While the summer starts to wind-down, and the rodeo scene heads into the homestretch, a completely different type of horsepower is tearing up Race City Motorsport Park on the south-east tip of Calgary.
Recently, the Allen Berg Racing School help a promotion for its race kart training program, which, for a hopeless motorsports addict like myself was a once in a lifetime chance to take to the track in a Cosworth-tuned kart.
Berg is one of only three Canadians who have graced the ranks of Formula One, the world’s premiere open wheel racing series, having driven with the Ostella team in 1986, against legends like Alain Prost and Aryton Senna.
He now runs a racing school out of Calgary, Edmonton and California, for both karts and open wheel formula cars.
On Aug 3, myself and City View reporter Trevor Bacque headed down to the track to try our hand in some very powerful racing machines.
After going through a brief information session concerning the safety and operation of the karts and safety equipment, we headed out to the staging area to meet Berg.
You never know what to expect when meeting someone who has been to the top of their specific field like Mr. Berg had, but in true Canadian style, he was extremely polite, without side stepping the important aspects of what we all were supposed to be doing.
We started with a 10-lap follow-the-leader session that saw a line of six karts, with Allen as the pied piper showing the group the racing line around the 1.1 kilometre track. Each driver had the chance to do two laps following the tire-tracks of the racing veteran, and when it was finally my turn to be that driver, and I became schooled in the art of driving.
I spent my laps in the follow-the-leader session seeing what the kart could do, dropping back a little ways and then flooring it. The number 44 kart I was driving has a ton of power.
I have read that the karts turn out between 10 and 15 horsepower, depending on the way they were tuned. When the entire machine you are driving, including you, only weighs 450 pounds, that is a huge power to weight ratio.
It was finally my turn to follow Berg, and it didn’t take long for him to up the pace a little bit, as he could tell I wanted to go fast. There is a unique sweeping right hand turn towards the end of the track, which I braked for in every lap leading up to my laps behind Berg. All of a sudden, he took off through the turn at a clip I didn’t think was possible.
I suddenly knew why he made it to Formula One and I never will.
It was finally time to turn us all loose. We were given a 10-minute open session on the track without an instructor. We were told that there was to be no passing, except when given the appropriate flags on the long straightaway of the track.
By my second lap, I had caught up to two drivers and made the pass on the main straight without a problem. Three laps later I found myself stuck behind another pair of cars, but was never given the opportunity to pass them. Every time they were given the passing flags, they would not let up -- time for Covy Moore, racing superstar (or so I thought) to take over.
My next time along that straightaway, I tried as hard as I could to have enough speed on the kart in front to make the pass without him backing off. We were very quickly nearing the turn as I got beside him, and the ‘lets not get in trouble’ instinct took over.
I then saw Allen observing the session in turn one.
I nailed the brakes, causing the rear brakes to lock up, forcing me to slide sideways on the inside of the driver I was trying to pass. I recovered and found myself stuck behind the duo lapping in front of me for the rest of the session.
I have been a racing fanatic since 2003, but it wasn’t until this moment that I knew, despite not being a millionaire, or have an uncle who runs a well known-fuel and oil company, that I could in fact race somewhere in high-powered, competitive cars for not a ton of money.
Unfortunately, Race City is in its last year of existence, as it will soon make space for the Shepherd Landfill. Race City has been on the doorstep of Rocky View for years, but I have always thought that the facility went without the spectator support it deserves. Despite the noise of race cars that might run a couple races in a year during the evening, and the wonderful smells of burning rubber, residents of this County will be begging for a replacement. Thousands of gearheads, racecar drivers and motorsports addicts like myself use this facility to watch and compete in a safe and controlled manner.
Where do you figure the drag racers of the world will be finding their long and flat stretches of road to test their machines? Our County has an aweful lot of them.
In the meantime, this photographer will be trying to moonlight in the ranks of the Calgary Kart Racing Association, so if anyone has a cheap but competitive kart for sale, or needs a driver my email is…
