I have assembled the troops and we are gung-ho to engage in some spirited title defense. This time, we shall have Marc Coltelli joining us, and, we will need him!
@EnduranceKarting decided to increase the length from 6 to 8 hours, unsure why, as last year was brutal. We were lucky to finish at all, what with all the corpses littering the field of battle. Once strong men and women, cut down by NJ’s worst possible weather and oppressive heat, fell like rain upon the baking tarmac, the smell of their cooking flesh hanging heavy in the still air.
Yet, despite this adversity, we triumphed, while almost killing @AndreLafond in the process. He was awarded the Rebel Scum Golden Possum for his sacrifice. Small consolation, to be certain, as he never truly recovered, but he has our eternal gratitude and respect.
Dirty Shenanigans
I am not sure what the details are yet. I assume we are running Liberator like last year. More to come as we get closer and I have news to share.
I’d imagine Endurance Karting has to pay to rent the track. Insurance they’ll bring their own. Maybe staff too It adds up for sure. These are just guesses on my part.
$4.50 per hour seat time is on the high side, but I’m not including practice.
I need to enter one of these races someday. Maybe get to the gym first though and get a new rib vest.
These are sorta like a big race. Yes, Chris trailers a big fleet of his own karts. He brings a big staff. It’s like a stars/uspks sorta thing complexity wise. And yes, he rents the track. Thus, rental racing on Liberator as opposed the the snooze fest rental top track. His track, his rules.
Last year he had a bad batch of bearings and many failed… his staff/resources were deep enough that we were able to keep the race going and finish despite 10-20 karts losing their wheels over two days, for example.
It’s pricey, and gotten more so, but I also wonder how much of this years cost can be attributed to NJMP and their high track rental cost.
Chris runs the series up the entire coast, with a southern and northern leg. It’s the most put together/serious rental event I know of, travel series wise.
Also bear in mind that 2200 is per team… and you’d be nuts not to go with a team of 4. This is also a 8hr race.
Historically, these races have been 6 hour races and teams of 3 are nice for kartfit folks, usually… Last year was brutally hot and humid though. Andre heatstroked out. My son heatstroked out. 3 guys needed EMT attention, etc. Then, after the race ended, the sky exploded and I had to get hotel because it was so freaking violent.
Some of the 6hr events are solo-able. (Think long tracks like AMP in cool conditions). But still not a great idea.
Elias and I made the mistake of duo-ing the NJMP race one year and it nearly killed us. We both had to fight the urge to lift on the straight, towards the end. It was agony.
But yeah, when I started this it was 1200 per 6hr race. Now it’s more like 1600. Thanks covid and inflation. As the team sponsor and the guy who pays the entry fee, this new normal is indeed affecting my ability to run as many of Chris’s races as I’d like.
In an ideal world I’d do NJMP, OVRP, PITT and AMP.
I do love this hardcore crazy stuff though. It got us the win last year because I’m prepared for it, whereas others were not.
Love seeing some endurance karting, hopefully you can share some footage after this event. When CalSpeed had the 12hr Machismo race I think I ran two, 3 hour stints in the lo206 and I was completely done, was walking like a stiff penguin afterwards
That’s a lot! I’ve only done 3hrs straight once, and it was a cool weather November race. I can’t conceive of going longer than 1hr when it gets toasty! RIP Calspeed. Never had the oppty to run there, looked like a great place from the video I have seen.
After that final stint of an hour with no stops I was ready for a nap lol. Walked into the bathroom to find a dude on the floor. He was ultimately okay just dehydrated. The heat was bad, but the humidity was beyond brutal, like breathing soup.
Well apparently his sound system got red hot. Like about to catch on fire hot. There was much texting of fuse diagrams trying to figure out which one he could pull to disable power to the unit. I’m not sure how it ultimately got resolved… but we were spared a baked bean on its way back to beantown.
