November 06, 2007

The "Old Guy's" turn at the wheel


All year I wrench on my son's kart and envy him for having the opportunity to do this at his age. Ever since I can remember I wanted to have something to do with racing. And when an uncle of mine purchased a kart and began competing with it back in the 70's I knew where I wanted to be.

So I pestered my father and saved my money but nothing ever came of it. Whether it was a lack of money, a lack of time, or my inability to stay focused on one thing and one thing only, the plan never came together. I had to wait until I was much older to pursue this dream.

Most of you who know me know that I gave up driving about 14 years ago after a luke warm career racing Formula Fords in the SCCA. Just before Sam was born, I sold everything I had and put it into our first house in preparation for a new life as a family and with it, the terrifying thought of being someone's father. There was no way we could afford to continue in the sport and more importantly, we couldn't afford to have one of us going out and risking our neck on the weekends. So with that, I hung up the driving suit for good. And even though I can honestly say that I don't for one minute regret the decision I made, there's not a day that goes by that I don't miss it. Flash ahead 14 years and an opportunity just presented itself.

The annual Backwards Enduro at Badger Raceway is an event that we've had the unfortunate luck of not being able to attend in the past three years. It sounded like a blast. At the end of every race season the club puts on a fun only event where drivers take to the track in the opposite direction of how it's normally run. There's a Powder Puff class that we always thought my daughter would do well in, and an Enduro where my son could share his seat with one of his friends. And what about this Mechanics Race I thought? A quick talk with the troops about who wanted to race in what class and we quickly discovered that even though we could finally attend it, no one really wanted to compete. It looks like the kart is all my own!


Now again, anyone who knows me knows that even though the key word in this event is "fun" I was taking it much more seriously than that. I knew I had to find a seat to fit me but I didn't stop at that. I had to find out all the set-up specs for someone my size and I had to track down a larger pipe that would be less restrictive and be able to handle it's new payload. I dug my old safety equipment out of storage and dragged my family to the track to show them how it's done.

The biggest mistake anyone can make when getting into one of these things is assuming that driving a much smaller and lesser powered kart over a race car is going to be a walk in the park. On the contrary it's the exact opposite. It demands much more of your strength, which was apparent in my inability to hold my neck straight through corners, and the variety of deep painful bruising in my ribs and arms. Without suspension, karts are a handful when it comes to keeping them steady. It took me nearly the entire day to find my stride and work up the strength to pilot this thing along something resembling the racing line. Although the entire day I would come off the last turn onto the front straight with one side in the grass I'm pretty proud in how far I came. I would eventually finish 5th with a personal best lap time of 42.02



The student is now the teacher "Your not going flat out through turn one Pop!" "You're all over the place in the sweeper, you need to work on it!" he's telling me. Man is that how I sound every weekend? That kid of mine was busting my chops from the moment I set foot in the thing. And no matter what type of progress I made he would always have some smack talk to back up how much quicker he was than me. I'll give him that. With a 38 second lap compared to my 42 he reserves the right to be a little cocky. What he doesn't realize is that I was going in the wrong direction on the track (which he never drove before) and I'm taking along about 50 extra pounds for the ride. I know, excuses, excuses, but he better pray that we never go head to head on the same track. If I ever get a kart of my own I have no doubt in my mind that I'll show him my backside and hand him his in the process.

So what did I come away with after this experience? Oh where to start. I think the biggest thing that hit me while I was out there is that I couldn't believe I was making my son drive at speeds like this. I was doing everything I could to keep the thing pointed in the right direction and I was expecting my 13 year old to do the same? The rate at which you come up on things is so quick that if you snooze for just one second you can easily find yourself in a world of trouble. Those hay bales come up real quick on you.

Another thing that's become very obvious is that I'm not twenty years old anymore and I take longer to recover than I used to. Two weeks after the race and I'm still nursing wounds from that day. Now I know why some bright individual introduced a rib protector in this market. I just started taking full breaths again without pain.


And the last thing I came away with is the fact that the bug is still with me and now more than ever I'd like to get back into it again. Probably not auto racing though. Unless someone with very deep pockets would like to take a chance on me I'll stick to karting. How else can I prove to my son that his old man is still king?