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DKC's first 4 hour Karting Enduro

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  • DKC's first 4 hour Karting Enduro

    Dec 13th, 2011 - 4 Hr ENDURO

    It is a day later and I'm starting to recover my senses, after the physical beating my body and brain took last night at the 4 hour karting enduro at held at and put on by Dallas Karting Complex in Caddo Mills, TX. I am getting more angry about how the event was run, and how the winning team was randomly picked, as well.



    This new track has been open since May but this was their first endurance race - that they put on themselves. The entry fee was $500/team, which could be either 3 or 4 drivers. It was obvious from the very beginning that the DKC owners had never been to or run an endurance race of any kind, as the details on the event format were sketchy; they only finalized the rules the day of the event, and changed several times during the event. So yea, there were some teething problems but I think they will eventually settle on a format that is fair, painless, and efficient.

    The sign-up for this event happened 2 months prior, it was only announced on Facebook, and it sold out (to 10 teams) within 4 days. A bunch of us that wanted to do this event missed out, oh well - gotta stay tuned into their Facebook page. Luckily there were a three local autocrossers that had an opening on their team, and after they asked everyone else they could possibly think of, I finally got the call. Lucky again that I had been practicing "night karting" with Cody and Costas for a few weeks prior to the event, so I felt like I could drive that track at night (with 5 street lights out) in the dark.

    Our team came up with a few strategies. Having run endurance events before I offered up a few basic ideas: night practice, radio communications, live timing, dedicated spotter/radio person, and a driver schedule. We all got in some night practice in the weeks before the event, and each driver had been to DKC twice before the enduro (I think I've been 7 times now). I found some low-cost 2-way COBRA radios ($40/pair) and then ordered a pair of ear-piece/mic cords ($14/each). That was so worth the money!



    The driver's meeting was scheduled for 6:30 pm Tuesday night of the race, with first kart out by 7:30. We were the 2nd team to arrive, right about 6:20. We waited for all of the other teams to arrive (eleven total?) and finally had the drivers meeting and weigh-in at 7 pm. Each driver had to weigh 180 lbs avg (720 lbs total for 4) which were weighed at the same time on 4 corner weight scales. One team came in right at 720, but ours was over by 30 pounds (with me being the "anchor" in that line-up @ 210 lbs, in all my gear). The Red Bull road show was there, with the big "DJ stand party buss" and the local DFW "Red Bull Girls" Mini Cooper. Free Red Bull and LOUD music all night. Yay.

    So, driver's meeting... "Turn that music off!" One of the track owners talked about some rules: "no bumping or spinning out other karts, or we might black flag you", and "we will stop the race at the 2 hour mark, bring all karts in, and the DKC crew will re-fuel them". That seemed pretty fair, but was not what we were told weeks leading up to the event ("the teams will have to fuel their own karts" and "these things can only go 30 minutes on one tank"). Again, this was their first enduro and they will figure this stuff out as they go. Nobody ran out of fuel (*see exception below) so the 2 hour fueling window worked. I think it was a total WAG (wild ass guess), but they were right on that one.



    These karts use AMB transponders, so I had planned on bringing an iPad, downloading the MyLaps app (see above), and linking into their live timing system. Five dollar app purchase + a link from the DKC folks entered and were were in business! We were the only team to think of that one, so we had a crowd looking over our shoulders at times all night, when we were up on the observation deck (better to spot the track from there, and better radio comms standing high up). Everyone else had to go into the lobby or downstairs to watch the timing readouts. The MyLaps system had more data than "# of laps, best lap, last lap" like the regular displays had, and this is where we started seeing some "timing adjustments" happen. More on that later.

    The day of the race it had rained in the afternoon, but they didn't move the event - another lucky guess and good call. The week prior was actually the original scheduled date, but it was 30°F and they called the race the day before. I was bummed, because we had been testing in 30-40°F temps at night, and had planned on a COLD enduro, but oh well. They had each team draw for kart numbers/positions, and we got #7, so were to start 7th. Mid-pack, so I guess it could be worse.



