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JK Tyre Rotax Max National Championship 2012 - Round 1 - Media Race Experience
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Actually racing in a go-kart as opposed to just watching younger professionals compete in them, Rahul Basu shares his experience of taking part in his first ever media race organized by JK Tyre alongside Round 1 of the National Championship
Watching the overcast skies piece together over the characteristically laid out 0.840 km Meco Kartinment Track located at the outskirts of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad set a gloomy mood not just amongst a fleet of tenacious teenagers waiting in anxiety for the start of their national level go karting competition, but also us auto journalists who were majorly excited about competing in our very own media race later that day.
The downpour an hour before already had the track wet as a used bathtub with a few races now already running behind schedule. But as the clouds began to clear, hope was once revived and after an hour’s delay, nine auto journalists from nine different automotive publications in the country were busy trying out helmets and jackets of various shapes and sizes before finally settling down into their karts for the five minute practice run extended to us by JK Tyre before the start of the final race. Our race machines were standard 7-8 bhp 4-stroke water-cooled go-karts that despite being a lot tamer as compared to the more powerful 2-stroke spec models offered sufficient grip and easier handling characteristics.
Race Director Rohitaaz Kumar very patiently gave us a brief of what each of the colour coded flags when waved (Black, White, Red, Blue, Green, Yellow and Chequered) communicated to a driver during the race. Most were easy to understand especially the black and white ones, which meant you were on the wrong side of the law and needed to drive with more caution.
As menial a practice run time as it was, those 6-7 laps (which we of course took the liberty of extending for a few more laps) gave us a taste of everything we could have possibly asked for. Still wet from the rain, the concrete though free of any major undulations failed to offer any grip when turning into those sharp corners. Those carrying speed down the straight like myself on many occasions, would inevitably end up pointing in the opposite direction by the end of it turning a full 180 degrees rather than a neat 45 to quickly exit the next corner. It took a while getting used to the patchy pace that we were required to adopt to stay in line, but by the end of the practice run, we were clearly focused on a more defensive and calculated race strategy than an aggressive and flat out modus operandi.
I qualified fourth on the grid, a position I was honestly quite satisfied with considering I’d taken up karting only recently and was still quite rough around the edges. We had 10 laps to prove our mettle and the wet track before me suddenly appeared like a deserted battlefield waiting for armoured infantry to rush into combat. We parked our karts as per merit on the grid and were ready to race.
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