Every dream starts off somewhere. Mine starts here.
It’s been a while since I last raced a kart. It’s been about a year since the race filled weekends in Taiwan. Marta, here’s to you. *Glass raised*
But lessons learnt from karting in Taiwan proved to be invaluable at today’s Red Bull Drivers’ search go-kart qualifying session.
(While I will not discuss the proceedings, I do reserve the right to fair comment and personal reflection. And that is what this piece is - a self reflection.)
I’ve always been grateful and wistful of the times spend racing in Taiwan with friends who were firstly awesome friends to be with but also terrific drivers.
They were talented but they did not wrap their talent in shrouds of envy.
They shared knowledge. They shared experiences.
And if not, they shared laughter and warmth.
From Joe and the mechanics, I learnt a myriad of things of which were all easily learnt and executed if they were called upon singly and without stress.
In a race, of course, that would never be the case. And they made sure that they made that evidently clear to me.
Threats of overtaking loomed every time I was untidy with an apex. A gentle bump in the rear when I was late on getting on the gas on an exit.
It was a school of hard knocks, literally. Week in, week out, I had bruises to show for it.
Of the most lasting lesson I learnt was that the long-standing rule of never “drifting” or more accurately, breaking traction, in a timed trial is a lie. The gap of grip between operating at your perceived limit of grip is, quite usually, much bigger than the gap of grip if you’ve just gone over the physical limit, i.e tires beginning to slide.
Therefore, in turns that are exceedingly tight - hairpin corners, for example - it is much better to carry the speed into the corner and maintain a more fluid motion through the turn.
Today, that lesson came back with a vengeance with two corners requiring steely guts and a steady hand to eke out the last ounce of grip and speed.
Where the rest of the track was more or less the same for experienced drivers, those two corners made a world of difference in helping me turn in a better timing.
And with that, as the picture above suggests, I qualified for the Singapore round of selections. The next stage would involve a trip to Malaysia for the first round of defensive driving classes and the first elimination round that will trim away half the field.
I was given advice and help freely by people passionate in the sport and as I cannot thank them enough, I’ve decided to carry on their spirit in helping others.
I’m not a professional at this but then again, neither were Joe and his crew. But it didn’t matter. All it boiled down to was having fun and helping a friend go faster.
Joe always said that racing was about overcoming yourself and he’s right.
The fear, the uncertainty, the euphoria is unparalleled when you break through that self-imposed glass ceiling of performance. First, you feel the fear of doing something out of your norm, then you feel the uncertainty well up in your gut when you feel that you’re carrying way too much speed into the corner.
Then, just like that, the advice works.
The wheels find purchase where you would have rightfully expected them to give up. You take that corner with renewed vigour and conviction.
My passion for racing would have rightfully given up upon my return to Singapore.
With prices for a foray into motorsports starting well into the 4-figure region, becoming an armchair racer watching races online was my new norm.
But the advice to “chase your dream”, and the promise that I made to go into competitive racing, was what spurred me on to break that norm.
I had a sinking feeling in my gut.
What if I had personal engagements or school or exams or something.
What if I can’t…
And just like that, at today’s race, my heart found purchase where rightfully, it would have given up.
I earned a place to go onto the next round and whether I get past that or not, I’ll leave it to the universe to decide.
But what I won’t surrender to the universe is my desire to race hard and help others who want to go faster.
Because, when I first started, I was as slow or as fast as everyone else. It was my friends who helped make all the difference.
Here’s to everyone whose had to put up with my incessant talk about cars, my mad ramblings about driving, and yet still proud enough to name me a friend of theirs.
Thank you. This medal is for you.
Hyundai Veloster - In the wild
Hyundai Veloster
Hyundai Veloster
Long story short: I signed up.
More on that if I get selected for the first round of elimination. Wish me luck.
Every creative journey begins with a problem. It starts with a feeling of frustration, the dull ache of not being able to find the answer. When we tell one another stories about creativity, we tend to leave out this phase of the creative process. We neglect to mention those days when we wanted to quit, when we believed that our problems were impossible to solve. Instead, we skip straight to the breakthroughs. The danger of telling this narrative is that the feeling of frustration – the act of being stumped – is an essential part of the creative process. Before we can find the answer – before we probably even know the question – we must be immersed in disappointment, convinced that a solution is beyond our reach. It’s often only at this point, after we’ve stopped searching for the answer, that the answer arrives. All of a sudden, the answer to the problem that seemed so daunting becomes incredibly obvious.
- The neuroscience of Bob Dylan’s genius by Jonah Lehrer
(via JPS Mini)
[video]
^Reason why my writing has been convoluted lately.
(Source: morethanjusttheinbetween, via sav3mys0ul)
Dean Koontz, Midnight
(via joonsy)