The karts of New Jersey
Jan. 31st, 2023 06:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sniffnoySo, Justine invited Angus and me to join her and some friends of hers at a go-karting place in New Jersey this past Sunday. I'd never done this before and thought it sounded neat (and of course wanted to see Justine and Angus). There were six of us in total -- Justine, Angus, me, AJ, Adam, and Jon; there were going to be more but not everyone showed up.
There was some question of how to get there, since it was, like, deep in New Jersey (by my standards, anyway). AJ has a car and drove Adam and Jon there; Justine and Angus and I met up at Justine's place (first time I'd been there!) and (after hanging around a while and getting some lunch) called a Lyft. Apparently Justine just got back from a long trip the previous night, whoa. Actually originally Justine had suggested that Angus and I come over the previous night and stay the night there?? That seems decidedly less convenient than just heading over to Justine's in the morning, which is what Angus and I both misinterpreted her as suggesting, and what we actually did. Now you might say, wait, the morning? Well, I'd somehow gotten onto an earlier schedule the past few days so that actually wasn't a big deal. :P
Anyway so we get to this place, it's called Supercharged, and it boasts of having the largest indoor go-kart track in the world. Although really it's got two tracks and normally they're separate, I'm pretty sure it's only the largest when they put them together and I don't know when they do that. Thing is, we get there, the place is crowded (something I hadn't anticipated, I had just a surgical mask, oops... of course none of the rest of the party was masked at all) and there is a 4-hour wait time to race.
Now you might say, why didn't you reserve a time in advance if the wait time is that long? Because, uh, this place doesn't do reservations for some reason. Idk. Anyway we signed up for two races and then went to find a way to pass the time.
(Btw, the place had this logo with a complex path I wanted to trace out, but none of the screens would show it long enough to do that! How annoying! Fortunately it was displayed still on their website and on some walls. Although the exact path varied a bit between variants, I think...)
People ended up deciding on heading to a nearby mall, for reasons I didn't really follow? Of course that's nearby in New Jersey terms, i.e., we'll still need to get there by car. And so uh all six of us piled into AJ's car, which, uh, well, Angus is small so it kind of worked? He had no seatbelt of course...
Anyway get there and AJ is like, OMG there's a Rainforest Cafe. And everyone else is like, do you *really* want to go to the Rainforest Cafe, the food is not going to be good. And AJ is like, yes absolutely I do! And we're all like, OK, sure, why not, except, guess what, there's a wait time on that too! Like 40 minutes. So we ended up hanging around the food court and mostly eating there.
Eventually the time came and we headed to the Rainforest Cafe... where AJ seemingly spent most of the time on his phone. :P We ordered a dessert, and one person ordered something to drink, and that was it. The dessert was, in fact, not good. :P
Anyway after that somehow it was time to finally head back to the go-karting place, all 6 of us piling into AJ's car once again. We got there in time for our first race, put our stuff away in the lockers, put on our helmets, and headed out to the karts.
Now reminder, I'd never done this before, and, frankly, I'm not a very good driver. Hell, I never even really learned to drive on the highway, just the suburban local streets. You might say, but driving on the highway is easy! OK, but merging onto the highway is hella scary, and also highway driving involves lane changes. Also I'm just not really comfortable with that speed! Especially having to constantly using the accelerator to maintain speed. At local street speed, air resistance (or whatever) is low enough that you don't have to use the accelerator a lot; on the highway, if you don't use the accelerator much, you'll drop back down to low speed before too long. I don't like it!
Still, it seemed like it could be fun. I mean, these are just these tiny little karts, right? And they even advised, slower drivers keep to the right to let people pass, well, I know I'm going to be slow, so I'll just keep to the right all the time. And I can drive, even if it's not my strong suit.
So. Um. Turns out, these things don't handle like cars. You take your foot off the accelerator, the kart *stops*. I was not prepared for that! Also, you are supposed to brake *before* a turn and not *during* the turn because that can cause you to lose control?? And sticking to the right wasn't any recipe for safety, because there were turns in both directions, so that would put you on the inside of a turn sometimes. Now the rules say no bumping, and I don't think anyone deliberately bumped anyone, but it's hard to see far and I was going slower than everyone else and I received some *nasty* bumps as a result. (There were bumpers on the karts due to I think some bumping being seen as inevitable, even if, again, it was against the rules and you could be kicked out for doing it.)
I should note -- the people running things had some sort of remote control over the karts; they could do things like increase or decrease speed caps. The pre-race instructions noted that your speed might suddenly increase without warning if you were already at max speed when a speed cap was lifted!
