Despite a group of weird Belgians playing skee-ball in livestock costumes, this is the best indoor karting track I have been to. First off, all of the employees spoke English well so that was a good start. The karts were gas-powered which I prefer and the track was long with lap times around 57-60s. At first it seems a bit expensive at 38 Euros per session, but one session is a total of 35min of track time - 10min qualifying session and a 25 minute race which is far superior to the 8min non-race sessions standard at American tracks. We had 16 drivers in our session. I got beaten by a few flyweight Belgians qualifying 4th and finish 4th in the race. Overall, I would high recommend this place if you are rolling through Eastern Belgium....it's just around the corner, right?
Btw, I didn't get any photos or video from the karting center so these are photos and videos I pulled from the interwebs.
To start off, here is a highlight clip reel from the season...
2011 was an interesting year....it started off with plans of selling all of my karting gear to go Spec Miata road racing, then I decided my plan was to stick with shifter kart racing for a while longer while also trying to compete in the Skip Barber and Bondurant driver shootouts in addition to some open-wheel road races. Well, the Skip Barber Shootout changed their rules which basically made me ineligible this year and the Bondurant shootout was a one-and-done, so that left kart racing in the SWRC and local events.
I decided to kick it up a notch with some last minute plans to attend the 2011 SCCA Solo Nationals in Lincoln, NE. Thanks to Lane, some help from my Dad, and late nights in Lane's garage, the Solo Nationals went from maybe to definitely, and that's when 2011 went from good to awesome. I finished 2011 undefeated in Solo events (3 for 3 incl. Solo Nats) with 2 feature race karting victories and 4th place in Stock Moto Senior points in the Southwest Regional Cup.
Season Summary:
Proposed to my now-fiance Ali (not racing, but still important I'd say)
SCCA Solo National Championship in A-Stock Class
100% win ratio in Solo events
2 Pro Class wins and Overall Top PAX wins with Equipe Rapide Autocross Club
2 Feature Race victories in Stock Moto Senior with North Texas Karters
4th place in Stock Moto Senior points in Southwest Regional Cup
Completed first full season of Regional-level karting
Raced at 3 new kart tracks (GCKI, OMC, DKC)
Completed a 3-day Bondurant Advanced Road Racing School
Drove a 305 Sprint Car for the first time (thanks Gary!)
However, one of the things that made the 2011 racing season the most enjoyable was getting to do it with friends and family. My fiance Ali was quite the trooper and attended almost all of my races this year including co-piloting with me on trips to Oklahoma and Houston. I started autocrossing with Lane and got to continue racing with my Dad. Joe and Stuart bought shifter karts so now we have our very own karting team in San Angelo. This was a big step up from being the lone West Texas karter in 2010 and I look forward to keeping it going in 2012.
I made two video compilations from the Bondurant trip two weeks ago. First is in-car video from each track we drove and the second is of my racing buddies and I trying to kill each other at the local indoor kart track.
