I done a video. Hope you enjoy
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Highly entertaining.
I’ve been procrastinating getting back to my fitness regime before my return to competition this year, and this video made me dead set on doing some neck exercise tonight. 
So thank you for the kick in the pants. Us pale old blokes need to put in the work, unfortunately…
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The horrible thing is remembering what you need to do to go quick(ish in my case), and getting a few laps in going “nope not happening today!” ha
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Yeah the muscle memory is all there, but the muscle strength is not…
I’m very worried about getting the tires to temp, starting to push and the first curb I launch, imploding my ribcage. Or my head falling off 4 laps into a stint. Or my gut not fitting into my suit.
I sprained my MCL a couple years ago and it still bothers me. That happened while ducking to go under a hand rail while walking to a bar. The prospect of jumping in a kart is daunting.
I was planning to get out last weekend but got the stomach flu from my kid.
Being an adult is the worst.
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One of the guys running things at a local track, when presenting a trophy and prize money to the kid who just won, and had apparently grown a bit since last season, told the kid he could spend his winnings on a new suit, so he could retire the “wedgie special”. made me laugh.
I certainly had frontal compression issues. 
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Hell of a stache, Alan. I like it.
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appreciate it bud. 
Very fun. What’s the story with rotax and you?
The MAX is kind of the antithesis of proper karting (just look at the thing), and as it heralded the demise of 100cc karting (I mean 100cc karting, I don’t mean KA100 etc…).
I’ve softened over the years, but in the early days of K1 (15+ years ago now), I spent most of my time trying to convince people to race other engines that were more in line with what I believe represents proper karting (simplicity). Most of my generation really doesn’t enjoy running with Rotax MAX, but tit’s where the money is unfortunately.
I realised as time went on it was better to focus on promoting things rather than criticising… kind of (i still take jabs of course)… but have left Rotax MAX to its drivers to their own devices by and large. It’s a monster you can’t take down.
The reason I bought one was because it’d be too easy to use my knowledge to find a cracking 100cc deal or something other kart, but that’s not what newcomers can do. I needed to find a kart representative of what newcomers would probably buy and be able to race somewhere - and that’s OTK / Rotax MAX . The kart, all in, cost $750. I wanted to counter the narrative that dominates media which is “karting is horrendously expensive”, that as we know is never contextualised, and encourage normal people to take up karting. You don’t NEED $250,000, you don’t NEED a van, you don’t even need a garage (tho I am lucky to have one).
but in karting karters don’t control the narrative. I am trying to reverse that, but my youtube channel isn’t as successful as it once was and I am competing with everyone else else to get the drabs of views I get nowadays lol
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I know the feeling. Tilting at windmills is ultimately counter-productive. However…
@ 4:24 walking to pits you seem extremely uncomfortable and have to walk bow-legged to save the family jewels.
However @ 4:33 you casually glance back and give us your very best Blue Steel and salvage the race. The things we do for views.
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I appreciate your efforts, Alan. 
Nice video, good points, hilarious suit. 
(Surprised your voice didn’t go up an octave!) Awesome that you were able to put a decent kart together for 750 quid! As a newb who got taken to the cleaners on a used kart (to the tune of 1800 quid) that went straight to the dump, I’m a bit jealous! But I was way too eager, and totally lacking knowledge. Point being, BUYER BEWARE! If you’re a newb looking at a used kart, GET AN EXPERIENCED KNOWLEDGEABLE PERSON to go with you to examine your potential purchase, or you could get ripped off big time!
Yeah, it’s very tricky. I always advise people go to their local clubs and seek advice on the club Facebook groups and forums like this
Alan, are you participating in your 100cc dd series or just directing it? If participating, have you been filming?
I won’t be competing, the opportunities for folks like me to earn sufficient funding are becoming fewer and far between. We’ve launched another class though which is called Super National. In the 80s and early 90s we had a class in the UK that used British homologated slide carbs. Was the elite class back then. In terms of filming, we’ll see.
Also did a retro mag for our racers
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I like. Would buy poster.
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