- 26,911
- Houston, Texas, USA
- JMarine25
Here is a topic of great importance. Driver fitness can be the difference between doing well in a race and doing horribly in a race. For a skinny, six feet even, 165-something pounds male like myself, I could experience fatigue pretty early. I have a story that surely relates to this issue that happened to me this past weekend.
You may have seen my reply in GT4 thread "Smaller Tracks?", so you know a little about where this was. Anyhow, the 268m (879.3 ft) indoor kart course at Houston Indoor Karting (http://www.hikarting.com) was the scene during a Sunday afternoon. As the skies were clouding up and rain HARD later, I would go around the go-karting course for two races. My first race was dreadful. Out of seven people, I qualified 4th with a time of 31.629, then went on to place 7th with a time of 30.587. After my first race, I was staggering and needed some Powerade. While I was trying to watch the AMA Superbike race #2 (or was it the ALMS race at Portland?), I felt hurt. I also accidentally touched the engine with my right hand, and the bottom left side of my right hand. It hurt pretty bad. And thankfully it didn't affect my driving too much. But then, the second race came. And as I was resting, I was fatigued pretty bad. So with the heart of a champion, I tried to give it my all out of five racers. I qualified 4th of 5 with a time of 31.076, then I went on to finish 3rd with a time of 28.141- while fatigued!
So, driver fitness is about as important as winning a race. But what do you make of driver fitness? And what should future racers do to help keep themselves in shape for when they pilot a machine? Stay in shape, and reply now.
You may have seen my reply in GT4 thread "Smaller Tracks?", so you know a little about where this was. Anyhow, the 268m (879.3 ft) indoor kart course at Houston Indoor Karting (http://www.hikarting.com) was the scene during a Sunday afternoon. As the skies were clouding up and rain HARD later, I would go around the go-karting course for two races. My first race was dreadful. Out of seven people, I qualified 4th with a time of 31.629, then went on to place 7th with a time of 30.587. After my first race, I was staggering and needed some Powerade. While I was trying to watch the AMA Superbike race #2 (or was it the ALMS race at Portland?), I felt hurt. I also accidentally touched the engine with my right hand, and the bottom left side of my right hand. It hurt pretty bad. And thankfully it didn't affect my driving too much. But then, the second race came. And as I was resting, I was fatigued pretty bad. So with the heart of a champion, I tried to give it my all out of five racers. I qualified 4th of 5 with a time of 31.076, then I went on to finish 3rd with a time of 28.141- while fatigued!
So, driver fitness is about as important as winning a race. But what do you make of driver fitness? And what should future racers do to help keep themselves in shape for when they pilot a machine? Stay in shape, and reply now.
