those fun days!

This was written almost a year ago, while me and my buddies fervently hop on to the 390cc everytime we had a chance at Permas Jaya track. That was the times when the boss of track will organize a race for fun karters like ourselves. How it works is that we will pay RM2 more for the kart fee and have a best time recorded. Those with the top 20 times will then gather on a specified day and race. It was purely for fun. Although, there are some prize money and some trophies to be won too! No hassle then. No setting of kart. Just hop in and race. Great!

Coming Saturday, 21 June, we are going to relive this good old days perhaps for the very last time. We are having a 390cc 4 stroke 2 Hour Enduro Race. I will be teaming up with KP, Des, and Leo. We should do ok, if we draw a good kart.
Before the event, let reminiscence.
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As written on Sunday, June 24, 2007

Track Position or Going Faster? - jon

June 23, do marked down this day
for this is the day for me and Nic to be earlier than KP.
but it must be said that he did have his reason for being
later than us... and it is Des and ringgit.
but who cares, we arrived earlier, KP!
=P

the 'objective' of karting is always to go faster than others
and have a fast lap time. it is no different yesterday as Des
& Nic had to post a good time with 390cc, 49 sec or less,
for the race on July 1
(next sunday, tickets are on sale now, please call us for it
hahahahaha)

at the end of the day, Des with kart 456 had a good time of
48.44sec, position 11 currently. i must say kart 456 is quite
a great kart to move around in on the track. it is torquey,
good high end speed and, rather well balanced into corners
and while braking.
needless to say i had my good lap time with that kart too.

while Nic, best time after 2 sessions, is 50.50sec, and his
position is not something we want to talk to him about... it
is something of 'national' mourning...
which is why he decided to do fun kart, not 390cc, next
sunday. therefore a non-position with 50.50sec will NOT
bother him except the fact that he WAS the fastest with
a 390cc among us the last time round..

the only significant difference in him between then and
now is that he drive a Vios now. looking at how Toyota is
doing in F1 currently, i wonder if the curse of its very
disappointing performance had being passed on to Nic.
hehehe

then for KP and myself, we already had a lap time which we do not
think could be knock off the list. while i chose not to do a timed
lap at all, KP tried to better himself. and he did managed it with
49.27sec. position 17.

for this last session, it is a race and time attack all roll into one.
since i am the only one who did not pay the extra RM2, i told
them that i will be at the tail end of the group, while they can eat
up the track with their respective kart in front of me.
order at start: Nic, Des, KP, Me.

before i go into the lap times, i suggest anyone thinking of doing go
kart semi seriously like us to have a full face helmet.
apart from debris and tyres bits that can hit you in the face, there
is oil splashes too!!
since i was the last of the group, i had to endure 3 karts oil
splashes from the 3 of them... but i never imagine have petrol
splashing at my face is one of them! things a good fren will do
=P

despite having a good track postion to roll start 1st, nic failed to
use it to his advantage. in lap 1, he span at turn 8 with the 3 of us
plus 2 more of PJ staff right behind him. thankfully, none of us hit
him while he stopped dead centre of the track. left and right we
went past him. phew..
then towards the end of the session, the 'Toyota curse' struck
him again. span at turn 2. des nearly hit him then. basically we
went past him twice. that's 2 meals treats, nicky boy! hahaha

but the real interesting observation of our, KP and i, lap times
during session 3.
nic had posted the times earlier. yesterday i was too tired to
be bothered. this morning looking at it and i asked him, 'is it
correct??'
i asked b'cos i was also constantly behind KP, but i was faster
than him all along? some lap i was faster than him by 2 whole
seconds!
how can that be? i did some research, and this might be why:

<Defending your Line>

defending your line is not always appropriate. You will put in
a slower lap time when you are defending. If you are in
the lead, or in a short race, or near the end of a long race,
where it's essential that faster karts don't overtake or if you
only have to hold off your opponent for a few laps, then it's
sensible to defend. However, the best way to prevent
people overtaking is to drive faster than them, and
leave a gap behind you. While you are defending, you
are not catching the people in front of you. In fact, not only
will your opponent be held up, you will be losing ground to
the whole field, which is particularly damaging in an enduro race.>

there u have it, the "why" i MAY BE faster than KP while
still be at the back.
it's a big MAY BE, cos i realised a glaring piece of info everyone
had neglected.
i was not in kart 97!!!!!!!!!

hahahahaha it might be one of the guys from PJ who went out
together with us that session
of cos, there's a possibility of a typo by nic. which cannot be
verified as he had sadly or happily discarded the time sheet.

but come next sunday, we shld only plan to do one thing. that is to
go faster and arrived earlier than anyone else at the finishing line.