A lousy way to start...

26 Aug

Yes, there was a race last Sunday, 23 Aug.
However since it was such a bloody awful day that I was very reluctant to write about it.

The day was consigned to be a bad one from my tyre choice. I tested the kart and set it up with MG yellow but somehow I stupidly went to use Bridgestone YKB.

All the good feeling in the kart was almost instantly gone. The front end seems lacking in grip and the rear somehow feel too tight. Furthermore my rib begins to hurt already. How bad it was hurting is that I could not raise my left hand above my head on Sunday evening. Also, although I did not

Qualifying was bad. I think I started from 14 from 17 guys. I could not be bother much to be honest. I was just hoping to do the race proper, which I can't because I was really hurting.

Both heats I stopped mid way through.

Thus I don't know what to say about the race much. Except that if once you feel that your kart is hopping too much, please widening the rear track. I was 'con' by Louis in narrowing it which is how I got my 'bad' ribs

Talking about Louis, the track boss, my day was bad because of him too

This is what happened:
Before the qualifying, James(ah sheng) saw that my chain is loose. So i looked for Jason tighten it. Finding Jason, who was doing nothing much, I requested him to help me with it

Louis asked me what I needed Jason for
I said " chain loose lor" casually

What happened next really perplexed me... and many others who saw the incident.

Louis just went into a mad rage shouting that I should not leave things till late, I should be there early to do it. The best bit is that he refused to have any of his mechanics and workers to assist me!

Maybe he's just having a foul mood day, which is why Ivan got the same treatment much earlier on too.

Perhaps I should screamed back at him that the sprocket was put on by his worker, and now that it came loose. Should I be blamed? Will chain remain tight as ever?? Darn it ! Darn him!

I did not have any requests, that was the first thing that I ever request to be done on the kart that particular day and I got a berserk treatment? Am I not a paying customer?

He's the kind of people who thinking that there's no need for setting changes on a chassis or engine, and just drive and race. That's really a  very wrong idea of racing. As track condition always changes, and weather condition always changes we need to be able to tune the kart to drive better in different conditions. A lot of good drivers are good because they understand these and are able to apply it. If he don't understand these, then there's no way he can help in improve anyone's driving techniques.

At the end of the day, we both were seriously thinking of leaving the track. Or we may just do no race there and leave our karts there for practice for 2010 RMC. Because as much fun there are with racing our friends there, there are quite a number of issues with the participating karts, and needless to say the crazy boss is, well, a nut case!

All said and done, I will have to rest my ribs before I can hop back in my kart.
Till then, I have some serious thinking to do.