…besides forlornly staring out the window into the dark and cold abyss, cabin fever wracking your nerves and causing your fingers to twitch, grasping for the warm embrace of a steering wheel.
Your ears perk to attention every time you hear a leaf or snow blower, sending unfair thoughts to you brain that there could be some sort of small racing engine near by. You sit idly, glued to your weather app of choice, mindlessly hitting refresh over and over, yearning for some semblance of spring to peek it’s sunny glow through the clouds early this year.
Or you mumble damning hexes at Mother Nature as you think to yourself, “the air quality is SO GOOD right now, we could be fattening up the jets like nobody’s business!” Your eyes dance aimlessly as your brain wanders to the track, imagining the scream of 15,000 RPMs in your ear, when suddenly the illusion is shattered as you hear the soft static of the local TV weatherman in the background predicting another 5 inches of snow tomorrow…
The cycle repeats itself until you’re curled up in the corner of your bedroom, rocking gently back and forth, quietly chanting, “entry, apex, exit, entry, apex, exit…”
I do a ton of ESports league racing during the winter time. I don’t like driving my kart in the terrible cold anymore. I did it when I first started karting, but I’ve already gotten the t-shirt for that.
What is this “off season” you are talking about? Gopro this weekend, Daytona in a few weeks, Homestead a couple of weeks after that, and then it starts getting busy agin.
No problem. We had a great time out there. My driver passed 62 karts over the 3 heats and final. His horrible tuner gave him a flat for qualifying which made him qualify 23rd as he only got 1 lap. Then in the final he started 8th but there was a first turn pileup just ahead of him which sent him off into the marbles. He got going 2nd from last and finished 15th overall with the 2nd fastest lap. Would like to have that weekend to do over again
Off-season plans right now include shopping for a new kart and attempting to come up with a fitness regimen I can truly stick with. Florida has very little off-season for motorsports, so there really isn’t a major item that comes to mind. I have no historic experience to draw on, so looking forward to reading what everyone else shares.
Even after 36 years of karting, I still miss it shortly after the season ends. Being able to watch Rotax Grand Finals and now SuperNationals streaming on my computer is pretty cool and hopefully we will be able to see some of the Winter Tour on the web too. Locally, here in Western Canada we have already had snow come and go twice and with this latest bit of warm weather I took the opportunity to pack up the rest of my karts onto the triple stacker and cleared enough space in my garage so that I can park in there for when the snow returns.
About 8 years ago I discovered on-road R/C car racing which races during the winter months, indoors and on racing carpet. For me this has settled the winter racing demons and provided a great outlet to learn and understand a different kind of racing.
I have a couple RC quadcopters but drone racing is a little beyond my current capabilities. I have always been most interested in car or 4 wheel related driving related hobbies.
Here in North Florida we just keep racing. There is no off season. The weather here is great most of the cooler months. Come give it a try.
Monticello Karting and Motor Club.
Monticello, Florida.
We get about a month and half or so off in Texas, but can still practice. After the last race, it’s typically time to tear the kart apart, fully clean, maintenance and replace parts that need to be done. It’s close inspection time. Once that is done, it’s time to get my daughter back on the track to practice.