New Sponsor to LS1Tech - Dallas Karting Complex (60+mph Karts)
12-17-2011, 05:32 PM
#41
This is in no way shape or form sponsor bashing. This is 100% Gods honest truth of what happened from my view and a complied view of racers that attended the 4 Hour endurance race at DKC. If the mods feel the need to delete this post so be it.
This update was first posted on Dallas Karting Complex's Facebook page but was quickly removed. Censorship always defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.
24 hours later.
We are taught in sports at an early age that practice gets rewarded and that practice makes perfect. My practice started on August 14th 2011 @ 1:30 pm. That was the first time I sat in a rental kart at DKC. Ten minutes later I knew it was going to be hooked on kart racing. I ran six races my very first visit to DKC and the next morning I woke up feeling like i'd been ran over by the UPS truck. It took three whole days for the soreness to pass and as you may guess on the 18th I was back at DKC making laps again with a per-ma grin on my face. Fast forward to the 20th of October 2011. That was the day I ran my 100th race in a rental kart. The soreness was long gone but the grin remained and I'm pretty sure I showed everyone that day at the facility my proof of the milestone 100th race. Maybe I was a little over excited but how boring would life be if nothing ever put that smile on your face after the age of 30?
Back up a few days to the 4th of October 2011. On our final league race day we were given the notice of a 4 hour endurance race set in the near future. Awesome Idea right? I surely thought so and so did my would be teammates.
For the next two months I lost countless hours of sleep going over strategy for tire wear, fuel consumption, driver changes, kart night time identification, driver total weight (me and another team mate each lost 10+lbs over a months time to bring down total team weight yet we were still over by 30 lbs) and a completely different strategy if we were to get a slower than average kart (Which did happen). Plan for the worse, hope for the best right? I know I asked alot of questions about the rules and what would be allowed, at times I'm sure it was a bit much but I wanted to be prepared. I knew back then that the rules were going to be a last minute decision along with the night as a whole. I say I thought I knew how it was going to unfold and for the most part it was exactly as I expected.
We drew kart numbers which also served as our starting position for the race. Being that I knew each and every kart at DKC after running in 160 rental races drawing kart 5 was like getting a ticket straight to last place. Hope for the best right? We started the race with good spirits and after a short 30 minutes took the lead. Its a lot less stressful in 2nd place it turns out. We didn't have the fastest kart on the track which meant we didn't turn the fastest laps that we were accustomed to on a weekly basis. All this meant for us is that we had to work harder to maintain our lead which we did with the fastest pit stops and not one single mistake on the track. We ended up being the only team to not have a kart failure which in the end proved very valuable. At the half way point we were only 58 seconds ahead of 2nd place after 98 laps. Restarting after the mandatory break we had to pit and change drivers three more times. What that meant to us was a time loss of at the very least 35 seconds. With a very slim lead over second place we needed all the help we could get. Another hour passes and its time for me to get into the kart for the final hour. At this point we are 18 seconds ahead of second place with no more pit stops needed. Second place still had to make two more to change drivers. All I had to do was run consistent mid 72 second laps and we would be set to win. Not a problem at all I thought. After a successful hour in the kart without a single problem the white flag was waived. One lap left? Piece of cake! When I came around for the checker it was waived long before I saw the flag man. Ummm? Not good news at all. I make my cool down lap without that per-ma grin anywhere to be found. Much to my surprise the flag was handed to a kart that I knew started the second half of the race in LAST place. What the ? Pulling into the pits was not rewarded with smiles and high fives. It was met with a comment by one of my team mates "you are going to be very pissed off". Well it turns out that one team was given a dump truck load of favoritism which in turn completely screwed the other 10 teams. Some how IheartVTEC talked Kevin into putting their "lost" lap times into the system and setting them up in first place without anyway of getting beat. This is a team that at the half way mark had a fastest lap time of 1:13.6. Not average but fastest. That was a full 3 seconds slower than the fastest of the night and slowest of ANY team! Last place seems fitting for the slowest team right? Not if you can talk your way into first place. Driving your team into first place seemed too much of a challenge. Talking is far easier. They went with talking, everyone else tried the driving route. Who ended up in 1st? The talkers. How could this happen? Its very simple actually. You see Kevin Adds at this point had been drinking Vodka Redbull for the past 5 hours. Kevin apparently could be talked into anything. Anything except putting IheartVTEC back where they belonged at the bottom. There was NO way anyone was going to change his mind and if you continued to try you were met with "**** you", "I dont care what you think" and "i dont care if you ever come back" an d the order to remove yourself from the property or you would be locked out for good. That actually happened to three of our team mates while trying to reason with Kevin on his mistake.
