Chapter Five
Brain Racing
Part 1: Go-kart Shootout
It's my last go-kart event.
A shootout, the one for all the marbles.
Three champions have been selected and a wildcard entry, me.
There are three go-karts, a four-stroke, a rotax, and a 125cc shifter go-kart.
The fastest overall wins?
I'll note this now because it's pertinent later.
Normally, each driver would have their own go-kart. Meaning I would have a specific amount of lead weight on the back of my seat to meet minimum weight, otherwise I'm underneath.
The one time in my life I get a size advantage...
Normally I have to pull more weight, when I'm the smaller one!
Another thing worth noting, what were the specifics with tyres?
I was on fire. These felt like the best laps of my entire life. So much so it seems an insult for anyone to suggest it was anything but my skills that day as to why I won.
I was the quickest in all three go-karts.
Domination
It wasn't until after I won other drivers started complaining.
The driver I knew the least, whose dad I recall spearheaded the complaining, was the only one not to get progressed forward in the open-wheel test day.
Sponsorship spending couldn't of had anything to do with that decision...
My father was a dedicated sponsor at that point, guess why Autosense Autoparts is on my championship ring.
Everyone joined in, I had little room to speak let alone debate.
The winner was the one who had to compromise the other two champions, why not the third?
What is this? A cadet class race where everybody gets a trophy for participating?!?
Part 2: Open-wheel Racecars
This is it, the big day where all that hard work can finally pay off!
Early on an engineer pulled me aside to talk.
I was told I would be judged today on my ability to follow team orders.
My orders given away from the others, were no passing and safety is the utmost importance. Don't damage the car!
Pay Attention! This is where things get tricky!
A monocoque is custom made to fit each driver. Given my smaller stature, I definitely did not fit this racecar.
I was sent out to the track after shifter-kart champion.
Didn't you technically qualify first? Why were you sent behind someone else?
We as a group were told to focus on staight stretch speed instead of cornering pace.
But because I was sent out behind someone else, with larger cars, on a smaller track not designed for open-wheel racing.
I couldn't get on the gas without instantly catching up to Driver R repetitively.
Therefore, in my mind, in the heat of a situation I didn't get enough prep for, same as every race weekend under the Trombly banner.
Driving racecars in real life isn't as easy as the videogames make it look and feel.
There may of been some intentional oversteer added tuning wise, when I prefer understeer.
So much I guess looking back it was intentionally tuned wonky.
It was not my finest driver, this was the worst way imaginable to end it all, a sour note that forever taints my record.
Driver P got sent out all by himself after our two stooges routine.
It would of been easy with no other drivers on the track to push it. And you wouldn't of had to push hard to beat my obstructed lap times.
We were told after as a group the oval track day would go to the driver with the fastest time.
The oval track test day went to the 4-stroke champion who in his words "Would rather be fishing."
They kept changing the rules like a bunch of immature school boys making up rules to a game as they go.
This is what event fixing looks like.
The grand prize for winning the shootout:
- BS personal test track day
- Oval Track Test Day
- A season of racing with BSR valued at $1 million for 1/2 price = $500 000
These underhanded, heavily engineered tactics were a way for Brain Racing to squirm out of a half price season he agreed to at somepoint as a grand prize.
There was an American driver who I guess was willing to pay full price, who didn't even participate in that season of Brain Racing, the 1st season at the go-kart level, in Canada, from a team owner in the Canadian racing hall of fame, who went open-wheel racing the following season I won a seat for.
At least that's how I was aware things ended, the day I had to walk away from my dream after winning the grand prize.