I took my racing suit off. It was a yellow suit with a checkered flag stripe across the left side. To try to solve the issue, we took off the nose piece and started looking closely at the master cylinders. I think it was possibly a little bolt that was attached to the master cylinder. It had came loose somehow and broke off the brake line. With the brake line breaking, it left a big puddle of brake fluid all over the floor board making it slick and all nasty. (Brake fluid is very very slick.) So we had wiped up all the brake fluid and cleaned up the kart as much as we possibly could. I remember loading up in the trailer and putting all the tools up with all the nasty paper towels overflowing the trash can. The overall night was a disaster.
My one memory I fully remember is when I was little, I used to race a winged go-kart.I was just three years old when I started racing. I got the kart when I was two and a half years old. With that being said, of course, the motors weren’t very big because all the kids racing them were small and just beginners. I raced at a small track in Bolivar, Missouri, right off the highway, and also behind a big building. I raced there all the time because it was the closest track to our house that raced go karts. The go kart was really fun to drive but, as you know, everything goes wrong at some point.
One time during a race I remember this kid and I were first and second, respectively I was right on his bumper and one time he just hit the brakes outta nowhere. So I hit him and our bumpers got hooked up and we raced like that for about three laps.
The track officials called a caution to get us untangled. After we got all straightened out, I noticed something was a little off. The brakes felt spongy, which means that they were softer than normal. Under caution you aren’t full throttle, but I still noticed something was up. After the green flag dropped, I shot right up the racetrack. In my mind, I thought I didn’t hit the corner right, so the next corner came up and I took it a little easier. This time I stayed down low but wasn’t fast enough with no brakes. So I went to the top of the racetrack. I rolled around till I got to the exit, and when I got there I took a hard right and jolted off the track because I knew I had no brakes.
You will never believe what I had to do to stop. I got the trailer-remember I had no brakes- and ran straight into the tires and bounced off. It rattled me for a minute. Dust flew up from the car and the tires with dried up mud on them. It dented the bumper a little but didn’t cause any bad damage to the car.
Dad and Grandpa came running. They were yelling, “What was wrong?” I told them I lost all brakes! They noticed that the bumper was all bent up and I explained that I had to run into the trailer to get stopped so I wouldn’t run past the trailer and crash into something else. So the night obviously, ended early, so we worked on the go kart until we noticed the problem.
Racing is still in my blood. I continue racing a USRA B-Modified around the local race tracks alongside my dad racing as well. I drive the number 10p. That number was chosen because it was my dad’s number when he first started racing. Now he drives for Tom Campbell and now the number is 38c. I remember a lot of great memories around the race track.
Racing has been in my family forever and still continues to this day.This is the memory I chose to write about because it was exciting, bad, and a good learning lesson of making sure you check everything important before you roll out on the race track.
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