This event occured about a month ago during the weekend of Dec. 12-14. It was a shifterkart racing school that took place in Miami, FL. Rysa Racing put on the school and supplied the kart. It was a KartMini chassis (Brazilian) powered by a CR125 moto engine. It included classroom instruction and on track practice on Friday. Practice all day Saturday and race on Sunday. Friday's practice took place on location in Miami at Opa-Locka raceway with about 4 other kart shops in the area. This was the first time I had really driven a shifter kart. Before this, I had never been out of third gear. It be able to use the full potential of the kart is just incredible. Words can't describe the power and grip of these things. To be able to be traveling close to 80 mph on the fastest the straight and then brake all the way down to 2nd gear for a hairpin is just insane. When you push the limits of a shifter kart for the first time, it will scare you. The track at Opa-Locka is extremely bumpy with no run-off room. Just guard-rails and tire walls. Throughout the day I dropped about 2 seconds off my time. I was pretty happy. I probably had close to 100 minutes of track time. I also noticed (after joining a gym 4 months ago) I didn't fatigue as fast. I did notice a big bruise on my right elbow from resting on the motor. And I also noticed when the motor was turning close to 14,000 rpm, the seat felt like it was on fire.Saturday was a practice day for the last race of the season at Homestead Raceway. It was just outside the Speedway. Being only one of 4 Americans racing was pretty neat. Everyone else is from either South America or Europe. We were the minority. There were 10 practice sessions at 10 minutes a piece. So I had close to another 100 minutes of seat time at this track. Homestead is a nicer track. Lots of run-off room and very smooth. I kept dropping time with every session. I was happy. I was afraid that I wouldn't have been able to keep up with the other shifter kart drivers. But I was right in the thick of it. My personal instructor for the weekend was Jacques Siedentopp. He is a Formula 3 racecar driver and is trying to work out a deal to race in F3000 next season. Because he is under contract, he can't race any sort of karts himself in the off-season for fear that he might injure himself. He was extremely knowledgable and a great guy to hang out with. He was pretty much my engineer for the weekend as well. It was very easy to communicate with him. He kept track of tire pressures, weights, lap times, and was able to compare me with other drivers on the track.
Sunday was raceday. Rain was in the forecast. 2 10 minute practice sessions, 1 6 minute qualifying session, 1 15 lap prefinal, and a 20 lap final. Today, we decided to run brand new MG tires all the way around. Right before I was about to go out, we discovered that the right rear tire wasn't holding air. So we switched it with a used tire at the last second. I went out with 3 new tires and 1 used tire. We then fixed the tire situation for the second practice session. I go out and run the fastest lap time of the shifters. I was pretty psyched. The kart was hooked up. I felt pretty good going into the qualifying session. Qualifying was six minutes with all the shifters out at the same time. The goal was to get a clean lap with no traffic in your way. I failed. I was only able to get one clean lap (no traffic) but I clipped a tire at the apex of a turn which slowed me down. I ended up 12th out of 16 karts. We then go into the prefinal. It's starting to drizzle. A 15 lap race. As we line up for the standing start, they put me in the wrong spot. They lined me up in 13th. It didn't matter. In two laps, I move up to 5th place. 5 laps into the prefinal, my wet foot slips off the brake pedal at the end of a fairly fast straight-away. I was in the top of fourth gear. Probably 40-50 mph. I didn't have time to regain control and hit a tirewall, go through a fence, hit a road sign, flip end over end into the air, land on my head into the street with oncoming traffic, and then the kart falls on top of me. As soon as I hit the ground I scrambled to get out of the way of the Ford F650 that was coming down the road. He slowed down though and asked if I was alright. I gave him the Jesse James thumb's up. He thought it was pretty cool. I didn't really hurt myself too badly. Groin hurt and my neck was sore. The kart wasn't totalled either. The chassis wasn't bent, but the crush structure was destroyed. It had a bent axle, bent steering wheel, bent steering column, bent radiator (still functional), busted body work, busted air filter, and a busted ego. Rysa Racing had the whole kart repaired and ready to race for the final but a torrential downpour cancelled the rest of the races. I had talked to the owner of the track and he mentioned that was the craziest wreck he had ever seen. I also talked to a fellow competitor who was behind me during the incident. He said I was at least 6-8 feet in the air. All I remember was me saying "Shit" before I hit the wall, then closing my eyes, then reopening them right before I hit the ground. It all happened so fast, I couldn't believe it. After everybody had left the track for the day, they let me run about 30 more laps with rain tires. Karts are still fast and grippy with rain tires, I probably only lost 1.5-2.0 seconds compared to dry conditions.
Well, that was my weekend. Had a blast. I was glad to get my big wreck out of the way. Everyone I talked to seemed to have their own story. Now I know what it's like in a head on collision with no seat belts on. The WKC's season starts shortly, can't wait to get back out on the track.
Here are the pics:
Jacques and I discussing the line:
Looking the kart over and relaxing after a nice practice session:
Waiting to go out on the track:
Looking at the results from qualifying:
I'm that spec in the middle of the pic:
The sign I destroyed:
Another picture of the aftermath and me making a weird face for the camera:
Here is a link to the rest of the pictures:
http://www.imagestation.com/al...13697
Enjoy,
AJ Nealey
AJ Nealey Racing
,should be an action packed weekend