The Beginning

The adventure started in the summer of 2003.  I was living the SoCal suburbia life swimming in a sea of boredom, I yearned for some excitement.  A few month prior, I rolled over my AE86 in the Azusa canyon road while chasing my friend’s Nissan S14.  After that near fatal mid-night encounter.  I came to the realization that mountain road is no place to be racing cars.  One day after flipping through go-fast material “Drive to Win” by Carol Smith.  I thought to myself, being a race car driver sounds like a great career choice, haha youthful ignorance at its best.  The book says “a successful racer must start karting…”.  I typed karting into google and found out there’s a school called Jim Hall Karting in Ventura that offered racing classes.  Immediately I signed up for a 2 day weekend class.   Total cost? $380.  My meal budget for the rest of the month back then, I slurped instant ramen for the rest of the month…

Jim Hall Karting School Summer 2003

The 1^st hit

Driving a proper racing kart for the first time was quite an eye opener.  What fascinated me wasn’t so much the pure speed or the adrenaline, but the Zen-like mental state that I experienced on track while pushing the little 100cc 2stroke engine karts to the limit.  I knew from that moment on that I’d taken a hit on the go-fast bung, I was hooked, and there was no going back.  I did okay on that day, finished mid-pack out of 12 or so drivers, not bad for a first outing.  Little did I know, I would come back 3 years later and finish 2^nd in their winter race series.  A complete kart racing setup was out of my price range back then, so I decided to take the plunge at the next best thing, SCCA Solo2 Autox.

Autox in the rain, that was intense !

Cone Dodging

A month after the Jim Hall Karting School, SoCal Solo2 was hosting an autox school at Norton Airforce Base in San Bernardino.  I immediately signed up and drove my completely stock Subaru WRX there one Saturday morning.  I had a lot of fun at the autox, it was a great venue to practice car control at the limit while the only risk involved was hitting a few cones.  In the early days, I had no idea about racing lines or slow in fast out.  I just drove the car into the corner as fast as I dared, then jam on the throttle and leaving a trail of tire smoke behind.  I loved it, all I wanted to do was to drive till my heart’s content.  I continued autox for 2 years from 2004-2005.  In my opinion, autox is the best learning ground for new drivers, I learned about the racing lines, and when to deviate from the text book line, I learned to tread the fine line between smooth and aggressive.  Autox required extraordinary amount of focus and mental discipline, sitting at the start light on championship Sundays, there’s only 3 chances to make that perfect run on an unknown course, that 50 seconds or so on the course have to be driven at the absolute maximum, aggressive yet controlled, smooth yet decisive.  Despite running a mostly stock car in the STX class full of modified of cars, I started to consistently finish in the top 5.  As much fun as autox was, I still dreamed of racing on a real track at higher speed.  In 2006 I decided to build my 93 Mazda RX7 FD3S into a Street Modified Class autox and track day car.  As it turned out, I underestimated the complexity and the scope of the project.  To build a RX7 that’s nationally competitive in SM class was beyond my budgets at that point.

Owning the RX7 is like dating high maintenance chick, it's a love & hate relationship

Cornering on 3 wheels

At around that time, my buddy Andrew bought a 125cc shifter kart, and he can’t stop raving about how much fun it was.  As luck would have it, a fellow Subaru driver just got out of karting and was selling his complete kart setup for $1,300.  It was a no-brainer, I took the plunge and got myself a Trackmagic Chassis with Yamaha 100cc engine.  My debut in the kart was at Adams Motorsport Park in Riverside, CA.  I’ve never experienced cornering g-force like that before.  Going into the infamous Monza turn, a banked high-speed sweeper corner, I could barely keep my head up straight, my neck was like a wet noodle hanging hopelessly to the outside.  Karting was intense, and I loved it.  Slowly I started to work on my physical fitness by hitting the gym 3 times a week.  In 2006, I competed at Moran Raceway with Tri-C Karters in the Novice Senior Sportsman Class, finishing 3^rd in the championship.

As usual, I gave it all I got !

In 2007, I bought a new Italkart Chassis with a 125cc IAME TAG engine with plans to compete in the TAG class that’s gaining popularity at the time.  The TAG engine was 3 times faster than the Yamaha engine, with a redline of 16,500 rpm, the performance was absolutely thrilling.  Unfortunately the violent g-force and a poorly fitted seat cracked my rib in the early part of the year, which kept me out of the kart for a good 3 month.  I got back in the kart as soon as I could, and for the rest of the year I focused on getting the most seat time, as well as learning how setup changes effect the kart.  At the end of 2007, I went back to Jim Hall Kart Racing School and competed in their Jim Hall Fall Race Series.  The series give each driver a similarly prepared Yamaha 100cc engine kart, and ran 5 different track configurations over the 5 races.  The racing was close and tight, often we found ourselves 3 wide going into a turn jockeying for positions.  I finished 2^nd in the championship.  In the process, I learned a lot about wheel to wheel racing, and realized I’ve become a much better driver since my foray into racing in Summer of 2003.  Come 2008, the plan was to compete in the LAKC Championship at California Speedway Karting Track in Fontana.  I did well in the first two race, consistently qualifying and finishing in top 5, my lap times were just a few tenth off the pole sitter, with more seat time podium was within reach.

There's nothing quite like a racing 2 stroke engine screaming down the track at 16,000 rpm =)

The Dilemma

But life takes a turn in March, after racing for 4 years, I was burned out from constantly working on the car/kart, and spending weekends at the track.  I took some time off and went on a backpacking trip in Thailand.  What an adventure that was !  For the remainder of the year, I went to the kart track occasionally on practice days, while pondering what to race in 2009.  Despite being a lower end chassis, the Italkart Elite has proven to be very capable, however after hundreds of laps of pounding, the chassis was getting tired.  If I were to stay in karting, I would be getting into the 125cc Rotax engine class.  To have a podium chance at the competitive Rotax series, I’ll have to have competitive equipment.  A new chassis/engine package with some spares would run me about $8,000 in initial cost alone, plus $500 per weekend in running cost.  That’s not including potential crash repairs that comes with wheel to wheel racing.  Who said karting was cheap !

Present Day

The other option was to race cars, after looking through the various racing series, I found NASA’s Time Trial to have the best bang for the buck in terms of cost and competition.  In a nut shell, NASA class your car based on the base car potential and the modification you’ve performed.  Unlike wheel to wheel racing where the driver has to preserve the car and the tire to last the entire race, time trial is all about balls out, full throttle, no looking back type of driving, that one elusive perfect lap will win you the race.  My goal in 2009 is to compete and win the regional NASA TTD time trial class championship, as well as the national championship held at Miller Motorsport Park in Utah at the end of the year.

Go Mazdaspeed 3 !