Yesterday I did something a little bit different from my regular asphalt sprint kart racing. I went straight from work over to Pole Position Raceway to race against a couple of my friends. The last time I was there the fastest lap time was a 27.7 and my fastest time was around a 27.3. My goal for this session was obviously to better a 27.7. So how much better did I do?
I got home from work and threw on my shoes and grabbed my helmet and headed straight to the track to meet up with my friends. I got there and was pleasantly surprised by there being no one there again. I was unfortunately told that the track is quite a bit faster when there are more people there. But I knew the time I wanted to beat, 27.7 seconds. During the first of three races it was only me and my two friends and I started first. (That is where I was placed to start every race. Could possibly be because I had been before.) The printers at the track were down so I do not know any of my lap tomes except the fastest so I do not build up any suspense for you. Sorry. Lets just say the 28.x I ran can be forgotten about! In the first session I managed to run a 27.59. I was checking my times during the race and I believe I was running 27.6′s each lap. I was feeling pretty good about my times at this point.
After the race finished, one of the P2R employees asked me about my NTK shirt and if I actually raced karts. I then found out he races Rotax SR at NTK and DKC and will be racing at the LSGP in March. Since he now knew I raced karts as well he decided to race with my friends and I.
During the race it must have gotten to my head that I was racing against a Rotax driver. I was running lap times just as fast as he was but my left foot forgot what threshold braking was. I spun around twice because I locked the rear end up and the other driver was able to walk away from that point on. My fastest lap that session was a 27.43 and the other drivers fastest was a 27.3x.
Still aggravated about spinning out twice my friends and I decided to order up a pizza. While chowing down, this guy was out running laps and got me out of my seat and away from my food. This guy, some of you may know him as Turbo13, was running consistent laps at 26.5 seconds. I immediately felt terrible for thinking I was running good laps. I knew I could do a few things to go even faster, but not .9 seconds faster! Looks like I have some work to do to improve my indoor kart racing.
After he finished up his race it was time for me and my friends to go back out. I had a new goal and that was to better my time from the last session.
I started out by letting one of my friends get ahead so i could at least fight for a pass once tonight. As we were coming back to the start/finish line I saw Turbo13. I had no clue he was racing this session! Once I saw him my mindset immediately changed to passing my friend then keeping up with Turbo13. This was going to be a stretch since there was already someone in front of me I needed to pass and then I had to catch up to someone that is faster than me. It took me about a lap and a half to pass my friend but once I did I was a man on a mission. My lap times were consistently in the 27.4′s during this race but it it was not good enough to catch up to Turbo13.
After the race I asked him if he could take my GoPro out on his next race and he was kind enough to do so as long as I posted the video on YouTube. Search “Pole Position Raceway Frisco Turbo” to watch the video for yourself.
After reviewing the video before going to bed I saw instantly what I needed to do to go faster. First, be smoother. I still saw at the wheel a little bit too much. And two, go slower. Yes, I said I need to go slower. I was going into the corner too fast causing the front end to lose grip and the rear to go into a wheel hop. I need to go slower in and set the kart better so I can have more speed on exit which should bring my lap times down along with being smoother.
If you has not been to Pole Position Raceway yet you are missing out on the most fun activity in the North Texas area aside from outdoor sprint kart racing!