Kart Krash

My brother, brother-in-law, and I were supposed to go paintball this afternoon at Global Gutz Boom Camp at Boom na Boom. Unfortunately, nobody else showed up. The only alternative would be playing with a bunch of paintball pros, regulars to the site. But we didn’t want to end up coming out looking like colorful Christmas trees so we decided not to push through with it.

I was able to convince them to go karting at the nearby kart track. We walked over and I was pleasantly surprised at the reasonable price and quality of the track and karts. Although Speedzone is still tops in my book, it’s not so bad at all. The track is wide and the segments long. Good combination of high-speeds and tight maneuvers. It somehow reminded me of an F1 track. The karts, if the ones we used were any indication, are capable enough of letting you do both. And, of course, there’s no beating the price.

Our race, started out well enough, I took the first lap at moderate speed, then on the second lap started becoming aggressive with the accelerator, took a hairpin turn too fast, and understeered straight into the crash barriers.

I was dazed for a full second or two. As soon as I recovered, I tried to extricate my kart but couldn’t until one of the track staff drove over in another kart and helped me out. As soon as I was free from the wall, I resumed racing and, fortunately, nothing more untoward happened.

After the race, I checked my injuries: a few bruises and banged knee. Biggest bruise was probably my ego. But definitely I learned two [painful] lessons: (1) Observe and make notes of the track for the first lap or two. (2) Motorsports, even the entry-level karting, is dangerous and you can not have too much safety. Drive safe!