Kamal Afiq, tells us about his day, karting in the DRIVERS 2010 by MyKart.org. A petrolhead, he talks of the experience full of enthusiasm, a typical MSRians....a typical simracer. Himself, Zuljag and Piji is an avid karter, having sessions almost everyweek. Here is the report.

got there at 745 am. kept on smsing bro zul but didnt got any reply. well, he reminded me last night that he'll make it IF he can get up in time.
so, i guess he didnt . alright, registered myself, paid the fees and weighed. i was among the earliest to register . by 830am the paddock started
to get crowded and by now i realized how intense the race will be in a good way. intense here refers to the fact that MOST of the drivers that came today
do look physically prepared and mentally. they came with all those fancy race suits etc2. well, i wasnt really far off either to be honest coz i brought
along my jacket+full face helmet (NON FIA approved)+glove+balaclava. well, long story short those who came today ARE INDEED motorsport enthusiasts.

that been told by mr. Naza. MOST of them i knew by the fact that im VERY much familiar with race ethics thanx to my group MSR that i joined 2 years ago. But,
as a go karter there's one thing that i got today...when u crashed/spun, DO NOT move and step on the brake while put up ur hand. well, in MSR, when i spun
i usually got out of the way by moving my car off track if there's a lot of drivers coming from behind. in this race, mr. Naza wanted us to just step on
the brake no matter where we spun. and i found it rather GREAT when i met a 'spunned' driver later on te qualify session coz he just stayed there in the middle of the track and that gave us room to use on both sides of his kart .

the qualify session is just like race session coz all drivers went out at the same time+racing for 8 laps+formation
lap on the beginning. they took the average laptime done by us in 2 qualify sessions while we raced.

first qualifying session.
i was assigned to kart number 4 for the first round of qualify. since i registered early, i started from 8th position out of 14.
IMMEDIATELY after 2 corners i started to notice how 'lemau' the kart is coz i was completely
blown away in the straight line. im not talking crap, but on straight line there's never ever in my mind i would NOT to full throttle no matter what the
condition is. so yeah. the kart was indeed 'lemau'. well, i dont mind it so much coz i did make up some time in the corners and that's just it. i finished
dead last out of 14 in the first heat but i DIDNT know what my fastest laptime was.

second qualifying session.
this time, i was assigned to kart number 10. well, boy oh boy it was indeed much better kart than the previous one i had. this time i started from 10th place
out of 14. i dont know how did they manage the position for qualify, i guess based on first come first serve. the kart was INDEED great and IMMEDIATELY i
started to catch up in 4 drivers that were fighting each other in the middle pack. i have to be honest, even in MSR race i wasnt usually dare devil enough to do
some stupid move when having 3 other drivers just side by side , tyre to tyre distance. so, i just go on with the flow. HOWEVER, one of them spun and this
kind of seperated us and that's a good thing since i will be fighting with one driver only. another one caught up with the spunned driver and left behind.
after much battle, INDEED i wasnt good enough and just manage to end the race behind him and in 7th out of 14. nah, i dont really care about the result.
at least i know im not that far off.

RACE
OVERALL i qualified 6th out of 14. so, after the first 5 drivers choose their kart then turn for me to choose mine came. i wasnt prepared for this coz i didnt
know there's this kind of rule. stupid me T_T. so, after much consideration (my mind just said any kart BUT number 4), i chose kart number 30. i WAS aiming
for the karts number 7 and 16 as those 2 were the fastest. but the first 2 drivers choose them (OBVIOUSLY).

as for the race, we had a bit of issue that lead us to do 3 formation laps (1 extra) coz some bloke spunned and been left behind.

;;green light!;;

IMMEDIATELY after the race start i overtook the guy in front coz i was tailgating him VERY closely right before the start/finish line with FULL THROTTLE on
right foot. so, by the time i crossed the start/finish line i had enough speed to just overtake him.(MSR experience driver ) there u go, off to 2nd place.
it was good indeed. the kart was good and i was feeling good for the first 2 laps(out of 8). however, the guy in front of me spun on the tight hairpin on
lap 4 and left me no room except to brake hard and take outside line SLOWLY.

at this time my brain kept on saying the same thing 'u idiot, u should have known better kamal in MSR how danger to follow
someone u never race with that close. let alone cucuk him. kalo mara n PC bole la, they wont cracked even a bit of touch'. haha. the basic fundamental of
racing, the guy in front spun might take u with him and i'd prove it this time. wahahahhaha

that made me lost quite a lot of positions as i remembered i ended up 8th. well, the race was tight coz with just
minor mistake u COULD end up dead last coz we're racing bumper to bumper.
i came here not to win but to gain as much knowledge as i can.
so, i started to find the 'best' driver among in front of me and started to follow his line. it WAS indeed a good decision coz i found out after the race he
has been with Mykart for a year now (no wonder he's good). that guy was in 5th but i still managed to see what he's doing in front of me. so, by following what
he did i pretty much became 'a bit faster' than the 7th and 6th place guys and 'easily' overtook them and ended up at 6th. by now the race was 2 laps to end.

well, the 5th place guy was INDeeD good. i never had so much fun and yet fully focus and enjoy to follow someone that close since the last 'wet' session with
bro zul where he tought me about handling the wet race. i never really had an advantage over this guy so i was hoping for him to make mistake . but,
waiting for experience driver to do mistake is like waiting to meet someone we never met. or in MSR world 'it's like hoping for guy like mara n PC to crash
or DNF without having blowoff or DC in the middle of the race' haha. so, i ended the race in 6th place. it was indeed a good race.

im not gona be in championship running coz i missed the first 2 rounds. so, the next round im tragetting for something much better than 6th. INSYAALLAH.
i wasnt planning to take picture coz i cant use the camera on my E71 and since i came alone i wouldnt risk my camera to be stolen. though i was hoping the
pictures from bro zul's camera but too bad he continued sleeping . but ill try to find some picces from other racers or wait for the next round. coz im
pretty sure bro zul is going to make it this time. (i got 6th , OBVIOUSLY u can do it better man!).

OVERALL, i was the only newbie on track and yet didnt blown away by more experienced drivers. that's good enough for me for this round. thanx to MSR races
i'd joined before, i kind of prepared myself what to expect on track and despite i did stupid mistake by following someone too close that left me no room
to take when he spunned, i could get back on track with enugh momentum to stay in 8th out of 14. thank god. and bro zul, please come next time. the only time
i could talk was during the race IN my own helmet. believe me, i chicken out a bit and i kept on talking to myself during the race. HAHAHAHHAHAHA

oh yea..the other 2 categories are for much much much better drivers. they were using 125cc 2 strokes rotex. fuh...the sound, the speed, the excitement is just much much much better than my puny little 80cc 2 strokes. hahahhaha