IKWC 2008 - Perspective view from driver Diego Morales - Team Formula Americas

0.432 seconds in the 1st race
0.000 seconds in the 2nd race (Fastest time in the world for the day!!)
0.552 seconds in the 3rd race
0.425 seconds in the 4th race
0.337 seconds in the Final Grand Prix

That my friends, is what separates you (actually me, in this case) from being the fastest driver in a race in this bloody competitive world indoor kart racing. Every field in every race was separated by less than 1 second from the slowest fast guy to the fastest for over 55 minutes on the long tracks and for 1 ½ hours in the Final Grand Prix. The atmosphere is almost what I would describe as a World Championship 15 round feather weight boxing match with dizzying flashes going off all the time both on and off the track from the media presence and fans cheering you on through each battle.

Worldkarts Flanders Indoor Karting was our home for several days and you really got to know Analees (race coordinator), who hunted you down to make sure you didn’t miss your race call or driver meeting… or Kristof Goethals (the charismatic race director), who was more like a father figure to you then a referee, you did as you were told or else!... Plus untold waitresses that helped quench your thirst with a ridiculously priced large bottle of water made from the heaviest glass in the world, while attempting to charm them just enough so you could get more than the 1 token piece of ice cube in your cup... For Christ's sake, you would say, it was raining cats and dogs, they can’t be having a water problem! Food-wise though, I have to say they do serve a mean spaghetti (and it really helped that I whoofed down a whole plate of it just in time for my weigh-in… The Belgians took note and where extremely jealous). And then the poor hunchback gentleman who ran the final lollipop of every race, kept his mindful watch on you without missing a beat. There was the guy who drove the double flagged pace kart with full communication gear in every race that almost always forced you to drive at negative miles per hour for 2 or 3 bloody laps… I never spent so much time avoiding collisions and spin-outs in my entire karting career like this week at Worldkarts. And finally the corner workers, who could see your eyes, read your mind, and for the most part really did not tolerate any shenanigans on track, you always knew when they were watching you, and the furrowed black flag hung menacingly from their penetrating looks for laps at time.

The whole place feels like a 70’s / 80’s night club, a huge warehouse that you need serious GPS to find…Because of construction going on in that neighborhood of Kortrijk, the first 2 nights my hotel was literally almost walking distance from the track, I just had to walk across a bridge on a water way that separated the two, but in order to drive there it took 20 minutes (not kidding!!). In both directions you had to get on a freeway going the wrong way so that you could turn around and go the other way because there was just no way to go the right way (crazy!). The warehouse could have easily been a discotheque with old school music, strong Belgium beer, and old Belgian ladies blowing huge billows of fresh tobacco right into your face as you come off the track gasping for fresh air…that part really sucked and probably has taken a few years off my life.

The karts were nothing short of mini versions of Formula 1 cars for indoor karting… I spent a lot of time analyzing the way they were constructed: not a single piece of aluminum or steel tubing…. just a very expensive looking carbon fiber "sled" that meant two things: the karts are never bent and they are extremely light. They must flex with amazing accuracy too… they felt that way around corners. I have to say they almost drove clinically, since it was not the karts inefficiencies you were trying to correct… it was your own un-perfect driving that needed correcting. The other feature is that since they used super-duper grippy Dunlop tires, and the track was made of finely smoothed over asphalt combined with years of sticky rubber, made it incredibly easy to lift your fellow karter and potentially flip them over if you bumped them too hard from behind or when entering a corner. Due to the Formula 1 like G’s in the tight turns, the rear axle would just pop right up because the grip was so high. So if you can imagine, you have to drive insanely close to your competitor and yet not hit or bump them too hard 'cause it would send them flying in plain view of everyone, and especially the track marshals who were salivating to give you an orange stop and go penalty… no leniency on that whatsoever. So you had your brake foot trigger happy anytime you were in the hunt of a pack. Next, you had those wonderful launch barriers (flexi-track) in every goddamn corner of the track… you really learn to respect those things. For me, in the bridge section I came around too hot and got about a foot up in the air and nailed the wall so hard it rearranged the organs in my body after landing… I never did that again. The last and probably most unfair aspect of the karts for skinny guys was the wideness of the seats: very large with almost no side support…Worldkarts must have a lot of obese customers?? The locals were prepared, and almost every single Belgian driver had their very own private Tillet seat… and I am not talking about inserts, I mean the actual kart seats that coupled with a bit of padding would give you incredible lateral support. Trust me, I begged and pleaded, and got Blue Star’s angel driver Justine Vanwynsberghe to lend me hers for most of the races, otherwise I would still be in a hospital in Belgium trying to recover from muscle hernias from just trying to hold myself into those damn wide seats.

