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I have over 300 pictures of the race, Roman has helmet cam of all of it. Then there are the pictures we can’t show on this web site (women tanning the twins)!!!
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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@GP Racing/Kart Works wrote:
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.
To our amazment
“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” [/i]
And NOW you know why I (still) have no use for frogs, err french…
This just reinforces what I’ve already encountered myself
Nothing about the french should amaze humanity. Is this politically correct to say? Who cares the truth will set you free….
You want to go to an amazing country with beautiful and friendly people, go to Spain and see the Mediterranean coastal towns.AJ, it sounds like a priceless memory. Thanks for your time sharing it with us.
Wow, what a story, AJ! Sounds like you guys need a vacation from your vacation! :loony:
Sounds like an amazing experience, priceless for sure! I can’t wait to see all the pics and video! Glad to hear that everyone did pretty well, too! And big congrats to Kyle for running so well! Way to show them how us Americans can drive, everyone! :usa: :cheers:
Now, I hear that some pretty decent drivers have graced this event in the past…a couple guys named ‘Schumacher’, ‘Alonso’, and ‘Liuzzi’ have done it. Anyone worthy of mention this year? 8)
AJ…………..I told you guys you should have taken me along! The price just went up for next year.
Mike “FROGG HUNTER” Edwards 👿
Some Pictures from Rick Schmidt… (thanks for sharing Rick!)
(click on the pictures to see them BIG)
Track Support
Everyone Thrashing
Finished painting Roman’s helmet the night before
View from our tent
LaRascasseMore pictures from Rick. Will have some of Brad’s pictures here, soon.
Kyle Ray
Grid
Marc Elliott
Thrashing again
Hairpin
Kyle
It’s nice to know everyone has carnage
Rick’s familyJust now getting back to normal, traveling to Monaco had no affect on me whatsoever. Coming back on the other hand totally kicked my butt. Seems to be wearing off each day.
A.J. hit the nail on the head regarding the bus drivers! It was wild as we worked our way down the highway, our driver would barely clear a vehicle with his front tire then just abruptly change lanes. It was a blast, we were going to put the helmets on and hold on. Then we get to the city and it was even more impressive riding down narrow streets with the driver throwing this thing around narrowly missing anything in his path. Couldn’t believe it and still don’t.
This was an experience that is hard to put in words for sure. The evening we finished assembling our machines (Thurs) I turned and looked around a little and was totally blown away by the beauty of this place. It is everything you see and hear and more, lit up at night, it just doesn’t look real.
They don’t race the same over there. The driving is aggressive and the pressure relentless. They do not throw a black flag unless you are lapped by the leader, then it is to remove a driver from competition and directly to the pits. They run on a schedule that is exact, the track personel are precision and dedicated to efficient performance (most wear fighter pilot type helmets with 2 way communication). An example: there was a kart damaged from an incident in the 6 hour endurance race, it ended up in the infield portion of the hairpin. The workers (at least eight) created a snake with yellow flags and ran across the track getting the machine in a position so the crew could get it back to the pits to continue racing. It was an amazing orchestration. There are mobile rescue teams staged around the circuit in their rescue gear with the rescue vehicle idling as long as there are racers on track. There are doctors, not just in a medical station but staged at critical areas around the facility, equipped and very serious about what they do. The security will not let you access the paddock without credentials. They clear the track with some very cool small trucks that hold 2 karts and the driver sits in his / her kart and holds the brakes for the ride back (don’t ask me how I know so much about this) Before each a group is sent on course, they have a small convoy of official vehicles complete the circuit to approve the track going hot.
There was a scrutineer that was in the four stroke pit and he did not miss a thing. He would on the other hand, tell you something needed to be addressed. (he also loved Heiniken, we hooked him up) They hold the top 5 karts from each session and perform a very thorough post session inspection. (it was great seeing Kyle being held there)
The other racers started warming up to us after they realized we were there to race them and had a little something under the hood. It is cool understanding someone you can’t talk to. Most of the drivers were very small (120 – 150 lbs) and seem to have many years of seat time. You can just tell. I was very proud of all of our drivers. The track is very deceiving with barriers lining the entire circuit, depth perception is challenging, braking zones difficult to located and repeat consistenly. Most every corner is blind as well. Our team did a commedable job of adapting to this type of racing circuit with ZERO tolerance to error.
