Why do you race

It occurred to me that many of us race for different reasons. For some it’s a stepping stone to other formula while for others it may be a family affair. For me I mainly race at a club level with the odd open meeting. As much as I enjoy the adrenaline, race craft and social aspect, I equally find the technical challenge in understanding what, on the surface appears to be a very simple vehicle interesting.

In the mid 1980’s I began racing Go Karts in a in a kart I built myself, as a young apprentice fitter and turner. Since that time I have raced in multiple brands of karts (OTK, CRG, Arrow, Kart Republic), but have often thought about the challenge of designing and building my own chassis once more. Recently I decided it was time to take on that challenge, where I applied 40 years of engineering and race knowledge, combined with modern computer based design to build a kart of my own design. I’m happy to report that in only my second race meeting the kart has shown very positive results finishing in 2nd place in our March club day.

So, interested to hear what drives others to race.


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I race because it is a never ending brass ring for me to try to catch. I have always been pretty obsessive about stuff and karting really grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and just won’t let go.

I’m fortunate enough to not be incompetent and maybe have a small amount of talent , just enough to be above average but not enough to make it easy and therefore not worth pursuing. I find that it’s been really rewarding on multiple levels and it hooked me good.

For starters I hate working out, but I love being physical and need it to feel good. Karting is what gave me the motivation to lose a boatload of weight and stay fit. I am happy to be mid 50s and almost the same weight as I was when I was 17.

For me it’s also very important socially. I meet tons of folks and as I got older, opportunities to be social sort of died off with work and life in general. Karting has a nice mix of adult folks around my age, and I have been blessed to have made many younger friends, too, and got to see them go from teens to men, which has been nice.

Karting was also something I started originally as a thing to do with my son, and that was a wonderful parenting experience. Really cool seeing your kid develop life skills via racing, which teaches so many lessons you didn’t expect.

I could ramble on and on but it’s been so engaging and fulfilling on so many levels for me, and somehow keeps on being so. I’m a bit spectrum and the act of karting really allows me to be in the moment and out of my own head, yet while also being in control if that makes any sense. It’s taught me a lot about getting out of my own way, mentally.

I’ve also gotten to the point where I’ve been inspirational to some newer drivers, who have gone out of their way to let me know that I inspired them, and that is exactly what I was hoping to do as I fell deeper and deeper in love with this sport.

I really enjoy teying to make karting something fun and approachable and seek to facilitate that, always. It’s helped me be less of a competetive, thin-skinned dickhead, once I realized that racing isn’t a thing you do or learn alone. It takes a village and I have come to love that aspect of it.

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I race because it is something I am good at

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The reason why I drive my kart is different from the reason I race. Is this true for others?

I drive because I like the feeling of driving well. When I’m having a good session and the kart is gripped up and I’m hitting all my marks, just barely locking the brakes to chirp the tires, and ramping up throttle input at just the right rate to maximize acceleration off the corner, it’s an incredibly rewarding feeling.

I could experience this feeling just by driving alone and never racing.

I race because I want to feel the pride/accomplishment of winning against high level competition. The best drivers in my local club series are mostly high school age F4 regional drivers, and they are very fast. To beat them would bring me a tremendous feeling of accomplishment, especially because I am old and a privateer.

Guys like me aren’t supposed to win against them. They have many advantages over me, but they are distracted by their goals higer up the racing ladder. I believe that if I practice more mindfully and more consistently than them, open my mind to learn from others, and focus on my single goal of beating them in one single club series, then I will eventually become too fast for them and crush them with my hard earned skill. My work and belief in my potential will be rewarded.

My karting hero is Dalton Hanes because he beat Joe Turney at IAME grands driving a kart with no graphics. My ambitions are lower than his. I don’t aspire to win a national race. But the idea is the same.

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related thread…

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Racing is life. Everything else is waiting.

Seriously though, there is nothing like it. The immediacy and immersion in the moment. The melding of man and machine. The smell of race gas. The flow state when it all seems like slow motion and you can feel every inch of the track. The thrill of the battle. I can go on forever.

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My dad’s boss in India was into cars. As kids, after school we would periodically go to his work and see the cars. He has so many card that in the back, there was a shop and there was always interesting things happening there and the mechanics were very tolerant of us being there.

My dad’s boss would have my Dad put on race viewing events and those were a blast. We got to see races from Europe.

Twenty plus years ago, my brother planted the seed of racing karts but nothing happened.

Six years ago I had a serious health issue that left me very weak. If you told me to work out to get strong, I probably wouldn’t do it. But if I got involved in something that requires strength, I’ll put in the effort to get stronger.

I got into karting to have fun, and get stronger.

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