The start of every race was a big spectacle of intimidation and religious fanaticism for the blessed gods of karting to bestow a good kart on you during the kart draw. The look on people’s faces was extreme before the draw, and even more dramatic afterwards. I liked the new rules of not allowing you to have the same kart twice throughout the entire event. If you got lucky and scored a fast kart it was both good and bad, good cause you would do well but bad because you knew you would never get that kart again, not even in the Final Grand Prix!

The first race of the entire event was the Nations Cup race, and I really got excited when Mike told me that 2005 World Champion Werner Truegler had asked to be on our team…I almost fell out of my seat. I didn’t care much about the Nations Cup race until that moment, and then had some wild crazy idea that perhaps we could actually win the damn thing!! Well, as you all probably know by now, we didn’t win, and that was in part due to some rogue Brazilian driver that felt his right foot should never leave the fully planted position even after pushing our driver 10 feet into a barrier, and consequently putting us a lap down from the get go. I will always remember this: the first aborted start of the Nations Cup endurance race was uncannily similar to that famous Formula 1 race in Spa in the rain a few years back (you know the one that is on youtube, and has a 16 car crash derby on the opening lap with parts flying in every direction). Well, image the same thing in an indoor karting facility…It was mayhem, and I was standing right in front of it with a camera…What a sight that was! So that is how things started, but believe it or not, that was the only major hiccup the entire time we were there. Big kudos to the Worldkarts guys for running a heck of a good show.

As far as my particular experience went, well... I have to start by saying that it was an incredibly weird experience start with. Imagine driving up to the departure terminal at Tom Bradley Airport and an earthquake hits just as you were getting ready to stop by the curb to drop off your bags…Well that's what happened! Bizarre thing to kick off my trip that way and the funny part was that I had no clue how big or how bad the earthquake damage was until almost 4 days afterwards because I could not understand a thing the news channels were saying about it in Belgium… Doooh! Secondly, I find out that the day before Lufthansa workers decided to have a labor strike and all their flights were being diverted into Germany… Great... But, for some reason we were not affected... luckily, we made it to Belgium with no problem.

Let’s start with the Nations Cup on Friday August 1st. For me, that was the worst race. I had severe jet lag and could only sleep like 45 minutes during the night before, not to mention the broken air conditioning in our hotel room during what I can only describe as the monsoon season in Belgium. Imagine the same heat as in Phoenix, but with Louisiana style humidity… Practicing and racing in these first few days was insane! We all basically put our suits aside and practiced in shorts and T-shirts. For me (back to the Nations Cup race), once we had gone so far down in the standings as to not make it viable for a podium, I just got in, did my stint and prayed for the end to come quick, as my lack of sleep made me drive like I was drunk… Not fun. Plus, I had to immediately jump out of the kart, throw on some clothes, race to a different airport in Belgium than the one we had flown into, and race to catch a plan to Budapest (that's in Hungary...) There I met with my brother's family whom I had not seen in 2 years, and had a very nice dinner. Then hung out with my bro until 4:30 in the morning reveling in the Hungarian night life…. Crazy, and in retrospect I will never do this again!

