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It
was me mates birthday and we needed to do something a little bit
special. For the excursion group we had 5 people. Let me introduce
them…. Richard
– Birthday boy, good fun, can give him shit without him crying, thinks
he’s an ace driver, hits lots of kerbs. Drives many cars, this weeks
one is a Citroen BX 1.4 Helen
– Richards wifey, just learning to drive so is suffering from “I
have studied driving inside-out, I know more than you”
uber-judgemental state that we all went through to some degree. Rich
fidgets and sweats lots when she is his passenger. Currently drives a
polo coupe 1.3 Bryan
– Mr. Wit himself. He is the king of one-liners. Good laugh enjoys
adrenalin. Rides scrambler bikes and drives a phat Toyota Supra 3.0 soon
to be upgraded to the turbo model w00t w00t. This boy was gonna cause me
some trouble on the track, I knew it beforehand and so was prepared. Martin
– The baby of the bunch, weighing in at only 17. Likes Marilyn Manson
and other meaningful rock bands. Enjoys winning as much as me, so knew
this was gonna be a good race. Currently can’t drive, but has been
karting before. A
certain guy known as Deejaycee
– He’s a bit of a stud muffin, all the girls love him and all the
guys want to be him. Well, some of that may not be 100% true, but he
enjoys competing in all sorts of competition. Likes to think he’s a
good driver, especially when it comes to racing. Head up his own arse
really, but he’ll inject some good competition into the outing. So there’s the contenders, a good line up with potential for anything to happen on the track. My thoughts beforehand were as follows……… Bryan,
Martin and myself have all been karting before. As far as I know,
they've all been twice.
Helen doesn’t like driving fast. Rich like driving fast but can’t
grasp the simple driving techniques (weight distribution, oversteer /
understeer etc, etc). Bryan likes driving fast and understands the
theories behind race driving. Martin hasn’t got a bloody clue
(mentally scarred from Marilyn). I like driving fast but prefer testing
the car’s ability to testing top speeds. Rich hates losing deep down,
he doesn’t show it, but if he loses, he’ll come out with some
justification or bullshit about it being just a laugh. Bryan is quite
complacent, and is happiest when testing himself; he’ll enjoy himself
if he just does well on his own terms. Martin has the winning bug, his
manliness depends on his winning ability, and he could mentally cause me
problems but will probably just fire me up more in preparation. Helen
will probably whinge a lot about her car not being as fast, us not
playing fairly, blah blah, girly type stuff here so not much to worry
about. As for me, I was quietly confident and only had real concerns
with Bryan, although I had a trick up my sleeve that I hoped would give
me a helpful hand up onto the #1 podium. So
we all meandered down to the indoor karting centre in Gloucester. We’d
booked as advised and gone for the 3 bar for half an hour option. We
kitted up, donned our helmets (oo-er) and got psyched up for the battle
to commence. Because we went for the “turn up and cart” option and
not a grand prix, there were other peeps on the circuit, so identifying
the peeps in the cars were to be quite hard. We exited the pit in the
following order…Me, Helen, Martin, Bryan, and Rich. I wanted to be at
the back for a bit of a challenge, but it didn’t matter as there was
plenty traffic on the course to prove more than enough competition. We
all powered out and spent the first lap or two getting used to the
really heavy steering of these karts, seeming worse at low speeds and
very tiring at high speeds (karts can go up to 40mph, which is quick
when yer ass is only an inch or two off the ground). Once
we were used to the handling it was time to put foot to pedal and never
let go! The traffic on the track was dense and slow, with the odd fast
driver in the bunch making overtaking a heart pumping experience. After
getting used to the lines and how to take peeps on the corners, it was
time to race against me mates. The first person I saw was Helen, easy to
spot because she was the only person to have hair hanging out the back
of her helmet. From behind, she seemed to be struggling with the kart.
The movement was erratic and tended not to follow any race line so
making overtaking a non-orthodox affair. This was a good thing, cos it
made it more fun. I managed to weave past her and knocked her slightly
with the back of my kart as I had to turn in late to a corner or face
the wall. One down. I’d
gone a few laps without noticing my mates, maybe overtaking on average 4
cars a lap, so I was keeping my eyes peeled. Then I noticed what looked
like my mate Rich. He was doing quite well, going fast, taking corners
quite text book, maybe using the brakes too much. This is where I got
him, cos the karts use brake lights, it was easier to see what he was up
to, so into this long banked tight corner, he took a tight line and put
his brakes on for control. I managed to take the corner wide and cut in
at the second apex with the added speed I gained by swinging it out wide
enabling me to accelerate pretty much all the way round as Rich was just
getting back up to speed after braking. Two down. After
passing Helen a few more times, I was still having problems spotting my
mates. I might have passed them, I don’t know. But seeing the body
language of the person in front of me weaving in and out of traffic very
successfully could only be one person. Martin. This was one tough fight,
but one I knew I would ultimately win as he was easy to read. He was
fast and took corners well with few mistakes. Good weaving on his part
made it difficult for me to get the line to take him. For maybe a whole
lap, I was merely shadowing him, weaving using his line and some last
minute scary cut ins, but he was within my grasp. I saw a gap that would
occur cos of the line he took round a corner trying to pass someone. I
had to go a really daft line but had to come out on the inside of the
person he overtook. So I swung it wide, took this random geezer on the
inside, which put me right in the position for the next corner. It was a
hairpin and I had the inside line. It was beautiful. He had gone wide
from overtaking the car now behind us and continued on that line so he
could cut the apex from wide to get better exit speed. I had gone the
inside route and managed to get in the opening around the apex of the
hairpin, forcing him out wide and ultimately behind me. In the
confusion, I hurtled off and put some distance between us. Three down. I
thought I had it in the bag. I’d not been overtaken, I’d averaged
around 4 overtakes a lap (sometimes it was around 6-7!!) and I’d taken
all my mates with seemingly ease. Except one. Bryan. I hadn’t seen
Bryan much except for when the red light went on, we had to stop. He
seemed to always be very close to my exhaust fumes. After a few red
lights I noticed that I couldn’t shake him. The others were easy to
put some distance between us, but it was almost as if I was towing
Bryan. This unnerved me. I was thinking to myself, Deejaycee, you’ve
gone like the clappers here m8, yet he is still there. He must have just
had troubles overtaking me. So for the next couple of laps, I was more
than aware of his presence, forcing me to be very wary round corners.