We worked the officials to let Roman run the helmet cam and at first it was an absolute no (Cik). After a while they asked if they could have a copy for their website if we were to be allowed to run it in practice. We said sure and showed them what we had filmed at the end of the day. They liked it very much and waived us to use it for competition for the weekend. The TV and filming was awesome but, they had no onboard. I will hook them up with some very good onboard. Roman hit the barriers so hard it nearly knocked him out, his head was drifting around and you could see the track crew with their arms crossed, a few seconds later you see him look at the left spindle then the right spindle, then points to the track crew he wants to go, gets out swings the kart around and takes off. It is awesome and it is all preseved. I was blown away by Romans kart control. We did not think front brakes were going to be allowed and a week before the event they were offered. We passed. Upon arriving, we noticed everyone had front brakes, we decided we needed them too but there just wasn’t enough to go around. He was at the edge of control in every braking zone and if he missed a little, he would be passed under braking. How he could be this close to the edge in every brake zone for the entire weekend and only loose it once, impressed me. He mixed it up most of the weekend with Giorgio Panini (I know Jansen, can’t seem to remember it right) former Jordan driver and current Touring Car driver (who had front brakes and was 30 40 lbs lighter) it was great.
They had a bad a$$ sound system playing Pink Floyd while we were practicing on friday. You could hear it everywhere in the race track and vicinity. Also the announcer’s did an incredible job. Even the one who spoke french, and if you don’t understand the language , you could not help but get excited. And the english announcer was nearly as good. They came around and got profiles from all the drivers and used this information to it’s fullest extent. They made the racers seem like stars over there.
Equally impressive is the way the mechanics worked together, there were times when every machine needed something. All swung into action and rebuilt front ends, made engine swaps, tuning changes etc… All this out of a very modest set of tools. (in fact my tools are slightly more modest than when I got there) The Germans were fun too. They know their stuff and had great humor as well being pretty good at putting a beer away. Also glad to get out of there with the boys in one piece (the legal drinking age is 18 after all!)
I think all of the drivers came home better drivers. We would like to thank Brad and Pete for the support and oppurtunity. Sam and Jack for helping support A.J. enabling him to be there for ALL of us. He did a great job of supporting all racers just as he has done the entire year. I’m only sorry we didn’t think earlier to have him put on somebodies driving gear and get some laps. I grew up racing and have to say, this was as good or better organized than any race I can remember. We just had fun!
I’ll post some more pics and maybe a video sample when able.
Rick
Great write up and pics. I can’t wait to see some video. Rick can you or the drivers post some feedback about the motors? Did one seem to be stronger than the other two types, etc.? Did the drivers have a preference? Reliability problems? Positives?
Is anyone from Colorado going to the Dubai round of this series? Blink?
Kirk,
The motors are very, very even. I think it was Biland #1 Oral #2 Biland #3 oral #4. All of the motors are very strong and seem to have simular torque curves. These aren’t you “fathers motors” like the commercial said. You should hear them screaming into the braking zone. Amazing!
We never paid much attention to 4 strokes, love the Briggs classes but Ronnie and a few others seem to run them with success. We are now very interested in them. Excellent power delivery, low maintanence etc…
Hopefully if we do run these next year, we won’t have the “this track favors this and that track favors that motor” as much as we do in the 2-strokes.
We certainly aren’t giving up on 2-strokes and plan to keep running what we have, but are looking for good quality performance and low maintanece seat time next year and this might scratch the itch very nicely.
Rick
Hi Rick,
Looks you all had a great time. I can’t wait to see your videos.
I think you were referring to Giorgio Pantano. It’s pretty impressive that Roman can run with a driver of that caliber.
Charles
BLACK FLAGGED if passed by the leader? Oh no better not put that on here. Not fair they paid there money too. Not getting to race the whole race??? I won’t participate!! ha ha ha
Brian Moore
P.S. Noticed they must not make allowances for fat American drivers is that true? Or did those lightweight drivers have to add lead?
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