Anyway, fast-forward to Monday for practice, drivers meeting and individual qualifying in the fast karts. I had a blast meeting the young British drivers and getting to know the Italians who barely spoke English, but we somehow managed to carry on big dialogues... very funny guys. The one guy from Japan was really a great guy. He gave me a present for Sophie (my 6 month old daughter) and didn’t even know that she was part Japanese!! He thought that was really cool once I told him. Also, hanging out with Team Blue Star was the best part of being in Belgium. In hindsight, having spent so much time with Gregory and knowing he is now World Champion was a really great experience, plus all the Blue Star team members like Steven, Nico, Timothy, and Justine. They are all such great and friendly people. Also, for the team championship Mike and I were courted by Sebastiaan Circkens to take on one of the Dutch hot shoes Jeroen, who was the coolest kid, did really well in his races, and represented our team in the Light Class with great honor. Part of the going to these events that I like so much is meeting and re-meeting all these folks from around the globe. It’s fascinating to know that they share the same passion we do for our sport and we can spend hours talking about it in different languages and not even notice. Great stuff! After the weigh-in we were told that the original rules for weight classes would stay since the natural division of Heavy and Light drivers was about 50/50… That meant I would be in Heavy and not Light like I had planned…. In hindsight, I am very relieved that happened… The Light Class was mainly full of young kids and I had no business being in that class, thank God!

All throughout the time we were there, as the two American teams (us and Team GO FAST Energy Drink) it really was a solidarity around our small group…Mike Smith, fast as hell and my teammate, as always a gentleman, and this time he was totally going out of his mind with helping run the damn thing… What was he thinking! He really makes racing a truly enjoyable experience. James Romero whom I had talked to over the phone for months (but never met), was a really cool guy to hang out with. He was always cheering and pitting for the other drivers, a class act guy with a great temperament and funny jokes to help take the edge off…Plus he is one fast racer, no doubt. I got to spend time getting to know Dan Burke and the Godfreys, both son and dad, which was actually very similar to my dad being there for me, so that was cool. And Zak…well what can I say about him other than we actually had a few laughs, and once again he proved that obeying the rules is really not one of his strengths… Poor guy, in reality I think he means well but just has a tough time with the pressures from his dad. Anyway, we all supported each other whenever we could, a lot of our races were in the same group so it was tough, but we always had someone giving guidance from the pits and cheering our small teams on.

During my Nations Cup race I tried to use my timing system and I was so sleep deprived that I had actually mounted the beacon sideways… No wonder it was giving off weird readings!! Well, I caught that on Monday and now my timing system was working like a charm…only guy out there with that advantage…investment paid off in huge dividends! After some guys got world of it, it pretty much ran almost in every heat within our close friends, like James and the Spanish fellow from Belgium.

Qualifying was mostly uneventful for me, drew a decent kart (#2), and qualified mid pack right behind my soon to be nemesis (Masters winner) Pablo Marlangeon. He was going to be hard to battle is what I thought, since he was fast and extremely consistent. Turns out we are both 40 years old and the youngest of the Masters... figures right? Anyway I was good to go and ready for battle. Temperatures were finally going to drop that night with a big rain storm expected overnight.

First race:

Luck was on my side (only for a while) as I drew kart #1 in my first heat. The Belgian Ruben Boutens in my group turned to me and said “you lucky bastard!”… Well, turns out it was a rocket of a kart, not in a Dromo 1 sort of a way, or even in the kart #7 at Phoenix 2007 sort of a way, but rather in more of a 1/100th of a second sort of a way, with solid torque coming out of the corners. My race was last on the roster, so tons of waiting around anxiously for the race to start. We were running backwards on a short track for this first race… I did not have that much experience going this way but I had qualified the day before well enough to, worst case scenario, just hold my position (would have been really nice but... NOT!). I made the lethal mistake, not having experienced the start of the race in the Nations Cup, to make an attempt to pull out of the nose-to-tail pack of karts to try to overtake for 5th , and instead when the pass failed, I had a Nascar train of karts pass me in one curve putting me back to like 11th or 12th... I then got held up and decided it was good time to pit….what a disaster that was. The whole point of these shorter ½ races on short tracks was to stay in the pack, gain the advantage of the blue flags and strategically wait to pit in the later part of the race when it made more sense. Then I spent the rest of the race behind a driver from the Hungarian team who was driving like an idiot and pretty much decided that he would not let anyone get around him even when the black flag was eminent. He ended up spinning out another driver and I got around both of them. But by then the damage was done and I could not recover any more positions. That was my first race, great kart selection, big mistake in the start, bigger mistake in pulling off to go do my pit stop, and a disappointing 10th place result with what should have been a solid top 5 finish…oh well, you live and you learn, kick your ass into high gear, and get down to business for the next one.

