Listening to: Iris, Goo Goo Dolls
Thinking of: Bloody English Weather
Ah, Karting... the sound of revving engines (well, ok... grass cutter motors) and the smell of gasoline (kerosene) mixed with adrenaline. Interesting! Woo Hoo... went to Birmingham yesterday with the Cypriots for an evening of tasteful karting (NOT!). Anyways, surprise, surprise... I bumped into Erik Putera, Angeline Lim and Andy... Well, obviously they're not Cypriots (then again neither am I) but that made it even more fun! :D At least I've got someone that doesn't speak Greek to me and expects me to answer. Hehehehe... but of course, thats just the appetizer... the main dish was obviously the racing.
Believe it or not, its the first time I've been in a kart. So during my first practice session, I hopped into the kart and starting zooming down the straight and heading towards turn 1 a right hander... I was quite happy I was going pretty fast and thought at a point, was laughing a "I'm INVINCIBLE" laugh... sadly enough, this was shattered when I depressed my brake paddle to get a nice smooth line and someone overtook me at a mad speed and the I stomped on the brakes and spun. Oh well, so much for my notion of invincibility... Oh by the way, I was able to keep up with him for the rest of the lap. So that was not too bad... But my subsequent laps, I got faster and faster... and soon I was doing most of the circuit without even touching the brakes! Woo hoo!
Anyway, my first stint on the track... I think I did pretty well, I got passed once and I claimed my position in a short while... I was catching up with the 3 in front and my team had to call me back in, so I was a little pissed. But hey, it was really good fun the first stint... Not bad for a 1st timer I thought. At that time we were 4th in 10 teams and I think the person in front of me would have been 3rd place.
Anyway, my second stint wasn't as cool... I kept getting knocked about by some over enthusiastic fool. So he passed me once, and spun in front of me... and clipped my front bumper. He did the same thing again the next lap and I rammed him and later went head on into the tire wall... I pretty much demolished the wall and a long period of yellow flags appeared to give marshals time to rebuild the wall. I kinda lost my concentration there... So from 3rd I dropped down to 6th... tragic, tragic... But uggh, if not for that over enthustic of a fiend... I probably would have been 4th and might just be on the podium.
On my team there were 2 pretty good drivers... Octed, one of them was Cyprus 2nd runner up... So obviously he was the one that did most of the cool racing. He's style was so different compared to the rest of us, his turns were so composed... I tried taking the same racing line as he did... but I always had to counter steer in order to keep the car from spinning around... in effect, it was a little bit of a drift! Woo Hoo... initial D! I had a couple of gripes on the karts though... a) acceleration was non- existant... i mean i stomp on it and it inches. b) Not all of them were equal... "some are more equal than others" (Animal Farm, George Orwell)
but on the other hand, turning through turn 1 which was bumpy and a pretty long right hander was so fun... I managed to take it flat out and you can actually feel the lateral forces, Ooo... such fun that turn.
Oh well, end of the day... it was good fun and I really did enjoy myself though I think I could have done better. Here is to many more hours of karting fun (hopefully)
Thinking of: Bloody English Weather
Ah, Karting... the sound of revving engines (well, ok... grass cutter motors) and the smell of gasoline (kerosene) mixed with adrenaline. Interesting! Woo Hoo... went to Birmingham yesterday with the Cypriots for an evening of tasteful karting (NOT!). Anyways, surprise, surprise... I bumped into Erik Putera, Angeline Lim and Andy... Well, obviously they're not Cypriots (then again neither am I) but that made it even more fun! :D At least I've got someone that doesn't speak Greek to me and expects me to answer. Hehehehe... but of course, thats just the appetizer... the main dish was obviously the racing.
Believe it or not, its the first time I've been in a kart. So during my first practice session, I hopped into the kart and starting zooming down the straight and heading towards turn 1 a right hander... I was quite happy I was going pretty fast and thought at a point, was laughing a "I'm INVINCIBLE" laugh... sadly enough, this was shattered when I depressed my brake paddle to get a nice smooth line and someone overtook me at a mad speed and the I stomped on the brakes and spun. Oh well, so much for my notion of invincibility... Oh by the way, I was able to keep up with him for the rest of the lap. So that was not too bad... But my subsequent laps, I got faster and faster... and soon I was doing most of the circuit without even touching the brakes! Woo hoo!
Anyway, my first stint on the track... I think I did pretty well, I got passed once and I claimed my position in a short while... I was catching up with the 3 in front and my team had to call me back in, so I was a little pissed. But hey, it was really good fun the first stint... Not bad for a 1st timer I thought. At that time we were 4th in 10 teams and I think the person in front of me would have been 3rd place.
Anyway, my second stint wasn't as cool... I kept getting knocked about by some over enthusiastic fool. So he passed me once, and spun in front of me... and clipped my front bumper. He did the same thing again the next lap and I rammed him and later went head on into the tire wall... I pretty much demolished the wall and a long period of yellow flags appeared to give marshals time to rebuild the wall. I kinda lost my concentration there... So from 3rd I dropped down to 6th... tragic, tragic... But uggh, if not for that over enthustic of a fiend... I probably would have been 4th and might just be on the podium.
On my team there were 2 pretty good drivers... Octed, one of them was Cyprus 2nd runner up... So obviously he was the one that did most of the cool racing. He's style was so different compared to the rest of us, his turns were so composed... I tried taking the same racing line as he did... but I always had to counter steer in order to keep the car from spinning around... in effect, it was a little bit of a drift! Woo Hoo... initial D! I had a couple of gripes on the karts though... a) acceleration was non- existant... i mean i stomp on it and it inches. b) Not all of them were equal... "some are more equal than others" (Animal Farm, George Orwell)
but on the other hand, turning through turn 1 which was bumpy and a pretty long right hander was so fun... I managed to take it flat out and you can actually feel the lateral forces, Ooo... such fun that turn.
Oh well, end of the day... it was good fun and I really did enjoy myself though I think I could have done better. Here is to many more hours of karting fun (hopefully)
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