Bonjour,
We made it back home and I am stuck on Euro time, so I thought I would fill you in a little about Monaco.
Monaco it self is amazing, the buildings go straight up in the air, and have a classy Euro look. The roads in Europe were crazy. Most people had scooters they drove, and would weave through the cars as if they were on a sloulmn course. It was fun to watch laidies as old as my grandma fly past me on the bus. And the busses, you better watch out, they wont stop for anyone and spend more time on two wheels than four. Everybody dresses in high fashion Euro clothes, so I was screaming Americano loud with my wear. And the glares I got make you feel
un-welcome.
At the airport in Nice France, Sam, Eve his lovley girlfriend and I got off the longest flight of our lives. We were out of it, as we had been up now for 24 hrs and needed some rest. Waiting at the airport for Jack and his wife Carla to pick us up. (they were already in Monaco for a day) We go and get a coffee that cost 18 Euro for three, that took two gulps to finish. Now hyped up on cappuccino, we have waited for Jack for 1 hr, who still is missing. So now we go on a cab ride to Monaco, 20 min drive that costs 90 euro, so we start to understand how expensive this place is for us Americans. At the Hotel we checked in to find out Jack has left a message for Sam,
SAM, CARLA AND I WERE ROBBED, THEY GOT OUR PASSPORTS AND MY CIK LICENSE. I AM TRYING TO GET A NEW CIK LICENSE. MEET YOU AT 18:00 IN THE LOBBY. JACK,CARLA
After the shock wore off, and we were thinking what if it happend like this or that (thinking the worst of course). We started laughing loudly, as he was more worried about his CIK license than his passport. It is about noon so we decide to stay awake the rest of the day so we can get a good rest tonight and get adjusted to Euro time.
We jump on a bus and go into the town to find the track already built and everybody driving on it, it really is through the streets of Monaco. We jump off the bus to check out the track, we see them building a bridge with a 15ft transfer from street to street. At first look we thought this was going to be nuts, the chacaine that we could see was 500ft back, so the speed was going to be fast. We later learned that this was the chacaine after the famous La Rascauss sweeper leading on to the bridge straight, where they added one more chacaine to slow them down, over the bridge down a long strait in to a hairpin. Around the hairpin into a flat out chacaine, down a short shoot around the pool (were it was hard to find anyone with a top on) into the hardest breaking zone. (with our pits 5ft off the track, straight in front of the breaking zone), into a right and left around our pit in to one more short shoot and another chacaine. Then into the famouse La Rascass sweeper back to the bridge.
So now its getting time to meet Jack, we head back to the hotel eager to here his story about his day.
We meet up and head for a restaurant called “The Beef Bar”. Jack who speaks French gets us a table and we sit down. Looking at our menu in French we start to ask alot of questions, our waiter then realizes we are American and gives us a menu in English. After looking for a moment we see the prices are twice as much, and the selection is not the same. Jack at this point is steaming as he has not had a meal today and begins to tell us about the robbery.
“When we rented the car they give you a GPS, well the damn thing tells you to go left in french, and right in english and always a block too late. So we took the right and of course find our self in the bad part of Nice. We stop at a stop light bumper to bumper, and the next thing I see is a guy open Carla’s door and try to grab the GPS system out of her hands. I yell with the deepest voice I can and get two fingers on his shirt. He lunges back and a second guy opens the back door and grabes the GPS box and runs, which is empty, and the first guy swipes my fanny pack off Carlas lap and takes off running. I throw the car in park and chase after him. He circles me around a couple of blocks and I start to catch him. You can see the fear in his eyes as he is wearing down, he leads me down an ally into a apartment building and stops at the gate. This is were I realize he has friends here and it is going to get ugly, plus Carla is sitting in the car in the middle of the street. I run back to the car to get Carla and find the police. To our amazment the police station is 1 block away so we go there. We go in and tell them we have been robbed, they say ” yes we know, we heard you calling for help” OK, well I know where he is lets go get him. ” sorry sir, we dont go into there, they shoot at us from the balconies, you will have to go to the US conciere to get a new passport” Frustrated and they wont even let us use the phone, we go to the airport to see if you are still there. After a hour of looking for you we head off to make sure I can still race this weekend, and file for new passports.
