November 11, 2003
The Latitude Cup
My Latitude team has a thing for racing. We are starting to make it a tradition to go kart racing when I come to town. If you have never been, its a blast. You get totally suited up — racing suit, neck brace, helmets. The cars get up to about 25 MPH. That may or may not seem like a lot but when you are on a tight track with 10 other drivers, its quick enough. Here is a blurry pictures of the starting lineup. I am going to try and get Dave’s pictures too.
We did two sprints. You do a 5 minute warm-up in which the pole positions are determined by fastest lap. Then you do a 20 minute race. In the first race, I qualified 2nd. Brian was fastest again. A few laps into the race, I got loose going into a turn and somebody hit me pretty hard. My tire came off the rim! This was a first for me. So I had to pull into the pits and get a new car. This put me laps down that I couldn’t ever get back. In the midst of the race, people were crashing then Dave ran out of gas. We got in trouble because people kept racing under the yellow. That was bad.
The 2nd race was for the cup. I knew I had to qualify well. I started improving my times on the turns I was having trouble with. When we finished and they called out the line up, I was on top. Pole position, baby. Starting out front is huge because if you are even with somebody, its very hard to get around them. As the race started, I got a good jump but then Kalle started pressing me in turn 1 but I would jump back out in front in turn 6. I had to pull some blocking moves on him to keep him back. Finally, I felt like I started to keep a consistent distance on him. Then the yellows started coming out. People kept spinning out and causing us to slow down. During the yellows, the people behind the leader can acclerate a bit to narrow the distance to the leader. Suck. I ended up keeping a decent distance under most yellows. When we got into lap traffic it helped but I was getting nervous that one of the drivers towards the back would tap and spin me in a corner. That would do me in. I was careful and it never happened. Finally, the checkered flag waived and I won!
My best lap time was 35.240 seconds. Brian had the fastest lap time at 34.738 seconds. I still can’t beat him on that one! The final finishing order for the 1st Latitude Cup was:
1. Brandon
2. Kalle (+0:07)
3. Brian (+0:08)
4. Sem (-1)
5. Wes (-1)
6. Jason (-2)
7. Debbie (-2)
8. Alex (-2)
9. Frank (-2)
10. Dave (-3)
11. Heeral (-23)
There will be more races in the future. Its too much fun! But for now, I have the cup!
Oh, and the local church found out about my win and put up a sign!
I knew I married someone with a potential for greatness. Too bad the picture is so blurry. You may be almost hotter then Jimmy in your racing getup!!
Too bad I didn't get to go as fast as Jimmy does.
Where are the flames on that racing suit?
What was your go-cart #?
What is your crew chief's name?
Do you drive for DuPont?
Or do you drive for Budwiser?
It was a rental suit...I haven't bought my own yet. You get a random car each time...I was #17 then #18. My crew chief was the entire staff. When my car broke they just gave me another one. Never saw that in NASCAR. I was sponsored by Latitude...at least they paid for me to race so I give them the credit.
Is that Jimmy Johnson or Jimmy Spencer???
Kim is in love with Johnson.
I was sure that Kim had better taste than Spencer, but when you just said Jimmy you left yourself wide open for comment!
how do i get a sponsor