So, the gauntlet had been thrown down. Macau.com’s very own feisty editor happens to think of herself as something of a hotshoe behind the steering wheel, and gamely offered to prove it on the track with a little race against yours truly.

If you know Sue well, then you know that this was no idle challenge. Despite the flawless skin and lilting voice, the girl packs a mean Muay Thai punch, loves motorcycle riding and is fiercely competitive at any human activity that could be termed ‘sport’.

Me, I’m Ju-Len - her would-be challenger. I happen to write about cars for a living in Singapore, and like all motoring journalists, largely consider myself the lost love-child of Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. Er, if such a union were ever physically capable of producing offspring, that is…

Anyway, what better venue for a little race than the Macau Motor Sports Club (MMSC), where for just MOP100 a pop, the track’s 1.2km of sinewy, undulating tarmac is yours for the conquering.

After a short bus ride to the track, Sue and I climbed the uphill approach to the facility and found our trash-talking interrupted when we encountered the impressive scale of the place. The large welcome area and spacious grandstands gave it the air of a serious motorsports arena, which kind of put our little friendly competition into perspective.

While I was deeply impressed by the MMSC’s karting facility, however, one thing did give me pause to reconsider our race. It had been drizzling all day, meaning the track would have been sprinkled with the sort of light pitter-patter that lifts oil right to the surface of the tarmac.

That, in turn, produces the kind of greasy conditions that spit overzealous, wannabe raicing drivers like myself off the track in embarrassing fashion..

While I tried to think up excuses to offer Sue (“Maybe we should come back another time. We don’t want your nice coat to get all splattered?”), I caught sight of how her eyes lit up when she saw the track itself. “That looks like fun!” they seemed to say, and I knew was in for a fight.

After helmeting up and being given a suitable briefing (in English, courtesy of the friendly Filipino mechanics on duty that day), we slipped into the karts and headed onto the track separately, with a good headstart for Sue. Ladies first, after all.

I soon discovered, however, that whatever she was doing, I would have my hands full just keeping the kart on the track. It wasn’t just slippery out there, it was so greasy I wasn’t sure a mountain goat could have wandered around the place without ending up toppling over onto its back, four legs kicking at the sky.

The track itself is properly challenging, too. After a flat-out left kink the wide track funnels into a tight downhill hairpin that requires you to stand on the brakes while fighting to keep the kart from swapping ends on you..

After a lap it was here, actually, that I came across Su facing the wrong way on the tarmac, after an overenthusiastic exit to the corner had seen her spin her kart all the way around

I drove past, slowly but in control, and could almost hear her cursing above the blat of the engines.

With Sue thus dispatched, I drove my own race trying to learn the various lines around the track. The key to a quick time in karts for non-racers like me, I’ve learnt, is usually to find the smoothest way through the corners, the path that lets you carry the most momentum through the last few bends.

That said, it wasn’t easy at the MMSC. The track is one of the most challenging I’ve driven on, with plenty of places where you can lose time, either because of ham-fisted charges through corners that tighten up, or in places where you’re fooled into going too slowly because the next bend hides behind a sudden crest.

And as with the great racing circuits of the world, it’s the undulations that make the MMSC track such an interesting one. The final right-hander with its long climb past the main grandstands, in particular, really punishes clumsy driving by making the kart work hard to haul you all the way up the hill if you didn’t carry enough speed

I ended up lapping Sue one more time, passing her around the end of the back straight which fearless drivers like her attack at full throttle.

“I kept spinning around!” she later protested. Well, that’s what happens when you let bravery triumph over self-control. And, with no little modesty, I should add that it’s what happens at a place like Macau’s karting track, which places a premium on skill.

So for now it’s Singapore 1, Macau 0. Sue, of course, is dying for a rematch and perhaps the next time we’ll try it out on the double-seater karts, so I can show her the right lines to take around the track.. It’s probably the only way, too, she’ll be able to stay on the same lap as me…

Kart blanche

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 4:18 pm and is filed under Activities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.