This was a bad move. I seemed to slow quite a lot, or he was flying. He
was all over my tail and then the inevitable happened. We both came out
of this long banked curve onto the straight, which led to a good fast 90
left corner. I thought I’d come out of the banked corner quick, but
Bry just pummeled past me on the straight. At the 90 left corner, it
wasn’t a case of who goes through the door, Bry was past. He had just
annihilated me. It was at this point in the day that my vision went
funny. I started to see red. Off I charged like a possessed Crash
Bandicoot, taking corners like I was on a Scalextrix track. This was the
point where my secret weapon was to pay its dividends. Let
me tell you about my secret weapon. The last time I went karting, I was
doing quite well, but never seemed to “fly”. This guy came on who
worked at the track and he was flying. When watching his technique,
there were two major factors that helped him. One was flicking the car
the opposite way before going into a corner (like rallying), this set
the car up better, and makes for a much smoother corner. The other key
factor and what was to become my secret weapon…Leaning. Common sense
would tell you to lean into a corner, and you probably should (haven’t
tried it yet, that’s what I’m gonna do next trip). This guy leaned
OUT around corners. Once getting over how silly it looked, I thought
about the theory. Here are my thoughts on this technique. Assume
that the kart is designed not to tip. When going round a corner, all the
weight is transferred to the outside wheels. The speed at which you go
around a corner and how you accelerate round it depends on the amount of
grip you have and how you use it. Therefore, to go faster round corners,
you need more grip. The power will come from the wheels that are
supplying the grip. Going on the assumption that the kart won’t tip,
applying weight to the wheels on the inside will be a waste and will act
as a mere compensation to the loss of grip, while if you apply extra
weight to the wheel that are already gripping and getting the power
down, you will be able to apply even more power to them. So with more
weight applied to the stressed wheels around a corner, it should
theoretically possible to accelerate harder and longer round a corner. Back
to the race. I was practically licking the floor as I was leaning
“out” of the corners to get that extra bit of grip. And the results
were amazing, I found it possible to accelerate round corners that
shouldn’t have been walked round, the car didn’t understeer or want
to spin. It was effectively a speed boost of x2 as well, because not
only were you going faster than normal round a corner, but everyone else
was also going slower, 'cos they were slowing down for corners or at the
best, coasting round until they could apply the accelerator again. This
also led to another key factor in my weapon. The pickup on the karts is
quite slow. It would take a second or two under full acceleration for
the engine to react and pick up speed. As I was already accelerating
round the corner, there was no pickup delay, and so my exit speed was
good. I used this no holds barred madness to just take Bryan after which
he seemed to get lost in traffic, so never got a chance to retake me.
Four down. We
all headed for a pint straight afterwards cos it was thirsty work. I
announced who I thought were the winners and losers, and with lack of
timed laps and recorded results, this was as good an indication as we
would have. My finishing grid is as follows: 1st
Bryan and Deejaycee 2nd
Martin 3rd
Rich 4th
Helen The reason I put Bry and I joint top is because he did whoop me, and it was only sheer madness that got my position back (So he should have come second then - DJ Ess). I think on an open track, we could have a good battle. Martin did well and we had a really good fight. Rich never really stuck out from the crowd but he assures me he held his own. And Helen just had a good laugh. It was a great day and would recommend this to anyone. We all had fun. Don’t get put off by the high prices (cheapest is about 3 notes for 20 mins) as it is a fantastic experience for all (even saw a two seater with father and kid in). My only main problem with the Gloucester track is the fact that the “turn up and race” option isn’t timed. And the track isn’t exclusively used for the booking party, making it hard to see where your mates are. The Aberdeen karting centre, however, has printed times of all laps and the track is used exclusively for the booking party. Guess where I’m off to in a couple of weeks…That should settle an argument or ten as to who the champion is (Um, it would be Fitchy, if we ever all got together - DJ Ess)… Deejaycee
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