I went go karting today and had an absolute blast. I ran four about four hours with breaks to let me hands and wrists loosen up. I did sustain a bit of an injury as a result of a shunt. I banged my elbow on the seat after about 6 karts got caught up in a chicayne. Darn slow movers!

I showed up to find an SSC Racing truck with 5 karts loaded up. We got the truck unloaded, fueled up the karts, warmed them up, got our driving suits on and off we went. The track we went to was very nice. It's a long drive at about a mile a lap. In a go kart it is a pretty long distance. There were lots of elevation changes and even a Laguna Seca style downhill corkscrew.

Karts are a different animal than cars and handle very differently. I got a good feel for the handling and got the line down pretty well. Yes, I did spin out a few times and that is normal. Lots of seasoned racers were spinning out. My morning kind of sucked because my kart had some technical issues. Tip: It helps the kart to go if the chain stays on. Mine came off twice. We remedied that and I was back in business. I can see how these karts can make you a better driver and definitely a better racer. Schumi, Senna, and even Jeff Gordon all started in karts.

The karts we ran were built by SSC Racing and were used for a Red Bull sponsored race series. We had a couple of shifter karts amongst them. They were super fast but I didn't not like it nor did I find shifting necessary. Smooth handling and braking/throttle are enough. The shifter karts that we had out also didn't fit me well and I was being banged around so it was hard to handle the kart.

Here are the karts in pit row.



Representing xoutpost.com!!!



Close up of one of the karts.



A future racing star.



A wanna-be racing star. (Yours truly.)




Here are a couple of videos of me, the wanna-be racer, that were taken by the team mechanic. They are AVI files and should play in the latest Windows Media Player. (They take a minute or so to load.)

Video 1
Video 2

Unfortunately I want one now. I can buy one of the Red Bull karts at a discount and the mechanic will take care of my kart but alas, I can't justify it right now. Besides, the incredible track we went to is supposedly going to close down because Lowe's Hardware bought the land. Bastards!

MY ass is officially kicked. I am getting old and after hockey on Friday night, a Christmas party Saturday night, go karting Sunday morning, and more hockey Sunday night, I'm pooped.

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