Last week a group of us from work headed over to the F1 Race Factory, an indoor kart racing facility here in Phoenix. These karts are not the same as the little go-karts seen at some amusement parks. These things travel at up to 45 MPH as they race along the 1/4 track full of twists and turns. Take a turn a little too fast an you'll find yourself sliding across the track. Take the turn way too fast and you'll be doing cookies while the other races fly past. If you're looking for some fast paced excitement, this is probably what you're looking for.
When you first arrive at F1 Race Factory you have to register. This gets you into their computer system so that the stats from all your races, even races from future visits, can be tracked. After each race you get a printout showing your most recent performance along with your "career" performance. Registration is pretty easy and only takes a couple minutes.
In order to do any racing you have to have a racing license. These can be purchased on a daily basis or as an annual license. The daily F1 Race Factory racing license costs $5 and the annual license costs $20. The first time you get a license you have to sit through the safety training presentation.
In the safety presentation a staff member explains the basic rules of the track. Bumping and blocking are not allowed. You can't purposefully bang people out of the way. You also can't weave around to stay in front of someone so they can't pass you. Doing either of those will get you kicked out of a race. The race is controlled by flaggers. A yellow flag means drive slowly and don't pass anyone. A green flag means go full speed ahead. A red flag means to come to a safe stop and wait. All of those flag apply to everyone on the track. Two other flags are applied to individuals. If the flagger waves the blue flag at you that means someone is coming up behind you and you should move over to allow them to pass. If the flagger waves the black flag at you then you have to pull over in the pit. This flag means that you've done something wrong. At first they'll talk to you but if you continue to cause a problem then you'll be kicked out of the race.
After the safety presentation you schedule yourself for a race and then wait for your time. When you're race time arrives you grab a helmet and then strap yourself into the car. Then the race is on. For the next 10 minutes you'll be zipping around the track trying to take the corners as best you can while avoiding running into other people.
One nice thing about racing at the F1 Race Factory is the format of the races. Each racer is racing against the clock instead of against position on the track. Every car has a transmitter that sends a signal to a timer when the car passes a certain point on the track. The timing system tracks the time for each lap that each car makes. After the race the lap times for every lap are printed out for you to see. The printout also shows your fastest lap time and average lap time. If you go with a group then you will also have a chance to see how your times compared with the others in your group.
All of this fun does come at a cost. As mentioned earlier, the daily license is $5. Your first race costs $20. A second race costs $18. No one would want to do just one race so the average person is going to be spending almost $45 for the two races. Even though it is more expensive than your average dinner and a movie type activity, it is worth it as a unique and fun experience.
When I get a chance I'd like to try it again. I've been spending the last few days thinking about different strategies for racing. It would be fun to try those out and see if I can improve my time.
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