…and super proud about that.
There aren’t any cool car pictures in this post, but I’m still super psyched about what we were able to do last week. Last week, some friends and I got together to race in a charity kart race at PGP Motorsports Park. Our goal was to raise money for the Children’s Hospital, and perhaps win the race.
…and we did both. Racing under the names ‘Xccel Racing and Team Xccel’, our team raised a little over $1300, and we took first AND second place in the race.
Bang – 
This looks like this will be a documentary solely based on karting! This project is being funded through Kickstarter. Take a deeper look here.
If you’ve ever wondered if Fernando Alonso karts better than you can, don’t worry. He can.
Kyoko: Winter Mode complete.
I never thought of the winter season, as an ‘off-season’. Rather, it was just a season where everything was just really cold. Although the summer racing season is over, it doesn’t mean that you can’t still be a car guy during the winter.
Here are just a few ideas, I came up with on the fly:
Today I spent some time up at Pacific Grand Prix, the outdoor gokarting track, to race in one of their league races. I love spending time up at PGP as alot of competitive drivers show up to race League. I competed in the Expert Class, and had an exciting final race, driving from 9th place to a 2nd place spot on the podium!
Maybe, I was thinking about Mark Webber’s China run when I was out there. Anyway, take a look at the pictures. If you have a chance, you have to stop by PGP. It is a blast!
(See more pictures after the bump)
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When it comes down to it, all of us at the Starting Grid aim to be better drivers. We all have different reasons for why we race and constantly want to improve.
Personally I drive, simply because I love to do it. It is what motivates me. It is my passion. In the group, I’m the guy who has most of the technical driving technique literature, the guy who spends the most time talking about psychological triggers when racing and the guy who focuses on getting in the “Zone” at all times.
I have my own goals of wanting to be involved in wheel to wheel racing, and developing a career in the motorsports industry, so whenever I get a chance to go karting, autocross or at the large race track I get a sense of fulfillment.
This weekend, I spent sometime at Pacific Grand Prix in Kent, which is an outdoor go-karting track. I just got involved with karting a year ago, and I love it. It has been the most dynamic driver training that I’ve ever done, not to mention that it’s fun as hell.
(See more pictures after the jump)
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The IAME Sudam is a 125cc, 18,000 RPM, direct drive, proper kart engine. Check out the video to see what a karting engine should truly be about. If you’re a purist, you’ll appreciate this.
Aryton Senna himself said that karting was the purest form of racing. We at the “Starting Grid” definately agree with the man. Here is a video of Ayrton Senna, and one of his great rivals Alain Prost karting on an indoor circuit. Keep a close eye on the two men’s technique, the smoothness of Prost, versus the boldness of Senna.
Epic stuff.
He was always good in anything he drove, but he had to start somewhere…
Our first post here on StartingGrid on the purest form of racing: karting. In the good ole days, there were no plastic pods or electronic controls for the karts, just the driver, the chassis, the engine, and a passion. Today’s karts are quite an offshoot from those times, now with electric push button starts, gearboxes, radiators, rev-limits, protective everything…
But that’s not to say that they aren’t still the best way to get into motorsport, especially as child. Schuey himself started when he was 4.
4.
What did you do when you were 4?
He says he uses karting in the off-season to help train and stay sharp. And we can see why.
Here he is 38 years later, in a Tony Kart with an Intercontinental C (ICC) or KZ engine. The engine produces nearly 50hp and weighs in at about 200lbs, without driver, giving it a power to weight ratio of roughly 500hp per ton! Which, if you didn’t know, is more than a Bugatti Veyron (446hp/ton). This is a race in his homeland of Germany, in a town called Kerpen, where they apparently know about karting. Don’t mind him falling back; he had an engine issue and ended up DNF’ing but came back a few months after and won, alongside his brother Ralph, in a later race.
Fast forward to 5:00 minutes to get to the good stuff…
And here’s an onboard video of the same race with fellow KZ racer Arjan Kievitsbosch.