I note this because maybe about midway through the race my kart *stops*, outside of my control, in like some sort of designated blue stopping area on the right of the track, and one of the people in charge is like, hey, I noticed you driving weird, are you OK? And I was like, yeah, I'm OK, just never really done this before, and he was like, well, OK, and I continued. I'd received some nasty bumps as mentioned but I still wanted to go.
...and then after continuing I received one *more* nasty bump and was like, actually no I'm definitely not OK, dammit where's that person again to stop me and ask if I'm OK a second time?? But there was no second stop, so I just finished out the race -- speeding up quite a bit at one point when I saw other karts coming up behind me and I rushed to at least get out of a turn before they encountered me.
So, uh, yeah, I finished the race, coming in dead last by quite a bit and having definitely not had a good time on the whole. I decided to skip the second race I'd paid for after that! I wasn't the only one either; Adam also did, saying the track had made him dizzy.
There was some discussion that the place was definitely giving some mixed signals about safety and risky maneuvers... like they're all like, use the boost button on straightaways, not turns -- what straightaways? And they're all like, no drifting, but one of the videos was all like, hey we made these turns so you can drift them! And it's like, ??
While we were viewing the results from the race, I noticed that the race we were in was designated "pro" while some other races were designated "semi-pro". Obviously these aren't meant literally, there's no way anybody's getting paid to do this. But there's an area where you can spectate the races and Adam and I went up there during the second race that we skipped, and I noticed another race going on where everyone seemed to be going much slower; I have to assume this was the "semi-pro" race, and that it had much lower speed caps. That might have been better to start with, but when we were signing up for a race I don't think they even asked about this. Oh well.
I think I was the only one there who'd never driven a go-kart before. Amusingly when I told Justine about how like, these don't handle like cars, she was like, oh I didn't realize because I don't drive cars, but they handle like Mario Kart so that provides a reference point right? AJ meanwhile is very into driving, he drives a manual... when we were in his car he would be all like, did you feel me downshift just there? :P
Also while viewing the results, I noticed the following four names on the results screen: Leif Holmgren, Thor Holmgren, Gunnar Holmgren, and Ragnar Holmgren. Huh. There was also an Aristotle Johnson.
Anyway after that we headed home -- all crammed into AJ's car. He let the rest of us out in Jersey City and let us find our way home from there -- well, OK, most of the people went to get food in Jersey City actually, but Adam and I just back home to New York.
So uh yes. Go-karting! Not my idea of a good time, it turns out. Or at least not at such a place, maybe at somewhere more beginner-friendly...
-Harry
There was some question of how to get there, since it was, like, deep in New Jersey (by my standards, anyway). AJ has a car and drove Adam and Jon there; Justine and Angus and I met up at Justine's place (first time I'd been there!) and (after hanging around a while and getting some lunch) called a Lyft. Apparently Justine just got back from a long trip the previous night, whoa. Actually originally Justine had suggested that Angus and I come over the previous night and stay the night there?? That seems decidedly less convenient than just heading over to Justine's in the morning, which is what Angus and I both misinterpreted her as suggesting, and what we actually did. Now you might say, wait, the morning? Well, I'd somehow gotten onto an earlier schedule the past few days so that actually wasn't a big deal. :P
Anyway so we get to this place, it's called Supercharged, and it boasts of having the largest indoor go-kart track in the world. Although really it's got two tracks and normally they're separate, I'm pretty sure it's only the largest when they put them together and I don't know when they do that. Thing is, we get there, the place is crowded (something I hadn't anticipated, I had just a surgical mask, oops... of course none of the rest of the party was masked at all) and there is a 4-hour wait time to race.
Now you might say, why didn't you reserve a time in advance if the wait time is that long? Because, uh, this place doesn't do reservations for some reason. Idk. Anyway we signed up for two races and then went to find a way to pass the time.
(Btw, the place had this logo with a complex path I wanted to trace out, but none of the screens would show it long enough to do that! How annoying! Fortunately it was displayed still on their website and on some walls. Although the exact path varied a bit between variants, I think...)
People ended up deciding on heading to a nearby mall, for reasons I didn't really follow? Of course that's nearby in New Jersey terms, i.e., we'll still need to get there by car. And so uh all six of us piled into AJ's car, which, uh, well, Angus is small so it kind of worked? He had no seatbelt of course...
Anyway get there and AJ is like, OMG there's a Rainforest Cafe. And everyone else is like, do you *really* want to go to the Rainforest Cafe, the food is not going to be good. And AJ is like, yes absolutely I do! And we're all like, OK, sure, why not, except, guess what, there's a wait time on that too! Like 40 minutes. So we ended up hanging around the food court and mostly eating there.