    The temps this night were in the mid 60°s F, but with a strong breeze and a bit chilly, so some drivers wore light jackets while others wore driving suits. In my first 30 minute driving stint I wore a dry-fit long sleeved shirt with another dry-fit shirt over that, and it was perfect, except I had no place to put my radio (more on that below) the 2nd stint I wore a tight fitting leather jacket with an inside pocket for the radio. That time I was sweating when I got out, so we'll have to re-think what to wear based on temps. A better radio holder = a must! 2 way comms would be even better but would entail investing in 4 helmet-mounted microphones and a dedicated wiring harness for push to talk feature. We all had real race gloves and shoes, and most brought their own full faced helmets (I grabbed the wrong helmet bag, which had my OPEN faced autocross helmet, so I had to burrow a loaner - doh!).

    Our team had 4 autocrossers, all of which had some track experience. Thomas Hiromoto, Nathan Wainwright, Joseph Kan, and me. We chose a schedule of that exact order. So by 7:20 pm they were getting the karts started, and our first driver Thomas noticed that the throttle was stuck - no return spring! We got the DKC techs to "pop the hood" and they re-attached the spring to the pedal box with a zip tie. "Whew!" It was kart #7, which was one of the quicker ones the last time we were there, and I was happy we salvaged that kart. Then they tried to start it... unsuccessfully, for 6 or 7 minutes. The air cleaner went on and off 2 times, and finally they punted and got us a back-up kart, #3 that was sitting off to the side. They only had 13 or 14 karts prepped with new tires for this event, so with 11 teams running we gobbled up the first "spare". Then another one wouldn't start, so I think they were down to one spare kart before the start of the race. Oh boy...


    Left: DKC folks trying to fix our assigned kart #7, before the race began. Right: The karts lining up to race

    Thomas went out on sticker tires and a damp track, so he took it easy the first few laps - but maintained his 7th place for his whole 30 minute stint. His lap times picked up into the 72 second range by the end, and he was flying. Our radios were working GREAT and we were able to spot for closing traffic from behind, give him a time update every 10 minutes, read off lap times every lap so he could adjust, and let him know 3-4 laps before he had to come in, with a count-down. We had a system of getting the extra ear-piece set-up with the next driver on deck 5 minutes before the pit stop. The ear bud was taped on to their ear, helmet goes on, then neck brace, gloves. During the pit stop all 4 of us were there, and the 2 "spare" folks helped the exiting driver out, then belted in the next driver so they could get cinched down quickly. Once belted in we pushed them the first 20 feet to build momentum and off they went. Worked well and we were averaging a 40-45 second bogey time on each stop. Seems like a lot but there were FAR slower pit stops that night. This ain't F1!

    So Thomas had a good first stint, running fast laps and keeping up with serious karting guys. He passed several, had one re-pass him, then got the spot back at the end of his stint. He came in after 30 minutes and Nathan took over for the next 30 minutes, and he ratcheted up the top time by a few tenths. He was knocking off 73s with ease, then 72s, but I think he had one quick spin on track; only lost a few seconds. Somehow by then we were 2-3 laps down, and were never passed on track. WTF? Maybe the MyLaps readout was wonky. We concentrated on driving and hoped the read-out would catch itself back up soon. Joseph got in had some good laps as well, running low 73s. One quick spin, but again, only a few seconds lost. All 3 first drivers made good passes on track, had good times and we had quick pit stops. I think we noticed the lead kart pass one of our drivers on track ONCE, but they were already running 71s by then.

    We had one "pit lane speed violation" where they held one of our drivers for 30 seconds - this was a rule they made up on the spot. Maybe we lost one of our laps there, who knows? Amy was watching the timing and kept pointing out we were down laps, but we didn't know how. We noticed one team was doing 1 hour stints, to save several pit stops (4 hour stints vs 8 30s), but most teams stuck to the 30 minute stop windows. Driving these things takes a lot out of you, and not many folks thought they could do an hour long stint. I don't think I could have. We all had to drive the same amount of time for the night "within 15 minutes", and with the 2 hour mandatory fuel stop, we stuck with the 30 minute stops to keep it simple. That might be one strategic change if we ever did this again. I think 8-9 teams probably did the 30 minute stint schedule, too.