Sam of course has to dig a little ” Jack, you wont drive around Longmont with your doors unlocked, why in all places were your doors unlocked”
Jacks reply in a smug but embarrest voice ” it wasnt until after the robbery we found where to lock the doors” “
After a few bottles of wine and the best dinner I have ever had, we joked about our day and realized we were racing in Monaco. And we were not going to let the Frenchies bring us down. So we headed back to the hotel for a good night rest.
The next day we walked around Monaco, the entire country in one day. And tried to blend in as much as possable. Took in all the sights, and went to the castle built on the cliffs. This is were they would go during war, there was only one way up, so they could fight the enemy. There was a whole city up their, with all the buildings built thousands of years ago that were 10-12 stories high. And the roads were small. (like sidewalks) With little shops and houses on top. Cloths strung across from building to building. Makes you appreciate America.
We headed back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of the team. Had a good dinner, and went to bed. We had meet at the track to build our karts at 8:00, and the jet lag was setting in.
The next day we arrive to the track to find none of our stuff here yet. Ricks tools have not made the trip. For some reason thay were a day late. Brad made a few calls and we found out it would be 2:00 before the chassis would arrive. So we sat next to the pool, had some cappuccino and took in the sights. Biland and Swiss Hutless make it to the track about 1:00. We unload our chassis and motors and prepare to build 5 chassis before night set in. This was not easy as we had 10 people using 3 sets of tools, so you spent more time looking for tools than we did building the karts. But we all worked as a team and were able to have them done just after night fell. We headed back to the hotel for dinner and bed, excited about tomarow.
This is when it got crazy, the on track testing is aggressive, as our team got up to speed we spent alot of time replacing tie rods and stearing shafts. Which was not a problem today as we had lots of time between sessions. By the end of the day Kyle and Mark were near the top ten.
Saturday it was time for two timed sessions, 2.5 sets of tires to make last through all of practice, 20 min timed sessions, 16 lap heat race,16 lap pre final, 32 lap final. We had very little time between sessions, so we all were thrashing to get every body fixed, as one of them would come in on the truck after every on-track session. By the end of qualifiying Kyle sat 6th, and Marc was 10th with Roman 15th ( the only one with out front brakes, his on board footage is amazing. He drove his ass off) and Sam, Jack, Seth not to far behind. We all fixed our karts and went back to the hotel.
Race day started early, as morning practice was at 8:30, the sun was barley up, and of course one came in on the truck, so we started thrashing
early. The first heat race Kyle got taken out and had to replace the front of the kart, and Marc had a run up to 9th. Jack’s motor blew up so we had to throw a new one on, Sam and Roman got a tie rod and spindle. All this and only 1 hr to fix.
Pre final– Kyle and Marc had top 10 runs, Sam got ran over taking out the motor, Jack’s chassis bottomed out and snapped tie rods putting him in the barriers. Roman breaking as deep with only front brakes hit the wall, and Seth got put in the barriers taking out his front end. So once again we as a team got all the karts put back together for the main. Lucky there was a 2hr endurance race before us.
The final, turn one Marc gets hit from behind, goes over the kart in front of him strait into the barriers ending his day. Jacks front hub falls off putting him in the barriers hard in the La Rascass sweeper ending his day. Kyle had a run up to 6th getting alot of TV coverage. And Roman,Sam and Seth got slowed down in the turn one crash, so the leader was able to slowly lap them.
All in all, it was a great experience, Lucy had us looking sharp, and all the Magazines were all over us. We got lots of TV coverage, and on Sunday the locals were treating us with respect. And for the new four stroke class, I am a big fan.
Thank you to Brad, Pete, Sam, and Jack for making this experience happen for me.
NEXT YEAR WE’LL DRIVE GP KARTS.
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