[Ep 70] First Time At 'The Bend'

Описание: Generally speaking, most of the higher profile karting events fall under Karting Australia. However, this year there was a notable exception with the Kartsport event that took place at 'The Bend' in September on the same weekend as the V8 Supercar event that was taking place on the larger track that is located less than 100 metres away! It's not very often that a karting event gets to be a support race to such a major event.

I decided to enter this event some months before. As you may recall, the last 2 events I've done have been in terrible weather. I hadn't done a meet in the dry for probably 2 years, and I had never driven at 'The Bend' Kartdrome. The track is actually quite technical. It's fast and yet has a few heavy breaking points. Gearing to a higher ratio may pay dividends but if you don't carry the speed through the heavy breaking corners, you can literally drop half a second every time you get it wrong. As such, I remain unsure what the best compromise is. In Kartsport you don't qualify so it is a given that you are going to draw some positions way back in the field. We took part in the optional practice day, the day before the meet and I'm glad we did as we needed every minute of the time we got on track. While we didn't set the world alight, by the end of the meet our pace was respectful and we were probably a bit unlucky not to be a few positions further up the field.

The main thing I came away with was I enjoyed being out there racing (in the dry) in a kart again. That enthusiasm had not been there for a while and to have it back was exciting, but it has presented me with somewhat of a dilemma given that we are fast approaching the start of the Windsurfing season. Clearly, I'm not done with karting so how do I best divide my time between both of my consuming sports to ensure I progress, rather than falling back to midfield in both? To run at or near the front in either would normally requires you to devote most of your recourses in one direction. I haven't yet got an answer to this. How do you decide between 2 such consuming racing passions?