    So Joseph came in at the 1 hour 30 minute mark and I hopped in and planned on going until they stopped us for fuel. I was sans jacket and had clipped the radio foolishly to my belt. Dumb! With the seat insert (that you have to rent now) and harness tight, the radio popped right off. Nathan used quick thinking and shoved it behind my back, right before I left the pits. Err, so yea... my back kept mashing the transmit button and all I heard was BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! the first few laps. VERY distracting. So I loosened my belts all the way out on the main straight, and for 3 laps struggled to fish the radio out from behind my back. I finally got it out, then drove 2 laps with the radio in one hand, waving it like a maniac to my teammates as I drove by the observation deck. On my 3rd lap like that I tossed it laterally towards the hot pits, at 30 mph, and it bounced off the grass right next to the barrier, where they quickly retrieved it.

    I managed to gather myself back up, sort of get the belts kind of tight again, and put in some good laps during this stint. Knocked out a best of a 72.4 sec lap in there, with a string of mid-high 72s and some low 73s, and passed about 7 karts - apparently only one for position? Towards the end I saw another autocrosser I recognized ahead of me, and was working on reeling him in. When I got the white flag before the fuel stop, I was 3-4 lengths behind him and managed to click off a pretty risky pass into turn 1. That's where you brake from 65 mph down to about 25, into a big sweeping turn. I had some rear tire lock-up, a bit of drift on the inside of the corner, a little bit of an accidental bump check to the driver on the outside, but the pass held. He was all smiles and handshakes after that stint, and said that battle was the most fun he had all night, so it was all good. I saw some much rougher bump passes so this one never got a second look. My only contact all night and it was very very minor.



    So we come in for the refueling and check the results. We had been down as far as 8th place and I came in at 7th. How the frak are we so far down, we wondered? We were shown at +4 laps to the leaders and 7th out of 11 teams at the 2 hour mark and we were left all scratching our heads. Each driver just didn't get passed much if ever on track, and our avg lap times were no more than .5 sec off the top teams, and faster than some ahead of us. Our second two hours/stints were much of the same, but EVERYONE got faster on our team. More familiarity with the track and fresh tires, I guess? Every single member was running 72 sec laps, with I think a best of 72.0 by me, Thomas had a 72.3, Nathan had a 72.2, and Joseph a 72.5 or so. My last stint was about 40 minutes and I felt good about all of my laps, all but 2 of which were in the mid to low 72s. My very last lap was still a 72.2, so I finished out strong. Could I have gone another 20 minutes? Man, I don't know... an hour straight driving these things at these lap times would wreck a 42 year old body like mine.

    So at the end, we were still the same 4 laps down we were at the 2 hour mark, when all of the adjustments happened. Only 1 team we knew of was doing hour long stints, so how did the other 4-5 teams get ahead of us? Well... There were some shenanigans. One team ran out of fuel on track, halfway through a lap. The DKC folks tried to fix it on the spot, but realized the fuel tank had cracked open. That sucks, but that's endurance racing, you know? This team had fallen back several laps, apparently all the way to last place during the off-track stop. The driver ran back to the pits, they got into a new kart, and off they went. Somebody must have done some fast talking because soon after the DKC folks credited them something like SIX LAPS. Yea, that's right, they got bonus laps for having a fuel tank issue. So they immediately leaped into 1st place. I've never HEARD of such a thing. Now all of this was pretty hush-hush but most of the teams were talking about it, and you can see a weird "0:15 min best lap" in the final readout for the top team:


    Funky timing anomalies abound? Our team was "Caucasian" - which was a funny, since half our members were Asian

    So apparently there were possibly even some additional "lap adjustments" awarded for transponder issues, but I'm not sure. So many rumors floating around. Nobody knows the whole story except for the DKC folks, and after the event they squashed all dissent pretty quickly. One driver from one of the faster teams were pointing out at the awards ceremony that their team had faster avg laps and this "lap adjustment" situation screwed up the results. This was followed by loud announcement from an owner of "LETS WRAP THIS UP!", which put an end to discussion. So, yea, several teams left there pissed off, and we left early during the "awards ceremony" as well. They gave out trophies + custom made jackets + hundreds of dollars of DKC credits + cases of Red Bull + gift karts to local restaurants were given to the top team and other prices to places 2 and 3.



