i was bored this evening and it was raining wook's and carl's outside, so i drove over to cir for arrive & drive. their website says they have arrive & drive every day, so i figured, well, at least if they have a league or something, one of the tracks will still be open.
of course, when i got there, the girls at the desk informed me that there was a sprint race about to start on track #5, which is both of the tracks combined, and that it would last until closing. having just drove 40 minutes in the rain and not wanting to leave, i used my charm and/or good looks to convince the girls to let me enter the sprint race that was about to start. though four 20-lap sessions was more than i was expecting to do and i was a bit nervous entering in a race with a group of people that had done these sprint races many times before.
i headed to the briefing room and we were told how the sessions would go. lightweights would be in one session, heavyweights in another, alternating on the track, each doing a 20-lap session. i think i was one of 4 out of the 30 that had never done a sprint race before, so i figured i'd get my ass kicked by all these guys that were there all the time. as the briefing went on, i looked around and sized up my opponents. you can usually tell who the faster guys are since they have their own uniforms, helmets, and neck braces. one guy had his own uniform, helmet, neck brace, gloves, and his uniform even had a patch for chicago indoor racing on it. gee, think he goes there more than once in a while? then there was the guy with a full rib cage protector and intercom system attached to his helmet. i think that's cheating if he's got someone telling him info while he's out there...
so i went and got a uniform, suited up, and started the first race in 9th position. i was doing ok, getting used to the new track layout and gained a position, until i got spun by someone and dropped down to 12th place. my best lap was a 29.64, averaging 31.16.
the second race i started in 4th, got spun right away and dropped to 13th, then drove all pissed off and made up a bunch of places to finish 9th. best lap of 28.72, average 30.08.
third session i started 10th, got spun twice, then spun one of the assholes that spun me, and finished 12th with a best lap of 28.88 and average of 29.84. getting better!
on the last session i started 3rd, moved into 2nd and was right on the ass of the 1st place guy most of the race, then the ringer who came up from 9th overtook both of us and finished 1st, and i finished 3rd. funny how if everyone just stops spinning me, i can actually maintain a decent position and turn some relatively decent lap times. my best lap on that was a 28.72 averaging 29.24. by comparison, the ringer who finished first in most of the races averaged a 29.15 across the 4 races.
according to this printout, i'm now ranked 974th of 105,593 racers at chicago indoor racing. hot dog.
so after 80 laps and a few hours of racing, i am tired, my hands are already developing blisters and the sides of my knees have bruises.
oh, and something i noticed as soon as i got in the kart after not being in one for 8 months is that i'm pretty sure the steering wheel in my exige is actually smaller than the ones on these go-karts.