Holy mother of god it was fun.
Despite being given a bit of bad info the day before that they were open from noon to midnight for "arrive and drive", we were told when we got there that we could only do 2 races, which needless to say wasn't going to be enough, or so we thought. We were pissed after driving over an hour to get there to hear that we would be limited to a few races, but we sucked it up and drove what we could.
Overall it was incredibly fun, the karts are rated to a top speed of 40MPH, unless they have my fat ass in them and then the top speed is considerably slower
. I'm 6' 1" and 220lbs, trust me, it's a HUGE disadvantage hauling around the extra weight. One of my buddies is 5' 9" 160lb and he was ripping around the track. We're going to make him carry some ballast next time to even it up.
Passing is tough, you definitely have to rub a little to get past people if the person in front of you doesn't wave you by, or, as my 1 buddy did, just t-bone the guy in front of you in a turn to get by (he got a black flag warning for that maneuver). No mirrors is a problem as you can't really see who is behind you.
The track was pretty good. a couple of straights, 3 hairpins, a couple of sweepers, 2 elevation changes. GPNY provides driving suits, helmets, balaklavas and neck neck guards, I brought my own helmet though. The funny thing is that with everyone in the same color suit and black helment it's almost impossible to figure out who anyone is on the course, unless you remember what shoes they're wearing or their kart number.
The racing was pretty tough, you really get thrown around in the car and after 3 stints in the car, I have to say I was a little sore
lol. (could just be age lol). Each race lasts 9 minutes or so, and when you sign up you're thinking "that's not very long at all", but once you're on the track and you're ripping off 30 second laps through 15 turns, 9 minutes seems like a heck of a lot longer. We got 3 races in, probably could have done 5 but they had a party that had rented the track so we had to stop. Next time i'll call the day we're going and double check on the track availability.
If you haven't done this before, don't wait, don't put it off, it is extremely fun, you get a good work out and did I mention that it's fun?
No pics this time, we were too caught up in learning the ins-outs of the karts and the track, next time.