Go Kart-ing

Had to wake up at 8am today to go go kart-ing. My first experience of go karts was at year 6 camp where there was only one on the field and we get to do a lap around the field each. Sherman picked me up and we went to Ming's. From there, the 5 of us Ming, Sherman, Albert, Shimeen and I took Shimeen's car and went to the go kart place. I never knew it was right next to Snow Planet. We were the first people to arrive there, we even arrived earlier than the event organisers.

After everyone arrived, we were sort into groups, each group had 9 teams, we were in the first group so we got to race first. The rules were, 125 laps per team which means 25 laps per person, first round was qualifying round, the starting position for the actual round was judged by your time during the qualifying round. Go Kart rules: Try to avoid contact, if the refs catches you deliberately hitting the other kart, they will signal you with a black flag which means you have to pull into the pit stop and recieve penalty time. Blue flag is when you are going too slow so you should move to the left and give way to people behind you. Yellow flag or light means slow down, someone has crashed and the service people are trying to get him out.

Our first driver was Sherman since he was the captain of the team. They started with 2 laps of warm up and Sherman crashed during the 2nd lap LOL. Everyone was just waiting for him to get unstuck so we could start the race. Then the race started. It was the most intense event I have watched in a while. Motors whirring, tyres screeching, people cheering, it was very exciting. It was really funny when people blocked others while turning corners and made them crash. Sherman was doing pretty good but then he got a black flag. We didnt see what happened but that was a bummer.

At 25 laps, we have to hold out a sign to signal our driver to pull into the pitstop because you cant hear anything while you were driving. Shimeen was next, he was doing good until his kart broken down lol which caused us more time. Albert went next and then it was Ming. It was cool seeing how concentrated our team members were, cheered them on as they drove past and laughed at them when they crashed. That is what a team should be.

When it was my turn, I was pretty nervous because it seemed like everyone got the hang of it but what if I didnt. Well after getting on and floored the accelerator, not only was I suprised about how fast the go kart was but also how easy it was to drive it. You dont even need to use the break, even around corners but during my laps I found out that you skid after leaving corners if you dont use the break and that slows you down by a bit. The coolest part during my laps was when i overtook 3 people at once, the first kart was going slow which was blocking the other 2. However I saw a gap between them so I weaved through and got past all of them, man it felt really good. Another memorable part was when I was behind this girl and I tried to get past her around a corner but the gap wasnt big enough so I hit her side on which caused her kart to become perpendicular to the track and she had to wait for the service people to put her back straight. I waved my hand to apologise but I still felt guilty afterwards because it was completely my fault yet my kart was fine lol :/

After the qualifying round for group 1 finished, it was the other group's turn which means we had to wait for another hour or so. There was suppose to be a sausage sizzle soon but they still hadnt set it up so we decided to go out for lunch. According to Albert, there was a Wendys just 'down the road'. So we went down the road, went past Silverdale town centre, turned right heading towards Shakespear Park, searching and hoping that there was a Wendys. We made ridiculous bets to what happens if there was one or there wasnt one cause we were just driving towards no where and we wouldnt stop until we saw a Wendys. Then we finally reached this more civilised place and there it was! All of us were cheering and relieved, Albert was like "See! See!", Shimeen was like speechless.

Went back to the race track after lunch, what it seemed like a 20mins driver before was actually like a 5 mins drive. When we got back, group 2 still hadnt finished so we just chilled. Then after it finished, they sorted us out into division A and B. A was the fastest 9 and B was the slowest 9. We were in division A, they decided to let division B to race first which meant more waiting for us. We were all fairly tired so all 5 of us just squeezed into the car and listened to music, talked, slept, just trying to kill some time.

After like an hour of waiting, it was finally our turn. We knew we werent that fast in division A and we were right, we were 8th out of the 9 team to start off lol. Albert went first and he had an awesome start, during the first 5 laps he overtook like 3 or 4 people, he was 4th at one time but the he crashed which was awww but still got us up to 7th by the end of his laps. Ming went next and during his turn, quite a lot of crashes happened which boost made us kept fluactuating between 6th and 7th. It was funny when Ming bumped onto the safety tyres really hard one time and his hair net fell on top of eyes so he was basically driving blindly LOL. Sherman went next and did good too by the end of his laps, we were 6th. Shimeen was great, he kept us at 6th and he held the record of the fastest lap in our team. Our greatest target was kart 2, they were 5th. We were a lap behind them and then a miracle happened, they crashed which allowed Shimeen to caught up and was half a lap behind them now.

Our plan was when kart 2 do their driver change, we let Shimeen go an extra lap and make up for the lost half a lap. Then when it was my turn, the seatbelt got stuck and we fumbled for like 30 secs which meant our plan didnt work as well as expected. When I was in the kart, I felt like my vision narrowed, all I could see was the kart in front of me and all I thought about was how was I going to get past him. I didnt even pay attention to flags or lights and lucky I didnt get any. I skillfully got past one guy and I found myself chasing no.2, he was right in front of me. He was trying to block me all the time but during the S curve I managed to fight through a narrow gap he left opened while turning and bumped him out of my way. Luckily I didnt get penalised but then afterwards I could feel him chasing me, trying to regain his position. I stood strong and did not let him past me and the result of that we got 5th!

Today was one of the funnest day I've had in ages. It was worth the $40 I had to pay, since normally it would be $40 for only 20mins. Today's event, there was teamwork, individual skill, excitement, thrill all pack into one. But driving a go kart gets tiring since a lot of strength is needed to turn the steering wheel, I felt like I've just went to the gym. Anyway, this was the longest update I've ever written and Im really tired now so just gonna leave here.