    I don't know... it seems like a lot of bitching re-reading what I've written here, but I'm hearing similar chatter from a lot of other teams. We put in $5500 in entry fees to DKC and we all wanted a fair fight, but got this half-baked attempt at a race. I think it stems from a difference in philosophy from the owners of the track/equipment vs a real racing sanctioning body. DKC has a kart track with rental karts for people to come out and bang out a few sessions of laps for fun. The karts' performances are significantly different from week to week (having been 7 times now, I've seen upwards of 2 sec difference from one week to the next, in the exact same conditions - so much depends on the condition of the engines and freshness of the tires), but for "fun karting" it doesn't matter.

    To real racers, this DOES matter. DKC announced an endurance RACE, with real prizes, and a lot of RACERS showed up. I don't think the owners took the event as seriously as some of the teams - you cannot just adjust the number of laps to a team in endurance racing! That doesn't happen. Instead of concentrating on Red Bull girls, DJs and the "show", I wish they'd had someone with some experience running an endurance race there to to be the race marshal, teach how the flags work, and police the pits/offs/bumping. They also need to work on kart reliability, transponders, etc.

    They announced another "9 or 10" endurance races of the same format for 2012. Will I give them another $500 for an event like this? Honestly, no. I do have a LOT of fun going out to DKC, but this is a little more effort than just spending the $500 entry fee - we practiced for weeks, bought radios, spend time planning, and drove our guts out for a 6th place finish that we don't believe is accurate. Maybe we were really 5th? Maybe 4th? Who knows. They sure don't. Still, it was a lot of fun pretending we were actually racing, even if the results were skewed by some kooky adjustments.

    continued below
    Last edited by Fair!; 12-22-2011, 09:46 AM.
    Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
    2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
    EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

  • #2
    Re: DKC's first 4 hour Karting Enduro

    continued from above

    All I'm saying to those that are thinking of doing a future racing event put on by the owners at DKC - buyer beware. It might get a little "iffy" when it comes to the results. If you don't care about who wins or loses, then you'll probably be perfectly happy. Just like any form of racing, before you spend your time and money jumping into a new racing series, do your research. Look for PRINTED rules and regs for an event, prior to entering. They missed that completely.

    I've heard horror stories about the LeMons endurance racing series, seen it first hand at two events I've run myself, and yes - some of it is true. I've seen silly, biased "judging" at LeMons that would make some racers blow their top. There are always key individuals in every racing series that have the control to make things run smoothly or muck them all up. This was DKC's first every endurance race that they put on, and I think they'd openly admit that they need to improve a few things. This dickering with lap counts was outlandish, however, and never should have happened. Endurance racing is half about keeping the car (kart) in one piece, and if some team broke something after they drove it for hours, thems the breaks. You know what? Your team probably took too many curbs that possibly led to the part failure. If you can get back to the pits and into another back-up kart, well, you might have earned a few lost laps that it took to switch karts. Just because they rented the equipment from the race organizer doesn't mean you get to try to "make up for it" with free laps, and a free win.

    I dunno. I had fun, I'm sore all over and very sleep deprived today, and I guess I'm happy with my lap times.



    The left pic is of me driving during the first stint, in my easy-to-spot BRIGHT yellow shirt. At right I'm shown pushing Nathan out of the pits during a driver change. Thanks to Joseph's wife Jessica for sharing these pics on FB.

    After a little looking someone found this screenshot from the Enduro, showing the winning team at the halfway point (96 laps in). This was probably after their fuel tank issue, but before the laps were adjusted.



    As you can clearly see, this "winning team" was in dead last place, 11 laps down! And to top that off, they had the slowest "best lap time" and were the slowest kart currently running. So this team somehow magically made up ELEVEN LAPS and took the win in the last 2 hours??

    SHENANIGANS!

    So the results were totally rigged, even worse than the "6 laps adjustment" that we originally thought. Again, you NEVER give BONUS LAPS to an endurance team for equipment failure. EVER. I know its just a "little karting race", but we all paid our $500 entry fees and expected a real RACE, not this joke of a result.

