Yesterday I was back on the track driving my kart!
Yes, my ribs is pain free.
But today, been a day after, I can feel a slight discomfort,
no pain just some dull aches.
I was truly happy that I was on the track yesterday.
As there was a mini race as a 'finale' of the day program
at about 3 pm with 6 others, including Graeme, Mary, Noel
and their friends. Not forgetting a certain Louis (the track boss).
It was cretainly a good gauge to see if my ribs can indeed take the
punishment dished out while being on a kart. Just driving on my
own will not be as good a test since I can back off unknowingly.
The more fruitful bits of the day are that I had learnt how to
adjust my chassis front width, and tighten my own chain.
Although my hands and arms are all dirty, but I was enjoying
almost all bits of it.
Next up, I will need to and want to learn how to change my rear
sprocket.
The question I had to ask myself now is whether to race on Oct 11.
I need to ponder about it as race there now has little or no meaning
to me other than meeting up with good friends. Making the whole
experience yikes is the bad temperament of a certain Louis.
Yesterday while we are on the grid, Noel openly question the
'wisdom' or the lack of it for the weigh required by the Biland.
Noel simply thinks that the Biland engine definitely need to put on
more weights to be fairly competing with the rest of the 2 strokes.
To round off the point, Louis finished 1st after 'punting' Graeme out
in the last few laps. And I got to second from sixth.
Hey, maybe I just saw the wisdom of it... The guy putting up
the rules just want to win it for himself. Sound about right?
This brought me to another point which has been got me thinking
about racing in Plentong. That, there is obviously a silly mix of 2
strokes of 4 strokes engine running together in the same race.
While the Biland is an aged 4 stroke, it seems to be getting better
since I drove it courtesy of Louis in a race middle of the year.
Then needless to say, there are the Aixro engines which produce
33 kW (more than 44bhp) at 8750 rpm and 39 Nm at 7500 rpm
As compared to a 2 stroke Rotax Max engine which gives
21 kW ( 28.5 bhp) at 11,500 rpm and 21 Nm at 8.750 rpm
I hope you can make out how much difference in performance
it is between the two makes on the straight even though the
minimum weight for Aixro is at 205Kg and the Max at 165kg.
There's very little how much more weights one had to put on the
Aixro or Biland to make it a 'fair'. I guess it will never really be fair.
I just have to face it or take it on the chin if I decide to race there.
Let me say this here that the 2 guys, Mark and Julian, using
the Aixro are good friends.
It just the whole race format/ weight requirement/ darn dirt track
going into the track/ attitude of Louis are just irking me.
But I have to admit that my idea of karting is 'romantic' which
is basically to improve driving skills, understand the setup of the
kart and engines and close fair racing on the track rather than just
to have the most powerful engines on the chassis.
Shouldn't it be the way karting should be?
I love sitting in my kart racing with everyone or anyone.
I had mentioned this to a few guys before that I will be more
happy to race the young Thaddeus Lee in his Junior Max and
lose gladly then to fight it out on the track where it's straight
with the 4 stroke engines after overtaking again and again on the
corners only to be edge ahead on the straight.
It is just like losing purely on Horsepower. Period.
Thus I just have to question myself if the race itself in Plentong is
in fact a race, giving my rosy view of go karting.
I will just need to pondering more on it. I might just do it for
the final 2 races.
For now, I'm happy that I back on the kart. Driving it. Learning
my chassis again.
Already looking forward to my next outing on the track!!
Also, it's the Singapore F1 weekend. So it's all motoring again
this weekend.
happy '78' out of cage and on the track!
karts ready for 'mini' race
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