A bit curiously I purchased some tickets to go try out this Motorsports Carnival. These things are really good in theory, but if you think of any carnival the rides are usually a bit beat up, you can see the wear on them and well there are some parts and pieces that you think should probably be fixed in order to be safe however the novelty seems to get you through. In a motorsports carnival those parts and pieces just make the vehicle no fun to drive or unpredictable or just downright unreliable. So the level of maintenance is kinda important.
I had a primary purpose for going to the carnival, I wanted to drive the F2000 car. Why? Well, I don’t know, I just haven’t driven one before so It seemed like a good plan. I bought some tickets and headed down.
I truly stayed only long enough to drive the car, watch an Indy car run a few laps then go say Hi to a friend Kubo who was working the cobra ride. The F2000 cars were pretty fun, sequential gear box and a nice low fast car. It is definitely different than anything I have driven before. We only got about 8 laps and we weren’t allowed to pass in the corners… unfortunately, but driving one of these cars on a banked corner and feeling the wind pushing your head around at top speed was pretty cool. Speaking of that, it is interesting, driving an open wheel car for the first time, you feel that wind pushing your head around and you realize how much your head is part of the aerodynamics!
I talked to the workers, they said that the top speed on these is about 130 at the current gearing. The car itself has a sequencial 4 speed gearbox in an “H” pattern. No clutch needed after you get going, which is good because getting going was a bit of a chore. It is powered by a 2L ford motor and has a small (maybe 8 inch wide) steering wheel.There were 6 of us on the track at one time and definitely a range of skill levels out there from newb to well, it didn’t get much into the pro ranks lets say. The car was glued, you felt pretty confident at speed. I didn’t feel confident enough to give it full throttle in the corners, but I hit redline in the straight. I bet that someone who knew what they were doing could probably hold that thing flat out through the whole Oval however.
Afterward, I did a quick look around. An Indy car was lapping:
A lotus elise was doing autocross runs, some drifters were doing their thing, Lambo laps, Spyker laps and of course the Cobra “wet course” laps.
I only drove the one car, but I’d say it’s maintenance was pretty good. I believe that these cars are coming from driving schools who are using this opportunity to try to gain some customers. So since each event as a secondary backing this could be a nicely maintained fleet of cars. We will see what happens through the summer however! Anyhow, check it out if you have a chance, plenty more events to come and there is one nice thing to note. Contact them, send them a note and say Hi. They are willing to listen. If you have a reasonable request for an event that you want to see, well let them know!
Here is a link to their website American Dreams Racing
As a side note, I wasn’t allowed to take my GoPro this time, so no video. If I go drive the f2000 again I will take my roll bar mount so we can get some good stuff!