    I have been asked about my forum post above by someone, and yes, I do hope the folks at DKC read this and take the criticism for what its worth. They did a great job promoting the event, "the show" was great, the karts were reasonably well prepared, the new tires felt great, and the track was awesome. They just botched the actual running of the event. They were missing a real Chief Steward. I feel they shouldn't put on competition events of their own, as that requires unique experiences that they do not have at this time. The Karting Challenges we did earlier in the year had some issues as well, but this lap adjustment that takes the last place team up ELEVEN LAPS and into the win is outrageous.

    This area has a lot of real racers in it, and if they want to attract more of those people to their future endurance races they will HAVE to step up and hire/beg someone to run these events that has a real racing steward experience. They need to PUBLISH the rules and regulations before the event, have a set schedule that they stick to, have a couple of real corner workers with real flags/lights. For night races they might even want to invest in some track yellow/red/green corner station lights (there are a lot of LED based corner flag light box solutions now). If they want to ensure that real racers never return to DKC, though, they can just keep doing what they are doing. As I can see by pissed off people post on their FB page, there are many folks that ran the enduro that are never coming back.

    Cheers,
    Last edited by Fair!; 12-22-2011, 09:48 AM.
    Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
    2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
    EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: DKC's first 4 hour Karting Enduro

      Wow... this was posted on the DKC Facebook page by the "2nd place" team from the Enduro. It was soon deleted by the FB site owner, but its already been re-posted on several forums:

      Originally posted by Sam88Gta1
      This update was first posted on Dallas Karting Complex's Facebook page but was quickly removed. Censorship always defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.

      24 hours later.

      We are taught in sports at an early age that practice gets rewarded and that practice makes perfect. My practice started on August 14th 2011 @ 1:30 pm. That was the first time I sat in a rental kart at DKC. Ten minutes later I knew it was going to be hooked on kart racing. I ran six races my very first visit to DKC and the next morning I woke up feeling like i'd been ran over by the UPS truck. It took three whole days for the soreness to pass and as you may guess on the 18th I was back at DKC making laps again with a per-ma grin on my face. Fast forward to the 20th of October 2011. That was the day I ran my 100th race in a rental kart. The soreness was long gone but the grin remained and I'm pretty sure I showed everyone that day at the facility my proof of the milestone 100th race. Maybe I was a little over excited but how boring would life be if nothing ever put that smile on your face after the age of 30?

      Back up a few days to the 4th of October 2011. On our final league race day we were given the notice of a 4 hour endurance race set in the near future. Awesome Idea right? I surely thought so and so did my would be teammates.
      For the next two months I lost countless hours of sleep going over strategy for tire wear, fuel consumption, driver changes, kart night time identification, driver total weight (me and another team mate each lost 10+lbs over a months time to bring down total team weight yet we were still over by 30 lbs) and a completely different strategy if we were to get a slower than average kart (Which did happen). Plan for the worse, hope for the best right? I know I asked alot of questions about the rules and what would be allowed, at times I'm sure it was a bit much but I wanted to be prepared. I knew back then that the rules were going to be a last minute decision along with the night as a whole. I say I thought I knew how it was going to unfold and for the most part it was exactly as I expected.

      We drew kart numbers which also served as our starting position for the race. Being that I knew each and every kart at DKC after running in 160 rental races drawing kart 5 was like getting a ticket straight to last place. Hope for the best right? We started the race with good spirits and after a short 30 minutes took the lead. Its a lot less stressful in 2nd place it turns out. We didn't have the fastest kart on the track which meant we didn't turn the fastest laps that we were accustomed to on a weekly basis. All this meant for us is that we had to work harder to maintain our lead which we did with the fastest pit stops and not one single mistake on the track. We ended up being the only team to not have a kart failure which in the end proved very valuable.

      At the half way point we were only 58 seconds ahead of 2nd place after 98 laps. Restarting after the mandatory break we had to pit and change drivers three more times. What that meant to us was a time loss of at the very least 35 seconds. With a very slim lead over second place we needed all the help we could get. Another hour passes and its time for me to get into the kart for the final hour. At this point we are 18 seconds ahead of second place with no more pit stops needed. Second place still had to make two more to change drivers. All I had to do was run consistent mid 72 second laps and we would be set to win. Not a problem at all I thought. After a successful hour in the kart without a single problem the white flag was waived. One lap left? Piece of cake! When I came around for the checker it was waived long before I saw the flag man. Ummm? Not good news at all.

