Victory Lane Indoor Karting 2/28 and 3/28 2010

02/28/10 - We just completed our first ever indoor racing event using Jack's own kart.  We decided it would be a good way to get some practice and work out some of the bugs in the kart before the outdoor season begins.  We arrived Friday night to drop off the kart at the track and get a little rental kart racing in. 
Saturday was practice day - Jack's first time out on the track.  The track uses Pepsi Syrup to make the driving surface sticky so the karts won't slide around so much since they drive on slick tires.  We had never run on syrup before and had no idea what to expect.  That stuff is STICKY.  It will pull your shoes off if they're not tied on well!!  Jack went out for first practice and did a pretty good job figuring out the track and getting around pretty good.  Second practice was a different story.  You are supposed to clean the syrup off of the tires in between runs because it will cause you to skate on the track.  Well we were unaware of this and didn't clean the tires.  Jack went out for second practice and skated all over the place!!  He came off the track and said "Daddy, you need to tighten up my car or I'm not driving it!!"  Needless to say we cleaned the tires in between runs after that.  Jack did great for his first time indoors without being very prepared.  He drove a good line and had some pretty decent times.  Jack's only incident came in the heat race when TJ attempted a pass through 3 and 4 and got sideways on exit.  Jack was right there with nowhere to go and T-boned TJ.  Both karts were fine and continued onto the race where Jack finished third, but kept the kart in one piece and had a blast doing it!!  Looks like we'll be coming back again.
03/28/10 We ventured back to VLK for another shot at indoor racing.  We had the place to ourselves in our division as it appears everyone else is getting ready for outdoor racing to start.  For Saturday's practice we were the only kart in our division.  The kart was set-up a little different than last time, as we took some of the helpful hints the competitors had given us at our last outing and attempted to put them in practice.  After a couple of carburetor issues threatened to shorten our day we finally got out for practice.  The kart was loose and Jack had a difficult time maintaining speed through 1 and 2.  After a couple of changes and a quick peptalk with the driver, Jack went back out and got better and better each time.  Another kart showed up for race day, though not and exact match, it was a rocker with a different engine, they were close enough to be paired together so they at least had each other to drive with.  Jack figured out the speed and just missed his entry into turn 3 causing him to clip the wall at the exit of turn 4 during the heat race.  Since the walls are just tires with a pliable barrier once it's hit, it moves.  The wall was now in the racing groove and after a few laps, Jack missed the entry again causing him to slam into the now closer outside wall.  His kart spun around on impact but the collision caused him to bend his front spindle.  After fixing the kart Jack started second for the feature where he flatfooted it all around the track and drove perfect laps.  No incidients in this race.  All in all Victory Lane was a good racing experience for Jack and we will most likely be back again next year.