In the category of “no-one cares” I present a detailed analysis of my first electric endurance race (1hr). Brace yourselves for a shockingly high-voltage tale.
Speed Raceway in Cinnaminson, NJ staged 2 nights of 1hr indoor electric races at their pleasant 2-layout facility. It being a short hop from my home in Central NJ, I decided to register me and Nick for a midweek night of fun. They ran 3 races a night, Tuesday and Weds, which was very convenient. (Hint, hint NJMP). We rolled up for the 9:30 pm session and hopped in to the fray.
The field was small, 6 karts, but that was enough to have a good time as the track is very narrow. Because of the confined racing space, the flag man was kept busy. You really needed to pay attention and heed the blue flags and try to let the faster karts by. I suspect that without flags, it would have been messy. The karts would get all stacked up with no place to go and the inevitable desperate sends would result in massive pile-ups.
For the most part, it worked out well. Everyone generally played nice and gave some room when signaled. The only good places to pass or be passed were in the long, round turns at the beginning of the lap and towards the end.
I did get punted pretty decisively once, but not sure if it was intentional or just a derpy moment. What appears to be the same guy used me as a brake repeatedly and also plowed through a spun kart pretty spectacularly. I did also send a guy into the boards, but wasn’t trying to do so. I closed a bit faster on him than expected and what was supposed to be a gentle tap ended up rather more forceful. Ooops. I then, later in the race, had a blindspot moment and hit a guy, who, fortunately, was undisturbed. It was hard to be clean, clean as passages were tight.
I am sorry and you did not deserve that, kind sir. It was funny though, as he got that wobble instability and out of the corner of my eye you could see him sawing away to regain control, whilst asking to himself “Why, just why…” Answer: Because I’m a bad person and I am ashamed of myself, if that helps any. Sleep well knowing you are blameless and I am most certainly going to Hell.
We showed up and raced “cold”, having only been on track here once before on a winter field trip with the United Motorports Gang (a discord group of tri-state karters that has now grown to include folks all over the world). It’s a fun discord and I get to post Cat pictures there and no-one can complain because I am old and a moderator. Did you know that Tanguy has a cat named Oscar? Now, you do.
The racing was interesting. One thing that made it very different from my normal (gas-powered) enduros is that an electric kart is a decaying source of speed. It starts quick but then gets progressively slower, and falls of pretty dramatically towards the end. So, you have to decide whether you want to pit for a fresh kart. I chose to do so twice, driving a total of 3 karts throughout the race.
I am not sure how long the laps were (no GPS indoors and I can’t be bothered to look at the board, but let’s say around 17 seconds. This made it pretty intense, physically. That and it’s early season and I am not quite Kart-fit, yet. So, while an hour is not a long enduro, on a short track with electrics, it’s no joke.
It was pretty mesmerizing, actually. There’s no noise really, other than the tires squeaking away as they bite and release. You also hear the whine of the electric motor, which gets progressively deeper in pitch as the power declines. Since it’s a short track, there are no real straights and it was rather technical, requiring patience in the long turns. I did my best to find a decent line and played with it over the course of the race. Quite enjoyable, actually.
The competition was stiff. There were a couple guys that were decidedly faster than me, but they were ultimately disqualified for abusing performance enhancing drugs and modded power supplies. In reality they were probably just more efficient in those long late apex turns and maybe a bit lighter, too.
It almost didn’t matter, though, because as the race evolved folks were down or up in power with no set pit schedule. It was oddly but pleasantly random, that way. Sometimes you felt heroic, sometimes the fool.
I’m not sure where I placed, but I can say with confidence that I beat my son, Nick. He had to swap out kart very early and I passed him more than he passed me. Mission accomplished.
The kart themselves are just “ok”. They are plenty quick but don’t have adjustments, which is a bit annoying. They also feel like they maintain power at a certain level when you lift, which takes some getting used to. Brakes are strong, but seems to affect throttle as well, so a bit unusual. I found the Bizkart I drove at Andretti to be more capable (but not faster). Nick experienced back pain from the seat such that he declared that while he had fun, he would pass on future races as it was too painful for him.
So, to summarize:
Convenience: 10/10
Facility: 8/10 (Not very pretty, though, but who cares. It’s in a NJ strip mall).
Karts: 7/10 Getting long in the tooth and better options currently available.
Competition: 9/10 No clueless drivers (but a fair amount of poorly timed bumping by some, myself included).
Overall: 8.5/10 Would race again!
In parting: I bought two fresh batteries for my hero 7. The last enduro I did, the battery only lasted 38 minutes. The new battery was able to do 1.5 hrs of recording 4k 30fps. A huge improvement.
sorta is for anyone who wants to use it as such. It’s definitely the repository of all of Oliver’s Gopro races, for example!