Gokart Race at Kartright Speedway

My first Gokart Race - Kartright Speed way, Singapore

 

I went to Joo Koon without an iota of a feeling in my mind on what was to conspire on the race day. I had never been to a gokarting race but I had ridden gokarts before.

Got to meet a couple of colleagues at Kartright Speedway who had come out to chance their arm to win the race (Joydeep and Thiru). The weather was good, the track looked fantastic and it was the best thing for a race to happen. The track was aweome with some tight turns in C4 and C6.

The karts were all fun karts, 200c, 5.5 bhp and a top speed of around 50kmph.

The race format looked good. There were 50 people in all and we were divided into five teams of 10 each. Each team was named after a contemporaryF1 car company. Redbull Racing, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Lotus were the different teams. There would be four rounds in all. A practice session (P) followed by a team heats (H). Then there would be a team qualification race to find out the top riders in each team (Q) and these riders would then move to the final team race (R) where in the top riders from all teams would participate.

I was in the Mercedes team and got to know the different members of the team. (Thiru, Martin, Anshul, Sumit, Ajay, Santosh, Sabu, Rajesh and Amit)

Practice:

The practice session was for 10 minutes to give you enough time to get to know the nuances of the track as well as the Kart. There were Vboxes fitted on each kart and it gave the best lap time and total time of each person in the team. This was displayed on the TV and we were all eagerly following each team and cheering them up.  

 The first team to hit the track was Redbull while the other teams waited for their turn. Shomil was the fastest from Redbull. He was followed by Christoph from Ferrari, David from Mclaren, La Rowena from Lotus.

Our turn had come and we were all given safety briefings as necessary and I went in nonchalantly around the track. The practice session was over and little did I know that I was the fastest in the team. Was doing a lap in the 50s.Thiru (Thirumurugan Natarajan) had the second fastest and Martin (Martin Robert) had the third fastest time. But it was just the practice session and we did have fun riding.

 Qualification

Qualification (Q) was a serious affair as everyone wanted to set fast lap times so that they finish on top of the grid for the team heats race (H). Again finished top of the team but the lap time had come down to the 49.865.

All the teams had one rider who was into the late 49s and early 50s. The teams that looked the tight were Ferrari and McLaren. There were three riders in McLaren (David, Frederico and Aldwin) who were all with little to separate between them. Similarly Ferrari had Christoph, Mitch and Patrick and they were all giving each other a tough time.

  

Heats

Heats (H) was a proper race of 7 laps to determine riders from each team who would qualify for the main race (R). The riders of each team started on the basis of their fastest lap times in qualification. I started in pole position for the race followed by Thiru, Martin and then others. Had a good start and was able to build a good lead by the second corner and then rolled on. Little did I know what was happening behind. By the time the first lap was over I had a good lead and then it was not to take too many risks and spin out. Towards the end of the race, eased out a lil bit too. Finished the heats in first and was ecstatic. Got to know that Martin and Thiru had a collision and that’s why I had such a good lead after the first lap. They finished second and third respectively. Everyone was cheering when I got out of the kart. Felt fantastic to know that I had the fastest lap time of 49.124 across all teams.

In a short time all the teams were done and we finally would get to know the top 10 riders who would compete for the final race.

Final Race

The results of the qualification were out and the riders were classified on their total race time in the heats (H). David Boon was the man to beat. I was 4 seconds behind him in second place followed by Christoph, Shomil, Aldwin, Frederico, Quentin, Mitch, Pang and the lady in the club La Rowena.

It was approaching night time and the track was getting cold. I was eagerly awaiting the first gokart race in my life and was all excited. Little did I know what was in store for me.

We started out from the pits and lined up for the race. The green flag went up and had a terribly terrible start. The kart wasn’t feeling good either. I was rear ended in the first corner and spun around. Got the kart back on track and in the meantime David and Christoph and others had escaped the melee and were miles ahead now. I had to catch up with them and I was taking risks. The kart wasn’t giving me any confidence (this was a different kart from the one I had used for the past three sessions) and it was sliding its rear on each corner like a Rally car. Shomil was right behind me and I was keeping him at bay. But little did I know that there was a kart eagerly waiting for me in the next tight corner. It was a blind corner (C6) and someone had spun and was facing the reverse direction when I plunged head-on into him. My day had gone from miserable to worse. I was way behind the leaders and threw caution to the wind and was taking corners in “Hail Mary” mode. Fortunately for me it was a crash strewn race and was able to make up 3-4 places and finish in a respectable 5^th place albeit a far 22 seconds behind the leader. David Boon still remained the man to beat. Christoph and a rocketing Mitch (the only one to break the 49 second barrier @ 48.977) joined David on the Podium in second and third. Congratulated them.

For want of the first corner, the race had been lost. In hindsight, it was a great eye opener. Was really sad to miss out on a podium but it was a good experience.  It was a great learning from the first go karting race of my life.

Thanks to Naveen for organizing the event and to Kartright for providing the venue and well maintained karts.

You can also view my other moto experices (bikes) at 

http://californiasuperbikeschoolindia.blogspot.com

http://married2dabike.blogspot.com