Sunday, January 8, 2012

MyKart 2012 Drivers Series: Round 1

Yes! The first race for 2012!

To start this entry, MyKart is an active karting group for all karting enthusiast with a tight budget, and they have their own gran prix which is held monthly in Shah Alam Karting Circuit.

Even though the race is targeted towards enthusiasts rather than full fledged karters but I tell you, these people can really drive the gremlins out of their kart.

So yeah why not? I have made a personal commitment to join this series for the rest of 2012 and see how far can I go.

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SO, the race goes like this. Drivers are first weighed in order to determine which class they will race in. For those who weigh between 45kg~69kg they will be placed under class K3-45,(K3 being the class of the kart, which in this case is the lower spec rental kart, 10hp @ 80cc 2 stroke) while the heavyweights will be in class K3-70. Needless to say, I kena sumbat in class K3-70.

THEN, the race is divided to 3 heats. Each heats is 8 laps which is just nice (I drove 10 laps once, and believe me, it is physically demanding).

The first two heats is for qualifying purposes, which is to determine the final spot during the actual race. The last heat, well you have guessed it, is the real race.



AND SO! my first qualifying result!

I only managed 9th position with my best time, which is around 1 min18 sec -ish (best time was around 1 min 14 seconds). This is actually considered very good in my opinion, where most of the time I cant even make it to top ten! Susah I tell you!! Serius!!

Which I think I owed my time to the kart I was driving. The engine is very responsive and the steering is very, well..... responsive. And the traffic on the track wasn't that bad, so I can concentrate on driving. The track is still damp in a few places so oversteered and understeered here and there but hey, obamanotbad.jpg when I saw my time!


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AND NOW! My second qualifying result!

This is where things start to get interesting. I got a lower performance kart, where the engine seems not willing to rev. The feeling of being overtaken on a straight is just very annoying!! Argh!! I managed to squeezed 14th position out from the kart.

But during the second heat I had a very good dogfight with a guy. We got a similar shitty kart but both of us were not in good terms when it comes to trading positions. He was always defending his racing lines, not allowing me to pass (which in karting rules, one must allow the faster kart to overtake you after several attempts of unsuccessful blocking, I think, lol)

I nudged his rear bumper a few times, outbrake him a few times until finally he raises his hand and allowed me to pass. Successkid.jpg!

So I got 5th place after averaging the time. Not too bad I guess??!


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-Now moving on to the actual race, where the real fun starts.

The starting position is mirrored according to your qualified position. So to say, if you qualified first position you will start last, so that it is fair to other karters (this is why this kind of a double-edged sword, you can drive slowly during qualifying so that you can start off at front, but you will not earn any qualifying points, which is vital in determining your final final finishing position).

AND SO, I started 7th, from the last. And a whole pack of very talented karters in front of me. The kart I got this time was awesome, which allowed me to gain 8 positions from where I started.

RIGHT until I came across a guy and a girl defending their positions in front of me, with the girl leading.


Being a lightweight, she is very fast on the straight, but both of us caught up to her in the corners. The guy tried to scared her a few times but to no avail. We have an aggressive female driver here!

I managed to switch positions with the guy, which he gladly let me pass. Now I have to do the scaring.

BUT THIS GIRL IS VERY DEFENSIVE

She would not let me pass. She even get into my racing line, forcing me to brake. BUT NO!

I drove into the grass everytime she tries to get into my racing line and I became an agitated bastard. Fine, you don't let me pass I play hardcore.

There are several occasions where I had to drive into the corner bumps (the red and white corner strips which you will always see in a racing circuit). It is not advisable to ride on the bumps as this can cause damage to the kart and the driver as well, but what the heck, the girl just do not give up on defending her line even though she is clearly slower in the corners! What the fish!!

COME THE LAST LAP on the third corner, which I think she purposely braked on the corner exit. THE CORNER EXIT!!!!!

I crashed into her QUITE HARD, as I have no room to brake. Both of us then oversteered. Her being the lighter driver, she recovered from the oversteer quicker and accelerated away like a rocket. I lost a place to the guy who let me through earlier. He gave me a brief raised hands and shoulders, then threw a thumbs up for my effort. LOL!!!

So my final position is a measly 22nd. Which I think is ok ok lar.



And the overall standing for round one is also.... 22nd. Lol.


Looking forward to round two, which is the first saturday of february next month. I will drive better this time!


This is indeed a TL:DR post and I thank you if you really read all of them. It meant a lot to me. Thank you!

If you go TL:DR then thank you for being awesome!! Who wants to read a foreveralone guy's race report anyway?! Thank you!!

I think I have seen this ending style before. LIAAAAAAAAAAA

Good Nite!

1 comment:

  1. Y U give pressure to LIA . Now she will notice when i am stalking her!!

    ReplyDelete