It was a group outing that began as an innocent trip to the go-kart track. There were 9 nine of us, all with differing amounts of track time and widely varying degrees of aggression. In attendance were Chris, Pauline, Jeff Sarpa and his son Daniel, Jaime (in the front of the building), Courtney, James, Isaac and myself. We decided to hit up an outdoor track with gas machines (as opposed to electrics indoors) out in Riverside. The 909…

After the group rate was settled and all were paid up, we found our way to the helmets and ‘abrasion resistant’ jackets. Jumped into the karts and pretended to pay attention to the rules and the parade lap. It seemed that no one was paying attention to the number of laps and we just kept going. Once our second round of lapping began, mayhem ensued. It was a bit crazy for sure. The respect for the pace lap was gone and the karts turned into bumper cars. ** A quick clarification. We were almost completely left to ourselves, the karts did have guards all the way around and they were completely unkempt – some of them looked like they were re-welded together with a lighter and a coat hanger –  all of this led to our loss of respect of the process there, sorry. ** Soon, everyone was spinning, either by themselves off into the gravel or due to a nudge from behind. Even the warm down lap turned into an extension of the racing. The lead was changing constantly and everyone was getting more comfortable nailing the turns. It was a blast, everyone would agree. By the end on our 5th session someone was always spinning, rubbing, cutting the track (Courtney even ‘mistakenly’ cut through the pits at full speed), and generally causing trouble.

It seemed that most of us spent some time at the front and off the back. And at the risk of sounding like youth soccer, there were not really any winners or losers. We all had a great time and agreed to do this again. Maybe not at this track though. We’ll try and spread the word to some other peeps out there and make a larger group. What-d’ya say…

:t