      I make my cool down lap without that per-ma grin anywhere to be found. Much to my surprise the flag was handed to a kart that I knew started the second half of the race in LAST place. What the ? Pulling into the pits was not rewarded with smiles and high fives. It was met with a comment by one of my team mates "you are going to be very pissed off". Well it turns out that one team was given a dump truck load of favoritism which in turn completely screwed the other 10 teams. Some how IheartVTEC talked Kevin into putting their "lost" lap times into the system and setting them up in first place without anyway of getting beat. This is a team that at the half way mark had a fastest lap time of 1:13.6. Not average but fastest. That was a full 3 seconds slower than the fastest of the night and slowest of ANY team! Last place seems fitting for the slowest team right? Not if you can talk your way into first place. Driving your team into first place seemed too much of a challenge. Talking is far easier. They went with talking, everyone else tried the driving route. Who ended up in 1st? The talkers.

      How could this happen? Its very simple actually. You see Kevin Adds at this point had been drinking Vodka Redbull for the past 5 hours. Kevin apparently could be talked into anything. Anything except putting IheartVTEC back where they belonged at the bottom. There was NO way anyone was going to change his mind and if you continued to try you were met with "f@#k you", "I dont care what you think" and "i dont care if you ever come back" an d the order to remove yourself from the property or you would be locked out for good. That actually happened to three of our team mates while trying to reason with Kevin on his mistake.

      At the end of the night while awards were handed out I asked Kevin to explain to me what happened. Now if you were there and watched this happen you know how it turned out. Kevin's answer in no way explained how a last place team could jump into first and win the race. Kevin offered to talk it over outside away from the crowd and I quickly declined. I was not going to have him tell me he made a mistake unless he was willing to say it in front of everyone. I could see it in IheartVTEC's eyes they knew they did not deserve 1st place but that didn't stop them from taking the prizes. Out of all the teams that had kart failure only ONE team was awarded laps due to kart failure. That team just so happened to get enough laps to win. Their fastest recorded lap time? 15.6 seconds. Next fastest lap time? 70.6 seconds. Who can miss a mistake like that? Its easy to miss if you ignore it and simply want to shut the lights off and go home. After having several people approach me and express their frustration with the ending I was ready to leave DKC empty handed. Since October the 4th we had winning this enduro on our mind was was determined to be victourious. We did execute our plan with precision and are damn proud of it. This was not the most expensive lesson ive ever had but it left a mark I wont soon forget. You dont get far in life making the same mistake over and over.

      Next time you are at DKC dont expect to see the racer name Sam88Gta1 in the same race as you. All good things have to come to an end. I had a lot of fun at DKC but I do not tollerate blatent disrespect from a drunk business owner.
      I was there at the "awards ceremony" when this guy asked the owner Kevin "How can that team have won?!" He pointed out that their average lap times were slower than most teams, especially his. He was loudly hushed by Kevin, and they steam rolled right over him, giving the best prizes to the very team that didn't deserve them.

      Not good way to thank one of your best customers. Wow, and I thought we got screwed with a few missed laps? This is definitely a big black eye for DKC.


      See more here:

      http://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/9159...#entry21242294
      Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
      2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
      EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: DKC's first 4 hour Karting Enduro

        Damn, it is my IRON ROCK (karting place in Austin) ENDURO all over again!!

        Sorry you guys had the timing thing SCREW OVER the whole experience. You are entirely correct that a CHIEF STEWARD who was impartial and independent would have been the right thing to have!!

        Ug....Ill go out for practice still, but I may let them do another one and see how it goes before I commit to doing one.

        Thanks for the info!

        NO CENSORSHIP, y0!!!

        Costas
        cars and such...

