked at 100 mph down our front straight, which was shorter than the back straight. It was posted on a website that had the timing and scoring for the event. Oh and here is my former track. You'll see the left part of the track looks almost exactly like Batavia's track: http://www.raceforcanada.com/

I raced the 100cc Yamaha Can. Air cooled, an exhaust that was literally a can that had 4 holes in it, slow as balls. I think the fastest on average i would go was like 60-65. Faster at some of the larger track of course, but i raced on pretty small tracks(like a half mile) unless i did the nationals. On a road course, the same class would top out at about 80-85 i believe. But it is the drivers class where the slightest mistake would make you lose 4-5 spots on the track. Where as the rotax and the 125cc have a bit more power and can help compensate for the same mistakes os you dont lose too many positions.

My all time favorite track would have to be Beaverun in PA. http://www.beaverun.com/about_facility.php This will have to do since i cant find an actual pic at the moment. and obviously the smaller track.. But very technical and very fast. got my best national finish a couple years ago there.. i was running top 3 but got freight trained in the last couple laps and could only get a couple spots back.. think i finished like 6th or something.http://www.beaverun.com/about_facility.php

 

[CRG Racer24]

The first track i raced at was awesome. Always packed and hard to get your gear in the pits if you arrived late. Then it was sold to this rich dude who was only interested in starting a team and so his son had a private track. He played favoritism horribly. I refused to be on his team because i was already on a great but small team(2 sprint drivers at the time, more of a road racing team) and i had to run his karts and motor.. which were JUNK. After all this money and time he spent on this team i was still beating his drivers AT HIS TRACK. He obviously hated it and we would never use track support. If we NEEDED a sprocket or something, we would buy it. but his mechanics never touched my kart so they had no clue what my set up was. Anyways, after winning so much all of a sudden his drivers and employees would happen to be on the track in qualifying or races "tuning" and some how always got tangled up with me and knocked me out. I got pushed off the back straight right in front of the race official and the guy didnt get the black. So needless to say, after that we took ~30lbs off and had a blast destroying karts on the track.. even had the black flag thrown at me. haha.

Rotax is huge everywhere.. awesome class! ]

Yeah I hated that. The on guy who was my "mechanic" at the end was the only one who payed attention to anyone else. He helped out me and a couple of my buddies that I was helping out too. My track though had some of the premier racers in karting in Canada.. dare I say North America. Robbie Wickens raced there, Mike Vincec and David Ostella who's now in Formula BMW. I never raced them since I didn't get a chance to race in Rotax before I was pulled out (still pissed about that :nonono. I think I'd be sooo much more competitive now if I went back into it. I've lost over 20lbs since then and am in way better shape. A bit of my problem was not being able to control the kart at the end of the race since I was tired. I've learned so much about driving since then, which is kind of ironic because I haven't driven my car or kart on a track since 2008 lol.

Yeah that sucks. That seems like a pretty extreme case with you. You must miss racing though. Do you still do any? I haven't. I want to get back in but •••• is it expensive. I wanted to do the Bridgestone Racing acamdemy up in Mosport up here, but to do the racing license course is $4000. I'm gonna have to keep on saving up.

Dont get me started on rain... I LOVE THE RAIN!!! Damn.. at a regional race we ran with some pipes(i had a can exhaust) they are a little bit faster usually. I lapped the ENTIRE field, twice in the feature race. In one of the heats on the last turn of the last lap, my engine stalled. i was able to run across the finish and they said my kart needed to as well, so i ran back and pushed it across and still won the race. AHAHA the track was less than a half mile and ~30 sec laps on dry.

Haha nice dude! I felt even better in the rain than I did in the dry. Even in my car now on on/off ramps I scare some of my buddies because I push harder in the rain. I just have so much confidence. It's funny. Today we had a little rain. I was going on a highway on ramp and there was a dude in a new Mustang ahead of me. Well he nails it when the light turns green.. I shift from 1st to 3rd then nail it because that's when I noticed he was nailing it. Keep in mind my car is full of groceries and my mom is also in there. He was far ahead, but half way through the ramp I'm already up on his ass having to slow down. It was sad to see someone in such a nice car not know how to drive it. lol. My former track is a 53-54 sec lap (55 if you're slow). It's one of the longer tracks up here.

I raced the 100cc Yamaha Can. Air cooled, an exhaust that was literally a can that had 4 holes in it, slow as balls. I think the fastest on average i would go was like 60-65. Faster at some of the larger track of course, but i raced on pretty small tracks(like a half mile) unless i did the nationals. On a road course, the same class would top out at about 80-85 i believe. But it is the drivers class where the slightest mistake would make you lose 4-5 spots on the track. Where as the rotax and the 125cc have a bit more power and can help compensate for the same mistakes os you dont lose too many positions.

My all time favorite track would have to be Beaverun in PA. http://www.beaverun.com/about_facility.php This will have to do since i cant find an actual pic at the moment. and obviously the smaller track.. But very technical and very fast. got my best national finish a couple years ago there.. i was running top 3 but got freight trained in the last couple laps and could only get a couple spots back.. think i finished like 6th or something.

Yeah I figured my karts were fast, but I didn't know they were 100 mph fast. My class was a spec class too, so it still is driver oriented. I hated being back in the pack because that's where all the douche's reside. I got hit out a lot too. Just pure stupidity.

Here's a video of my favourite track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDMPE1vBhDQ&feature=related. you can really see the elevation/blindness/wicked banked turns. the corner at the top of the hill that you can't see in the vid is wicked. It's a blind entry where you crest a hill while in your braking zone into an off camber, falling away left turn. Crazy lol.