Life on the Fast Lane
By E.O. Azucena

They look like miniature sports cars – and they may well be that. Wikipedia.com defines them as simpler variants of vehicles used in open-wheeler motor sports. Unlike their buffer Formula 1 or Formula 3 cousins, though, they have no suspension and no differential or solid back axle. But there’s nothing simplistic about these skeletal-looking vehicles. 

Initially created in the US during the 1950s post-war period as a way to pass the spare time of airmen, they are now considered as essential learning tools for those intending to develop a career in motor sports. Today, there are even motor sports events exclusively revolving around them.

And so, karting — also known as kart racing, go-karting, or gearbox/shifter karting — was born.

Karting, of course, remains the “best way to get started in racing because you learn all the basics (of motor sports) in go-karts,” says two-time Karter of the Year awardee Jean Pierre Tuason — or JP, as he is more popularly called in racing circles – who owns Tuason Racing School (TRS), in an earlier Enterprise Magazine interview.

He has a point, with the late Formula One (F1) great Ayrton Senna once describing the sport as "the most basic yet purest form of racing."  Karting, after all, helped the early careers of two-time F1 world champion Mika Häkkinen and seven-time F1 world champion Michael Schumacher; as well as NASCAR’s (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing of the US) Darrel Waltrip, Ricky Rudd, Lake Speed, Tony Stewart, and Kyle Petty, all starting their racing in karts.

Understandably, karting can help prepare drivers for high-speed racing by developing essential traits, such as quick reflexes, accuracy of control, and the aptitude to make fast decisions.  It helps, too, that, at their most basic, karts are not too different from the vehicles used in open-wheeler motor sports. As Wikipedia.com notes, “karting brings an awareness of the various parameters that can be altered to try to improve the competitiveness of the kart (e.g. tire pressure, gearing, seat position, chassis stiffness) that also exist in other forms of motor racing,” Tuason says.

A drawback in karting is the costs, which can rival the costs of racing real cars.  “It’s difficult to promote motor sports in the country because it is perceived as expensive,” Tuason says.  Particularly for those who go professional, the costs can be staggering, including the maintenance costs, services of mechanics, and the traveling and living allowances needed when one participates in races.  “It is an understatement to say that the biggest obstacle (to motor sports) is financial.  Motor racing is not a cheap sport.  If you wanted to race go-karts, for example, you need to raise about P700,000 to P800,000.”

But Tuason believes that it’s a sport where Filipinos can succeed at (“You see how our taxi drivers drive,” he says).  “I think we concentrate too much on sports like basketball where, honestly, it’s very difficult for us to win (internationally). But something like racing, if we can develop that talent, I think we can have a Filipino driving world champion someday,” he says.

TRS normally charges up to P150,000 per training package (inclusive of a weekend clinic of lectures and hands-on lessons, as well as five sessions at the tracks). “But with the help of sponsors, we’re trying to bring motor sports to the masses,” Tuason says. The generosity of companies like Goodyear, Bosch and Addict Mobile helps subsidize the costs so that TRS can charge as low as P17,000 for training sessions on racing cars.  In the US, one has to pay $3,000 for the same against only $300 here, he adds.

TRS already trained over 700 enrollees since it opened and boasts success stories, including 16-year-old Michele Bumgarner, the 2003 Philippine karting champion.
Feeling the rush yourself when karting is better than hearing about it, says Tuason. “I definitely recommend that people come and try go-karting if they can, and, hopefully, move up to racing with real cars.  See (for yourself) what racing is all about.”