Hi All
Back in the mid-nineties my friend used to race in TKM at Fulbeck and Kimbolton mostly and I always used to go along with him and push him off and we would fix the seemingly endless things which fell off or broke and gradually he became competitive and we learnt a lot. He gave up racing in 2000 due to children, mortgage etc and that was that until the end of last year when I decided that I had always wanted to have a go at racing and had a bit of cash available so thought its now or never and booked a few training sessions with a team to ease myself in. I had 4 sessions @£250 each plus then ARKS test, medical etc then once I had my novice licence it was nearly Jan so had to pay again to renew it - this itself seems pointless why give me a licence for a month then have to pay for another surely a rolling renewal 1 year from issue makes more sense? Anyway I did nothing until march (bit of a fair weather racer)and then found another friend who was interested but didnt know where to start so we decide to do it together. We both went and bought helmet,suit, boots etc (£600) then we both purchased used but tagged 08 Gillard Rotax Maxs (£1400) identical to help with keeping parts and proceeded to an open practice day at Fulbeck for a shakedown where we found numerous problems with both karts but was helped out by some nice friendly people fortunately having been a small engine mechanic for years I was able to put some of this experience to good use. All well so far but then things took a bit of a sour note on our first practice day at Kim where both of us were deliberately targeted as noobs by a couple of much better drivers and effectively rammed off the circuit at various points during the day, when I say deliberate I mean turning around and giving me the middle finger after doing it kind of gives it away, bent steering column, kingpin and track rods, when I caught up with him in the pits all he said was "it was easier than trying to pass you and you were spoiling my fast laps" we have since experienced quite a bit of this 'spoilt brat' kind of behaviour from some quite experienced team drivers although mostly from the 16-24 age bracket. Not wanting to sound too old but the general standards of driving with regards to pushing and shunting etc seem to be far worse than they used to be in the early nineties and after a few similar events at various tracks we very nearly gave it up as it just starts to spoil the fun, leaves a real sour taste and damages were mounting up costwise so we then started mostly going to non race weekends at PF and other tracks to practice when the track was quiet and met several similar people who were doing the same thing and telling the same stories! We have not yet entered an actual MSA race although we have competed at a few non MSA events with some sucess. Our main observations as beginners would be that the intial costs are so high (I spent £3k intially and then at least 3k more this year on spares/track fees/tools/damages/con rod went in the 4th outing)and the constantly changing complex regulations mean anything secondhand you buy always needs updating. At some tracks there seems to be a cliq of people who can quite frankly seem to get away with pretty much anything by being in a team/friends with the right people and are almost hostile to beginners/outsiders and some even find it good fun to tell novices complete nonsense like you need 26 psi in your tires to start with and similarly crazy settings for other things. (we have been told this). We also find it amazing that some places despite you being a paying customer treat you like a major incenvenience to them. I agree with the previous post in that the most useful thing as a beginner would be to have a mentor or similar to guide you through this as otherwise quite frankly after some of what we have seen I am not surprised so many people give up shortly after starting. We however are gluttons for punishment and have becom addicted so are looking forward to trying to get into some MSA racing next year.
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NOVICES to karting by 'dynamax' (15 Sep 2011 @ 10:02)
