If you were observant, I skipped a number from my previous Karting Race post. I had missed one Karting race since I had gone to Atlanta on vacation for that time to visit my bro, sister-in-law, and newborn godson.. Didn't matter, Atlanta was much more fun :)
Race #7... Well what can I say? That day felt REALLY good. I clocked one of the fastest times of the TRACK. Wasn't sure if I broke a record.. But.. I'm sure I was close. In any case, with that said, I took pole position for qualifying ;) .. What's surprising though was a new face behind me who qualified second! It was a newcomer who had joined late in the season. But he obviously had previous experience somewhere (and weighs/looks really light) as I (and the third qualifier) had clocked really, really quick times!! Anyway, race is off!! I never expected it, but I got a LOT of pressure from the new guy. He was on my ass for the first couple laps AND peeking through in some turns with a possible attempt to overtake.. We were clocking times very close to our qualifying times dicing and protecting my position.. The new guy got me on one corner bumping me down to 2nd place; and so, I turned the tables and shifted the pressure to him instead.. I got him to crack - but to my disadvantage. I was tailing too close, pressured him enough to lock his brakes on a high speed hairpin and he went sideways, but because I was tailing too close - I had bumped him causing both of us to go into a spin!!! I was lucky enough to recover and rejoin the race at 5th place, but had to work hard to end up in a so-so 4th place position. Had there been more laps (2-3 more), I would've been able to catch 3rd and secured a podium finish... Unfortunately, not this race......
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Anyway, Race #8 was pretty exciting! For one thing, organizers decided to have the reverse-track layout instead of the conventional layout we normally race.. And because of this, a lot of people needed to get used to the 'new' layout. Surprisingly, it's completely different from what you would've normally thought. The reverse track required less braking points, was (or at least felt) faster too. I felt really comfortable right away and tested the limits of each corner on every practice session. I clocked pretty quick times in comparison to others; and on qualifying thought had edged pole position once again. To our surprise, it was the newcomer from the last race who had taken pole! Amazing! LOL... In any case, race started off, and the 1-2-3 positions were all bunched up. New guy, me, then the jockey guy (remember him? lol).. We were pressuring each other every lap, but I was feeling nudges from behind me. I had no choice but to give up my place and fall back to third. We were all dicing for positions at this point and no one backed off. We were dicing with each other so much that the 4th place guy caught up to us and ALMOST dove in on me on the last lap... But I was able to hang on to a respectable third for a bronze medal podium finish... Believe me though, if you knew what happened the night before this race, it's amazing I did as well as I did... I only had 3 hours or so of sleep. Was wired on Vodka/Redbulls. I had more than four CANS of Redbull to top-up on my double-shot vodkas. And considering that Redbull has a warning not to mix it with alcohol AND some bars refuse to mix it for you for safety reasons, is good enough sign to use caution... LOL
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And now... Just recently, Race #9... This happened during the American Le Mans Series Weekend (including Speed World Challenge, Star Mazda Series, Formula BMW, etc, etc) when they had visited our local track - Mosport.. I spent the entire day on Saturday walking, standing, and watching. You could just imagine how tired I was.. The following day (Sunday) was MY race day... I was clocking really crappy times during practice. Almost 4 seconds off the pace... LOL... But I just kept pushing myself and got quicker and quicker every session. By the time the track, the temperature, the engines had all warmed up - so was I... :) Qualifying session started. My out lap had ALREADY beat any of my practice times! I couldn't do much more but push even harder! And this wasn't just a fluke, they were getting consistent too! By the time qualifying ended, I found out that other people were clocking times close to a full second slower than me! So once again, I clinched pole position once more... Come race time... Was pretty straightforward - there were no position changes. I won FIRST place!!! :) It took me this long! Finally!!!
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There's some more races to come! But the season is coming close to an end....
