Red Lodge Owner/Driver Championship - by Dan East

As we all know the next step up from arrive and drive racing is the relative leap to owner/driver. It’s quite an investment and for a while I wasn’t really sure I could afford it. Some digging on the net revealed that I could probably get myself a competitive kart and run it for a season within a pretty tight budget. It’s still a fair bit of cash though so before jumping in and buying anything I really needed to have a go at it. Fortunately, I had already been to watch a round of the Pro Kart series and spoken to a team about hiring their spare kart for the next round so I could try it out before committing to it financially.

Back

On the Day

It seemed like ages but the month finally passed and it was the morning of the meeting. The skies were grey and a very light drizzle was falling but it was still early at this point. The forecast was good so I wasn’t too worried, and I didn’t need to be. By the time my practice session had arrived the clouds had cleared, the sun was out and it was getting warm.

Practice

I hadn’t been to Red Lodge for well over a year, and I’d never been on the extended track, which gave me two things to learn - a new track and a new kart. And that’s not all. The seat fitted in the kart was an XL. I’m not very big – I fit very neatly into a M/L seat and the XL was giving me way to much room to move about. I found myself sliding from one side of the seat to the other from right to left hand corners, smashing the side of my body into the seat in the process. Even through my rib protector I was taking a real beating, which I can still feel at the time of writing over a week later. It wasn’t just my ribs either. I was literally holding on for dear life trying to stop myself from flying out of the seat through the bumpy sections of the track so my arms were getting a pasting too. Not to mention the effect that this changing weight distribution was having on the handling of the kart. I ended the practice/qualifying session a very embarrassing 2.3s of pole, putting me at the back of the grid for round 1.

Round 1

I started last and finished last, and got severely beaten up by my kart in-between. There’s not much more you can say really. I managed to improve my lap times by a second but it still left me with 1.3s to find, and I honestly wasn’t sure where from.

Round 2

We stuck some padding to the sides of the seat in an attempt to at least soften the constant blows I was getting. It didn’t work though and I found myself involuntarily screaming in agony around the most intense sections of the track. Just as I was considering pulling off and calling it a day the left front kingpin bearing decided it had had enough and collapsed (I know how it felt) and I was forced into retirement anyway.

Round 3

Kingpin fixed, yet more padding stuck in place and I was off again for some more torture. The extra padding was helping but by this time it was it too little to late. The pain from my ribs, back and arms was taking away all of the enjoyment. I was tired and it was all I could do in some places to keep it on the track. I was relieved to see the chequered flag at the end, and amazed to find that I had improved my time again to now be within a second of the front-runners.

The Final

There was a break before the final and I really needed it! I had a couple of painkillers and got my head together for one last attempt at a good result. I’d qualified 9th which for a first attempt in much less than ideal circumstances wasn’t too disappointing, but I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me just trying to stay there, let alone improve and move up the order. The lights went out and it was back to business. I made up 3 places at the start and found myself 6th. I managed to hold onto this position for about half of the race through sheer determination as much as anything else. Then I made a mistake in the middle section of the track though which let 2 karts through. The first one was considerably faster than me and pretty much disappeared but the second was a similar pace to me and I spent most of the race battling with him to try and get that position back. With about 5 laps to go he made a mistake and I managed to squeeze back past into 7th place which I held till the end. I even managed to shave some more time off my laps taking me to within half a second of the leading drivers. Strange as it sounds I was actually quite satisfied with that result. That may sound like a strange thing for me to say as I race to win, but the fact is that I was never going to get near the front in that kart on my first attempt, especially given the discomfort that I spent most of the day in. All in all I went home feeling fairly good about the whole experience. The club is very friendly and the racing is good (and close) however fast you are. I’m confident that given the right equipment and a bit of time to get used to it and the track I could get myself up to the sharp end of the grid, but did I enjoy enough to get my own kart? I love karting. It’s a great sport and the Red Lodge club is really nice, but I can’t justify spending that amount of money on something unless I really, really want it and the truth is that I don’t. Another season of arrive and drive events in ’08 and then maybe I’ll have another look at it, but for now it was a very worthwhile experience to help me make my mind up.