San Diego A Go Go

One night, three tracks

My plateau in Torrance had shape-shifted into a nasty slump. Kimi stepped back from karting to chase greener, simulated pastures. I decided to hit the road and conquer new tracks in the San Diego area.

Using my brother's home in San Clemente as my home base, I was going to conquer three tracks in one night.

First stop was Carlsbad. Tiny, technical, damn near a flat out track with tiny lift requirements at just the right moment. A great place for me to practice mapping out geometrical lines. I had to be patient with this one, not a lot of places to stretch your legs. I felt slow slow until I found the lines that really let the speed carry through. I did five races and hit the road.

Stop two was San Diego and I was in luck. Roberto Soto, San Diego record holder and fierce karting competitor was racing that night. After a not too shabby first race, I was invited to race with him. I followed his lead for a few races.

San Diego is a lifting track but it takes focus not to scrub the tires. Roberto is smooth and frighteningly fast on exit. Keeping up was a full body workout. I realized I had been lifting all wrong this whole time. It's not like braking. It's more fluid, and in a lot of cases, more brief. I ended up doing five races to really let this lift lesson sink in.

Final stop, the newly opened Chula Vista. New karts, new track. I was frothing at the mouth to try those karts. Little did I know this was also the current residence of William Broderick (@racingwithbrody). At the time he was number one in K1 racing points and also the leader of his local GP series.

I remember walking in and recognizing his name on the racing board. He came out of his race and spotted me immediately. “That woman has a helmet, get her in this race!” I hopped in the kart and learned real quick why this man’s name gets around. No fear, no fucks, crazy fast laps.

The shape of Chula Vista is unique. Big carousel style turns, I was pretty lost. I was also shook by the power of the karts, they were great but steering was stiff. “You're getting stuck out there! Let it rip!” He said.

With these new karts I had to learn to trust them to perform. We were determined to shave a full second off my lap time and after six races, we did it. My arms were completely nuked but it felt amazing. This is where I learned when the kart is good, push it, no fucks given.

Three tracks, 16 races, I karted myself into the ground. I limped back to my brother's house and crawled into the hot tub. This trip was designed to reignite the flame between me and karting and it worked. I sat in that tub grinning ear to ear, eager to get back to Torrance.