Hard work pays off

It’s amazing what a bit of hard work can do.

In my last race at Al Ain Raceway, I thought I was about to collapse when the event finished. But since then, I’ve been trying to eat well and exercise in a bid to improve my stamina and, consequently lap times.

And what do you know? It seems to have worked.

After a summer vacation that involved far too much food and partying, I returned to the UAE determined to sort out my slightly flabby physique.

This involved swimming at least three times a week and a game of football on a Monday night, while in an effort to shed weight I kicked the junk food into touch and cut down on carbohydrates in the evening. The idea behind this is that eating foodstuffs like pasta and potatoes late in the day fills you with carbs that aren’t burned – not many people do vigorous exercise just before they turn in for the night. But if you eat pasta at lunch, then exercise later, the food you eat is burned off and you can follow it with a smaller evening meal.

As the SWS Kart Race at Dubai Autodrome approached, I found that having a target was a big help in my new training diary – previous attempts to improve my fitness generally fizzle out, as my willpower can often wane given the choice between going down the gym or curling up on the sofa with a good DVD and a pile of cookies. But having established that I’m not the worst karter out there, I wanted to improve.

Visually, I’d lost the fat around my belly and my arms were certainly stronger thanks to the swimming, while several weeks of football meant I was getting less out of breath. Plenty still to do, but it was an improvement.

Not all had gone to plan, however – upon arrival at the Kartdrome for the race on a Friday night, I found I’d lost no weight at all. I guess the extra muscle in my arms was just as heavy as the blubber that had vanished from my stomach.

The Sodi World Series (SWS) is a series of races open to anyone, and pits drivers against each other in identical karts provided by the venue. Results are collected from other circuits around the world that run the same type of karts, and so go towards a world ranking. The top 10 drivers in the world at the end of the season go through to a final in France.

As we went out for 10 minutes of qualifying, I felt good. It was still hot as the Arabian summer slowly fades away, but I was fatigue free and could concentrate fully on my driving technique. I also remembered to leave a gap in front of me so that I could get a ‘hot lap’ in without being obstructed by a slower driver ahead.

The tactic worked – I qualified ninth for race one out of a field of 23. I know the Dubai track well, and with my racing lines now fairly engrained, I could concentrate on aspects of my driving such as braking. While trying to work out where I could go faster, I realised that during the entry to a corner, I tend to relax where I should still be pushing the grip of the kart to its limits. Where before I would hit the brakes progressively, as I would in a road car, I was now stamping hard on the left pedal as late as possible and then easing up ever so slightly, to keep the wheels at the very limit of locking up. A couple of times in qualifying I didn’t get it quite right – I’d go too deep into a corner, or lock up the wheels and slide, but when it worked, when the tyres chirped and I could pitch the kart into the corner at the very limit of adhesion, it felt great.

Race one of two began, and I hit disaster almost straight away. Once again, being heavier than some of the other drivers, I was slow away from the line and a kart passed me on the inside going into the first right hand bend. I held position in the middle of the field for the next four corners, but then a driver in front of me slewed sideways, and I had nowhere to go. I drove straight into the side of him, and had to watch as the rest of the field streamed by. By the time I got going again, I was 23rd. Dead last.

This actually removed quite a lot of the nerves I had. No longer did I have to worry about defending my position – instead, I put my head down and drove as fast as I could. In fact, I’d go as far as to say I drove as well as I ever have. Over the next 20 minutes, I tried to put in everything about technique I’d learned – braking late and hard, keeping the kart from sliding and making steering inputs as small and smooth as possible. I caught and passed 12 drivers and crossed the line in 11th place, very pleased with myself. I noted at the finish that I was the first driver home that wasn’t wearing his own race suit and helmet – I had on the rental gear – which was gratifying but also made me wonder if I should start saving for some proper equipment.

The starting grid for race two was the same order as the finish for race one, and this time I tried to adopt a defensive strategy for the start. As the starting flag waved I moved across to the right to block off the inside line to lighter drivers for the first and second corners. It worked. I held my position and, on the inside line for the second corner, gained a couple of places. The rest of the race saw me battle hard with a couple of drivers, swapping positions and pushing all the way. There was a stroke of luck when two drivers up ahead had an incident and dropped back. The leaders had opened up a bit of a gap, but I succeeded in getting past the drivers in my little group and keeping them behind me. I had another driver in my sights and was catching him quickly, but the chequered flag came down just as I thought I might be with him on the following lap.

As we slowed on the warm-down lap, I had no idea how I’d done. It was only halfway round, when I saw the leading pack up ahead, that I realised there were only three of them. I’d finished fifth – my best ever result. I gave a whoop inside my race helmet.

This was hugely encouraging – my training efforts had paid off, as I wasn’t nearly as tired as in previous events and could focus fully on the race, rather than my ailing limbs. I couldn’t help wonder how I would have done had I not dropped to last in race one, but as the old maxim goes, ‘that’s racing’.

I’m not done at the Autodrome – there’s another SWS race in November, but before that is a 24-hour endurance race, using the same karts. I’ll be part of a team of media and journalists, hoping to show what we can do against some 40 other teams.

In the meantime, I’m keeping up the swimming and watching what I eat.