My First Day At Professional Karting Circuit

There’s nothing quite like driving fast on a circuit. The concertation, the fast decision-making and even just the sheer speed often has a side effect, the adrenaline. If, like me, you’re very competitive, you’ve got one goal – setting good a lap time. Some of you may already know that I’m a huge driving enthusiast – I love motorsport, I have a gaming setup for racing simulators. But above all, I enjoy the real thing.

Unfortunately, motorsport isn’t nearly as popular as it is in other countries. There are only 6 or 7 karting circuits in the whole state. All except one are parking lots converted into an improvised track. I haven’t been to all, but those I have visited are quite as serious as I’ve hoped, these I haven’t visited are the same story. There are no other tracks apart from karting tracks, if you want to drive in a track day, you won’t find any here. Despite the lack of popularity, there are driving clubs (or I should say ‘is’, since for my age there’s only one) and driving courses. During the summer vacation I have took a part in a driving course, and finished first after a battle with another great driver, which had been ahead of me on every other race, except for the final! After receiving my karting license, I knew I want to move forward and lose the ‘Amateur racer’ title for something bit more serious.

After watching the national karting championship, which its last race took, place on that circuit, I realized this circuit might be the only real taste of actual racing (Mind you, I have only raced in closed parking lots). About a week ago, I have celebrated my 16th birthday, and asked to go for that only actual racetrack in my country. Despite it being far away, I had a long drive to it – only for a storm to appear. Sadly, the circuit was closed that day due to heavy rain – only true professionals were allowed to rain and I haven’t proven myself yet. We turned around half-way and were heading home…
A week of waiting slowly went past and despite being injured in my hand, we finally had another try. A slight drizzle in the morning had me worried and I wished for a quick dry up. Yet another long drive and we finally arrived. The asphalt looked dry, the temperatures were perfect.

The track

(Layout below)
The track itself is very complicated, the designer (which is also the manager of the karting circuits net, and owner of the place) had made a very difficult circuit. The track opened in December, and as soon as I heard of it, all I wanted to do is see how fast I can go round it. (Starting on the top right of the map) a straightway followed by two right, fast flat-out turns, all of that pretty much with my right foot staying down. After a long bend right a very tricky hairpin – there are two lines, either a very late apex or a long slow stay in the inside. If you take the late apex, which I recon is faster you have to take the turn later than you’d think, since the turn tightens and there’s a sudden change in direction. It is very easy to be thrown outside if you go too fast or too early. After this hairpin turn, there’s a much simpler hairpin to the other side that you should take normally. Once you’re past that tricky part of the circuit, the rest of the turns are fairly simple but still not easy. A sharp turn left followed by another left turn. After this section, you’ve got speed – but you’ve got yet another tricky area. Taking a left right into another hairpin, staying in the racing line is critical – taking the left turn too early and you reach the hairpin far too much on the inside, taking the left turn too late and you lose a lot of speed. This is the second tricky section of the track, taking it imperfectly has a big impact on the lap time. After the 3rd hairpin, a normal left turn puts you directly 180 degrees from the straight, so you have one last hairpin before the straight. Not many people notice this, but having a tight hairpin before a straightway is clever, because you want to carry as much speed as possible into the straight, but a in a tight hairpin you lose a lot of speed – it’s a critical turn.

The Racing

Overall, I had a blast; I never had any experience like it. I never raced on this type of track. The straightway gave me a sensational feeling. Despite having to get used to the new speeds, I have learnt the track quickly and was very fast. Other driver, inducing my 13 year old cousin, haven’t slowed me down much, the track was wide enough and plenty of complex turn in which I had good line. Some drivers span out, some even at the middle of the track, but seeing my cousin on the barrier right after the last turn into the straight had me laughing, I later apologized. I got to know most of the complex turns quite fast and gained a lot of confidence in the first round. On the second round, which the little lad started driving, the marshals limited the engine so I didn’t get the speed I had on the first round, so as I had my hand up in the air, I was slowing down to ask the marshal what’s up with it. My cousin stopped right beside me ON THE MIDDLE OF THE TRACK to see what’s going on, and why I stopped. On top of that, that young lad and his father were both driving side by side slowly on the beginning of the straight, overall they were driving slowly on the whole track but on the entry of the straight it had most impact and annoyed me the most (They were driving on the second round). The father probably wanted to be with him so he would feel safe, but that slowed everyone else, they were driving very slowly. Later, I drove even more quickly and at one point began taking the Krebs. It took only 2 laps until the marshals stopped me and told me to stop, stupid me… After all I have done pretty well and I’m satisfied with my time. When the session was over, the owner of the place stopped me and asked me about going on the Krebs, he wasn’t pleased with it. He explained to me that most turns it would only slow me down, but after looking at the score, in which my fastest lap was 0:42 (Reference – My dad got 0:52 and cousin over a minute, record time around 0:40 length of the track unknown). The owner of the place complimented my driving a lot, and invited me for a 2-stroke karting course – of course I will go to that once I find time…