At the end of the night while awards were handed out I asked Kevin to explain to me what happened. Now if you were there and watched this happen you know how it turned out. Kevin's answer in no way explained how a last place team could jump into first and win the race. Kevin offered to talk it over outside away from the crowd and I quickly declined. I was not going to have him tell me he made a mistake unless he was willing to say it in front of everyone. I could see it in IheartVTEC's eyes they knew they did not deserve 1st place but that didn't stop them from taking the prizes. Out of all the teams that had kart failure only ONE team was awarded laps due to kart failure. That team just so happened to get enough laps to win. Their fastest recorded lap time? 15.6 seconds. Next fastest lap time? 70.6 seconds. Who can miss a mistake like that? Its easy to miss if you ignore it and simply want to shut the lights off and go home. After having several people approach me and express their frustration with the ending I was ready to leave DKC empty handed. Since October the 4th we had winning this enduro on our mind was was determined to be victourious. We did execute our plan with precision and are damn proud of it. This was not the most expensive lesson ive ever had but it left a mark I wont soon forget. You dont get far in life making the same mistake over and over.
Next time you are at DKC dont expect to see the racer name Sam88Gta1 in the same race as you. All good things have to come to an end. I had a lot of fun at DKC but I do not tollerate blatent disrespect from a drunk business owner.
Censor me now
We were not the only racers that left unhappy with the results. Here is proof it was a screwup beyond just our team.
http://www.dfwmiata.com/threads/2133...-12-6-11/page3
http://www.dfwautoclub.com/forums/sh...t=10925&page=3
http://www.vorshlag.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8010
This update was first posted on Dallas Karting Complex's Facebook page but was quickly removed. Censorship always defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.
24 hours later.
We are taught in sports at an early age that practice gets rewarded and that practice makes perfect. My practice started on August 14th 2011 @ 1:30 pm. That was the first time I sat in a rental kart at DKC. Ten minutes later I knew it was going to be hooked on kart racing. I ran six races my very first visit to DKC and the next morning I woke up feeling like i'd been ran over by the UPS truck. It took three whole days for the soreness to pass and as you may guess on the 18th I was back at DKC making laps again with a per-ma grin on my face. Fast forward to the 20th of October 2011. That was the day I ran my 100th race in a rental kart. The soreness was long gone but the grin remained and I'm pretty sure I showed everyone that day at the facility my proof of the milestone 100th race. Maybe I was a little over excited but how boring would life be if nothing ever put that smile on your face after the age of 30?
Back up a few days to the 4th of October 2011. On our final league race day we were given the notice of a 4 hour endurance race set in the near future. Awesome Idea right? I surely thought so and so did my would be teammates.
For the next two months I lost countless hours of sleep going over strategy for tire wear, fuel consumption, driver changes, kart night time identification, driver total weight (me and another team mate each lost 10+lbs over a months time to bring down total team weight yet we were still over by 30 lbs) and a completely different strategy if we were to get a slower than average kart (Which did happen). Plan for the worse, hope for the best right? I know I asked alot of questions about the rules and what would be allowed, at times I'm sure it was a bit much but I wanted to be prepared. I knew back then that the rules were going to be a last minute decision along with the night as a whole. I say I thought I knew how it was going to unfold and for the most part it was exactly as I expected.