2nd Race:

The Gods of karting were shinning on me with the selection of kart #26. This was such a good horse, really handled great, torqued out of the corners and had the equivalent of what I would call top end punch. My race again was at the end of the roster, so more waiting. This was the only race where you would not qualify prior to but instead would start in the position your best time was in the previous race…for me having had kart #1 put me in solid shape starting in 6th with a great kart. Boy did I learn my lesson. I stayed neatly in that pack until about ¾ of the race. As we were coming up on lap traffic, I jumped into the pits and made a solid lunge for 3rd place… I then lost that to the leader who had enough of a gap to pit and come out ahead of me putting me in 4th . Then, one of the fast Blue Star Belgium guys made a heroic pass on me with only like 10 laps to go… I almost got him back, but it was in those last few laps that I did that was one of the proudest moments for me in this event: I set the fastest lap of the entire day, and it would not be broken by and of the other heavy drivers! My time was so fast that it was even competitive with the Light Class having 40 pounds more than them on my kart! That ½ point you get for fastest lap sometimes can mean the difference in qualifying for the final (or winning the Championship as we would find out), so I took it with full honors and went to bed that night feeling pretty good about myself.

3rd Race:

First of the full 1 hour races… The weather was cooler, but again the tossing and turning from the excitement of the day before, plus one fussy baby in an un-airconditioned room made for less than optimal racing conditioning of my body. My race would be the 2nd race in the morning, and that meant my muscles form the night before were not quite up to racing that early. Can you believe I actually drew kart #1 again! I mean what are the chances!! Well... of course, I had to re-draw and then I drew kart #8, which is my favorite race number and whether or not the kart was good, it didn’t matter, I figured it would be fast and I drove it accordingly. I qualified poorly in 9th, whilst Mike Smith qualified behind me, he had a rough go with a crappy kart in this race. I kept to my plan and drove a strategically perfect race gaining two positions, yet having a slower best lap time than many guys behind me. I felt okay about the performance in that race knowing that if I had a better kart I would have been even higher in the standings. The current positions for the Masters Division had not been posted yet and I was a bit nervous as to my standings…then the results came out and Pablo Marlangeon and I were on top, 1st and 2nd with 6 points separating us. Close enough for the kill, I thought. Now on the other hand, I had been hovering around 24th in the overall World Championship standings, and then was 20th after this race… I went to Werner Truegler (who was doing the points calculations) and asked him what my chances were of getting into the final, and he said I was really 50/50. Based on the guys behind me, I had to do better than them in order to guarantee a spot. It was devastatingly nervous energy I felt because I had been in that exact same spot in Phoenix the year before only to be demoralized by not making the final… But I was determined, and all I needed was some luck in the karts to not run out and get a good rest and sleep well that night. It was time to seriously meditate and think like Senna... what would he do in this circumstances…heck, what would Patrick Long or Casey Rising do… All those thoughts were swirling around in my head all night long, but after a while it was not bothering me anymore, instead it was giving me some sort of inner strength, a very strange phenomenon.

4th Race:

I woke up this morning feeling like something big was going to happen that day. Had my usual breakfast downstairs next to the entire Belgian Talent Promotion teams... Yeah, go figure I would pick the same hotel as the top guys… No one else, just me and all 14 of them. It provided for some fun humor in the morning…something to take of the edge, I thought. This time, I drew kart #10 and my race was around noon. The day was hotter and it was humid again. I was lucky to not have to race in the afternoon when the heat was crazy hot again. Kart #10 turned out to be a pretty decent kart, and again, not only do you need luck but you really need to race with a solid strategy on this track where passing is a premium and hard to come by. Well, this time we would be racing on the slower A&D karts…I called them "the trucks", since the steering was at a weird angle making them so hard to steer. The strain on your arms was enormous…but fortunately all those days I drove out to California Speedway and did 1 hour long stints in the 95+ degree weather really paid off on this day. Plus, I was finally getting off the jet lag and really getting a better sleep at night. I qualified in 7th and my Masters nemesis Pablo qualified poorly…. A great chance to make up the deficit, so I drove harder than I drove in any other race. One great moment for me was following a pack so closely in the opening round that I could tell was going to be trouble… So I hung back waiting for the right moment to pounce. Then, the lead guy went wide and the other two guys tried to go around him on both sides…One hit the lead guy sending that guy into the other, and the net result was that in 1 full swoop I passed three guys right on the front straight in plane view of the crowd, it was epic! I finished a solid 5th in this race and was hoping Pablo had finished in the back. But I soon found out that I only made up three points, narrowing the gap to 3.5 points for the Masters Championship. More importantly, with my 5th place finish I new I had a good chance of making it into the Final Grand Prix race, which was my main objective this year. With unabated breath and tons of anxiety, I asked Werner if I made it into the Final, and he screamed “you made it!” and gave me a welcoming high five…. I was so happy!! My 2 agonizing years of missing the final (specially in 2007 by a three way tie for 26th ) was now going to be behind me, and I was going to race with the best in the world for 1 ½ hours…. I thought to myself…yikes!!!! Honestly it was a real emotional moment for me, all that effort you put in to training and practicing and psyching yourself up for the event, plus the time and money, was all finally worth it… I had made the final 20!!! It felt very surreal, and the highlight of my trip for sure.

