As the dust settled and the afternoon sun began to disappear beyond the horizon, it became crystal clear to both Nads and I that we had unsuccessfully tried to outperform our coworkers in a sword fight of types: a kart challenge thrown by our friends at Skunk2. Although the Skunk2 Racing Media Cup Invitational Kart Challenge was originally deemed to be a friendly competition between our Primedia brethren, the simple thought of knowing that this battle would be for all the bragging rights meant that the gloves would have to come off and we would have to be prepared to have our asses handed to us.
The day started very early for John and I. We drove about an hour and a half outside of Los Angeles to the Grange Motor Circuit, a fast-paced kart racing course with 13 turns and an 800-foot straightaway. Designed and owned by Jim Granger and Jerry Henderson, the Grange Motor Circuit was modeled closely after the kart courses found in Europe. It's set out on a secluded patch of desert land, free of any disturbance and ready for sheer motorsport madness.
Once we arrived, we exchanged friendly pleasantries between our coworkers and attended a driver's meeting. As a beginning kart driver, I felt it was important to know the rules of the game. Karts share the same characteristics as an automobile except that everything is intensified ten fold because you're planting your body into a lightweight rail chassis that sits only inches above the ground with these tiny but powerful engines that produce an extremely high power-to-weight ratio. Think these things are slow? Bumper cars they are not. On a long straightaway, you can reach speeds of up to 70 mph-at least on the Grange track. We were shown which line we could take in order to maneuver through the turns as quickly as possible, and although it looks easy on the drawing board, it's much tougher to pull off while you're driving. Although the school has karts on site for your use, Skunk2 provided two of its own, the Arrow AX-8 (see sidebar for full specs). These are powered with a water-cooled, 125cc engine that can rev up to 15,000 rpm with approximately 30 hp on tap. The build quality of these things are spectacular, and it's hard to not want to walk around it a few times while scratching your head and wondering how the hell someone comes up with the concept for such a contraption.
Now there's nothing more discouraging to hear before you start racing that the possibility of you breaking a rib or two is quite high, considering your body and the chassis both act as shock absorbers. If you're not careful, the force that you feel while driving around the track can place tremendous strain against your body, especially your ribcage. To help prevent this sort of thing from happening, Robby Mott, a national expert in kart racing with more than 18 years of experience and owner of Ribtect, provided his company's safety vest for us to use while driving. A few years ago, Robby had a serious accident that resulted in five ribs being shattered, but he had a race that he committed to his sponsors in a month's time. Needless to say, he needed protection, but nothing he found could really do the job. So he went ahead and designed one on his own, and to this day, his Ribtect Vest is one of the best rib protectors on the market. With this in mind, we didn't hesitate to strap one on.