Eventually the time came and we headed to the Rainforest Cafe... where AJ seemingly spent most of the time on his phone. :P We ordered a dessert, and one person ordered something to drink, and that was it. The dessert was, in fact, not good. :P
Anyway after that somehow it was time to finally head back to the go-karting place, all 6 of us piling into AJ's car once again. We got there in time for our first race, put our stuff away in the lockers, put on our helmets, and headed out to the karts.
Now reminder, I'd never done this before, and, frankly, I'm not a very good driver. Hell, I never even really learned to drive on the highway, just the suburban local streets. You might say, but driving on the highway is easy! OK, but merging onto the highway is hella scary, and also highway driving involves lane changes. Also I'm just not really comfortable with that speed! Especially having to constantly using the accelerator to maintain speed. At local street speed, air resistance (or whatever) is low enough that you don't have to use the accelerator a lot; on the highway, if you don't use the accelerator much, you'll drop back down to low speed before too long. I don't like it!
Still, it seemed like it could be fun. I mean, these are just these tiny little karts, right? And they even advised, slower drivers keep to the right to let people pass, well, I know I'm going to be slow, so I'll just keep to the right all the time. And I can drive, even if it's not my strong suit.
So. Um. Turns out, these things don't handle like cars. You take your foot off the accelerator, the kart *stops*. I was not prepared for that! Also, you are supposed to brake *before* a turn and not *during* the turn because that can cause you to lose control?? And sticking to the right wasn't any recipe for safety, because there were turns in both directions, so that would put you on the inside of a turn sometimes. Now the rules say no bumping, and I don't think anyone deliberately bumped anyone, but it's hard to see far and I was going slower than everyone else and I received some *nasty* bumps as a result. (There were bumpers on the karts due to I think some bumping being seen as inevitable, even if, again, it was against the rules and you could be kicked out for doing it.)
I should note -- the people running things had some sort of remote control over the karts; they could do things like increase or decrease speed caps. The pre-race instructions noted that your speed might suddenly increase without warning if you were already at max speed when a speed cap was lifted!
I note this because maybe about midway through the race my kart *stops*, outside of my control, in like some sort of designated blue stopping area on the right of the track, and one of the people in charge is like, hey, I noticed you driving weird, are you OK? And I was like, yeah, I'm OK, just never really done this before, and he was like, well, OK, and I continued. I'd received some nasty bumps as mentioned but I still wanted to go.
...and then after continuing I received one *more* nasty bump and was like, actually no I'm definitely not OK, dammit where's that person again to stop me and ask if I'm OK a second time?? But there was no second stop, so I just finished out the race -- speeding up quite a bit at one point when I saw other karts coming up behind me and I rushed to at least get out of a turn before they encountered me.
So, uh, yeah, I finished the race, coming in dead last by quite a bit and having definitely not had a good time on the whole. I decided to skip the second race I'd paid for after that! I wasn't the only one either; Adam also did, saying the track had made him dizzy.
There was some discussion that the place was definitely giving some mixed signals about safety and risky maneuvers... like they're all like, use the boost button on straightaways, not turns -- what straightaways? And they're all like, no drifting, but one of the videos was all like, hey we made these turns so you can drift them! And it's like, ??
While we were viewing the results from the race, I noticed that the race we were in was designated "pro" while some other races were designated "semi-pro". Obviously these aren't meant literally, there's no way anybody's getting paid to do this. But there's an area where you can spectate the races and Adam and I went up there during the second race that we skipped, and I noticed another race going on where everyone seemed to be going much slower; I have to assume this was the "semi-pro" race, and that it had much lower speed caps. That might have been better to start with, but when we were signing up for a race I don't think they even asked about this. Oh well.
I think I was the only one there who'd never driven a go-kart before. Amusingly when I told Justine about how like, these don't handle like cars, she was like, oh I didn't realize because I don't drive cars, but they handle like Mario Kart so that provides a reference point right? AJ meanwhile is very into driving, he drives a manual... when we were in his car he would be all like, did you feel me downshift just there? :P
Also while viewing the results, I noticed the following four names on the results screen: Leif Holmgren, Thor Holmgren, Gunnar Holmgren, and Ragnar Holmgren. Huh. There was also an Aristotle Johnson.
Anyway after that we headed home -- all crammed into AJ's car. He let the rest of us out in Jersey City and let us find our way home from there -- well, OK, most of the people went to get food in Jersey City actually, but Adam and I just back home to New York.
So uh yes. Go-karting! Not my idea of a good time, it turns out. Or at least not at such a place, maybe at somewhere more beginner-friendly...
-Harry