We drew kart numbers which also served as our starting position for the race. Being that I knew each and every kart at DKC after running in 160 rental races drawing kart 5 was like getting a ticket straight to last place. Hope for the best right? We started the race with good spirits and after a short 30 minutes took the lead. Its a lot less stressful in 2nd place it turns out. We didn't have the fastest kart on the track which meant we didn't turn the fastest laps that we were accustomed to on a weekly basis. All this meant for us is that we had to work harder to maintain our lead which we did with the fastest pit stops and not one single mistake on the track. We ended up being the only team to not have a kart failure which in the end proved very valuable. At the half way point we were only 58 seconds ahead of 2nd place after 98 laps. Restarting after the mandatory break we had to pit and change drivers three more times. What that meant to us was a time loss of at the very least 35 seconds. With a very slim lead over second place we needed all the help we could get. Another hour passes and its time for me to get into the kart for the final hour. At this point we are 18 seconds ahead of second place with no more pit stops needed. Second place still had to make two more to change drivers. All I had to do was run consistent mid 72 second laps and we would be set to win. Not a problem at all I thought. After a successful hour in the kart without a single problem the white flag was waived. One lap left? Piece of cake! When I came around for the checker it was waived long before I saw the flag man. Ummm? Not good news at all. I make my cool down lap without that per-ma grin anywhere to be found. Much to my surprise the flag was handed to a kart that I knew started the second half of the race in LAST place. What the ? Pulling into the pits was not rewarded with smiles and high fives. It was met with a comment by one of my team mates "you are going to be very pissed off". Well it turns out that one team was given a dump truck load of favoritism which in turn completely screwed the other 10 teams. Some how IheartVTEC talked Kevin into putting their "lost" lap times into the system and setting them up in first place without anyway of getting beat. This is a team that at the half way mark had a fastest lap time of 1:13.6. Not average but fastest. That was a full 3 seconds slower than the fastest of the night and slowest of ANY team! Last place seems fitting for the slowest team right? Not if you can talk your way into first place. Driving your team into first place seemed too much of a challenge. Talking is far easier. They went with talking, everyone else tried the driving route. Who ended up in 1st? The talkers. How could this happen? Its very simple actually. You see Kevin Adds at this point had been drinking Vodka Redbull for the past 5 hours. Kevin apparently could be talked into anything. Anything except putting IheartVTEC back where they belonged at the bottom. There was NO way anyone was going to change his mind and if you continued to try you were met with "**** you", "I dont care what you think" and "i dont care if you ever come back" an d the order to remove yourself from the property or you would be locked out for good. That actually happened to three of our team mates while trying to reason with Kevin on his mistake.
At the end of the night while awards were handed out I asked Kevin to explain to me what happened. Now if you were there and watched this happen you know how it turned out. Kevin's answer in no way explained how a last place team could jump into first and win the race. Kevin offered to talk it over outside away from the crowd and I quickly declined. I was not going to have him tell me he made a mistake unless he was willing to say it in front of everyone. I could see it in IheartVTEC's eyes they knew they did not deserve 1st place but that didn't stop them from taking the prizes. Out of all the teams that had kart failure only ONE team was awarded laps due to kart failure. That team just so happened to get enough laps to win. Their fastest recorded lap time? 15.6 seconds. Next fastest lap time? 70.6 seconds. Who can miss a mistake like that? Its easy to miss if you ignore it and simply want to shut the lights off and go home. After having several people approach me and express their frustration with the ending I was ready to leave DKC empty handed. Since October the 4th we had winning this enduro on our mind was was determined to be victourious. We did execute our plan with precision and are damn proud of it. This was not the most expensive lesson ive ever had but it left a mark I wont soon forget. You dont get far in life making the same mistake over and over.
Next time you are at DKC dont expect to see the racer name Sam88Gta1 in the same race as you. All good things have to come to an end. I had a lot of fun at DKC but I do not tollerate blatent disrespect from a drunk business owner.
Censor me now
We were not the only racers that left unhappy with the results. Here is proof it was a screwup beyond just our team.
http://www.dfwmiata.com/threads/2133...-12-6-11/page3
http://www.dfwautoclub.com/forums/sh...t=10925&page=3
http://www.vorshlag.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8010