Final Race

This race, believe it or not, was not the glorious final cap to a dramatic build-up that I would have hoped for... But it didn’t matter. I had made the final. Just being around the media fan-fare, and knowing that I was going to be called up for that final drivers meeting was so cool. There is something magical about getting that final day to race among your peers who all are there to watch you put on the final show. It was unforgettable in that way. Plus, you spend a tremendous amount of time waiting for your qualifying and then waiting for your race…it is a test of nerves as much as it is a test of your endurance and skill. Unfortunately, for the Masters Championship being that there were 20 of us and the points system as the same as the 15 field races, I would have to finish in 8th and Pablo would have to finish in 12th or worst for me to capture the Masters World Championship. Racing against a field of previous world champions, runner ups, and a plenty of super elite Belgium drivers, I was thinking at this point that a miracle would have to happen for me to get that opportunity, realistically. Could it have happened with a good kart? Most definitely yes, but my luck with karts had been so solid with only 1 exception that I figured it would be tough on the luck level…. Well, I guessed that one correctly, and drew a so-so kart for the final (#21). I had a fleeting moment during qualifying because I got paired up with Pablo and could keep his pace but that just goes to show you how perceptions at the World Championship can be so deceiving. I was only .233 seconds off of his time and that put me 6 positions away from him in the start… He started 10th and I started 16th! I could see the disappointment in the faces of my friends and family, but I knew that all I could do was try to hold out and see if something would happen The rest of the field all went crazy diving into the pits hoping to get a replacement kart… the only problem was that the replacements were all dogs too. I am really happy in retrospect that I didn’t swap karts….it would only have made the race that much more irritable. Instead, I hunkered down and did my best with what I had. Whenever the leaders would pass me I would try as hard as I could to stay with them. It was more of a challenge to do that then it was really racing against anyone in particular, and that is what kept me going for the grueling 1 ½ hours. Funny thing is that your body is not prepared to handle that extra ½ hour physically, it really is incremental in an exponential way. By the end I could barely hold the steering wheel with blisters forming in my palms and a huge hot spot had built up on my left hip, not to mention your neck felt like it was ready to snap! Once you saw that checkered flag you were so relieved, it was almost as good as sex. Pablo only finished 2 positions ahead of me. I had outlasted some and passed some others, but had gotten passed by the same to end up exactly where I had started…in 16th place.

It was bitter sweet, but in the end I knew inside myself that I had done my best against the best, and that was all that mattered. I had come very close to being Masters World Champion and in one race had been fastest driver of the day against the world champions… Not bad really, and that is how my experience at this years IKWC in Belgium felt like… PRICELESS!!

As a team, Mike, Jeroen and I took 6th place, Team Go Fast Energy Drink took 9th . Again, not bad considering there are 28 teams, and we narrowly edged out some past world champion teams, that was cool too. But for me, as I stood on that podium and took one breath and looked around at all those faces smiling and cheering as well as all those cameras flashing and took it all in, for a few seconds time stood still and then it was over. That’s how it is in racing and that is why we keep trying to do it again and again…to savor moments like that, its thrilling…its life…in the immortal words of Steve McQueen,”…everything else is just waiting around”

See you all in Brazil!

Diego Morales