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: DKC's first 4 hour Karting Enduro

          Terry I was the customer that posted that on DKC's Facebook page. Being that i've ran 161 rental races at DKC I am/was without a doubt their best rental customer. Not to mention the $500 Bell Helmet , $485 in racing gear and the $435 in GoPro items I purchased over a 5 mounth time peroid. Our four member team are the top four RPM points leaders. We have ran a combined total of 368 rental races. One of our team members just purchased a $7k kart from DKC two weeks before the enduro. When Kevin hushed me and failed to give a valid reason for the "time adjustment" I knew it would get ugly in the next few days. We spent many days at DKC watching Kevin and the employees drinking on the job and most nights leaving the complex inebriated. It was no surprise to me that after five hours of drinking Kevin handled the situation like he did. Kevin is a self-centered ,egotistical ,arrogant prick that will NOT admit wrong doing in this matter. On the Thursday after the race Kevin told the employees of DKC that the problem was not to be talked about and that it will go away.
          I am no longer able to post comments on their Facebook page. Good thing I have friends who took care of that for me and spread the word around the internet about the disrespect we recieved that night at DKC.
          I dont know if you were still around when I gave all of our gift cards and Redbull away. The second place (third place) guys ended up with the DKC gift cards. I hope they gave their prizes to the third place (fourth place) team like I asked.
          BTW I have know Ryan for quite a few years. I didnt know until very recently he went to work for you. .
          Last edited by Sam88gta1; 12-25-2011, 02:49 PM.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: DKC's first 4 hour Karting Enduro

            Sam,

            Thanks for writing this here and elsewhere - I'm glad that you are standing up to this nonsense from the enduro. It sucks how they treated you guys, their best customers, at that event. Nobody that paid their $500 entry was happy about the results situation except the team that was gifted the win, but you guys earned it. I've raised a stink about it online, and hope you don't mind me quoting your old FB post here. This story needs to be shared with anyone that might do any future DKC enduro. I keep writing "DKC Enduro" "DKC Enduro" "DKC Enduro" here so that this thread shows up in Google searches, too.

            We were pretty far down in the running order (we think we lost 2 of our laps, but that doesn't mater anymore), but I still cannot stand shenanigans like this - especially when real prizes and a good chunk of entry fee money is on the line ($5500). I personally may never return to DKC after this fiasco, which sucks, because it was a LOT of fun going with friends, large groups, and with the two Vorshlag Karting Challenge events we sponsored there.

            Now that Jared is back from his wedding trip maybe he can un-screw this mess, but I doubt it. Just cannot see giving more money to those guys after what they pulled. Maybe if they hired an outside individual or group of semi-professionals to run their enduros then they have a chance at redeeming themselves, but I do not know if certain egos will allow that.

            DKC has such a nice track and facility - what a waste.


            Pole Position Raceway Now Open in Dallas/Frisco

            Pole Position Raceway is now open in Frisco, Texas, just outside of Dallas. The high-performance indoor kart track is located at 10550 John W. Elliot, Suite 100, Frisco, TX 75033.

            This is the seventh indoor speedway Pole Position Raceway has opened since 2005. The all-new race track is a 50,000-square-foot, climate-controlled entertainment experience filled with exclusive racing memorabilia, state-of-the-art video games, and HD televisions scattered throughout for continuous sports viewing. Most importantly, the facility will also use the company’s state-of-the-art Italian-made, ECO-friendly electric karts. NASCAR Champion Kurt Busch, Supercross Champions Jeremy McGrath and Chad Reed along with ESPN/ABC personality Jamie Little, and X-Games FMX star Mike Metzger are among the celebrities involved with the Pole Position Raceway brand.
            Some of my team members from the enduro went and tried out the new indoor karting track, and unfortunately it seems like it has its own potential shenanigans to contend with. Apparently they can slow your kart down remotely, and with two of the owner's sons working there, and driving on track at the same time as customers, some fishy things were already going on. And they are electric karts, which limits the potential for endurance racing there (they talk about enduros on their website). I'll go check out the new place anyway - its closer to me than DKC.




            Yea, Ryan said he knew you - its a small world. Says you do a lot of LS1 tuning? That's good to know - we are doing a lot of LS1 swaps into BMWs and might be calling you next time we need some tuning/VATS unlock work done.
            Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
            2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
            EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

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