Velocity - Innovative Film City

A newspaper advertisement drew my attention for this place. "Karts with individual lap timings, biggest lap circuit in B'lore, ...". All this at Rs. 200 for 4 laps.

But I was surely in for a surprise when I visited this place. The Karts are assembled form scrapyard, forget them have stopwatches. On my run, after 2 laps, my kart ran out of fuel.....! I couldn't believe my luck. The circuit is very wide probably because they also have different type of karts for family (2 seater - Rs. 150 for 4 laps). Overall, not so pleasing Karting experience.

Torq 03

I learnt about a new place for Karting - Torq03, situated at Outer Ring Road, Marathalli, Bangalore.

Together with a couple of my friends, we decided to try out our racing skills on a rainy Sunday! We reached the circuit at around 7 PM and even though its was drizzling, we decided to give it a shot. Although the site mentions different variety of Karts, we were only offered the 6bhp ones. The charges are Rs. 150 for 6 laps and the best part is they accept cards.

Each of us paid for 12 laps and decided to finish it in two different sessions. This was the first time I tried karting on 'WET' track and it was one hell of an experience. During the first 6 laps, god knows what happened to my driving. I spun for on almost every lap! This was like Felipe Massa at Silverstone in 2008... With great difficulty I somehow managed to finish my first session and then we evaluated the circuit, which we should have done before the first session.

After a short break, we were back on the slippery tack, but this time I managed only 2 spins during entire 6 laps and also tried some overtaking... And since we were the only ones karting, we tried lapping anti clockwise. No wonder Lewis Hamilton is appreciated for his skill on Wet tracks!

This was definitely one of my best karting experiences!

Grips

This was my first Karting experience at Bangalore. Located on Bangalore - Mysore Highway, Grips is one of the best places for Karting enthusiasts. There are different Karts available - 6bhp, 8bhp and 10bhp. And the rates vary for 6 laps - Rs. 100 for the 6bhp kart, Rs. 150 for 8bhp and Rs. 200 for 10bhp kart.

I first tried 6 laps with the 6bhp kart to get the feel of the circuit, and then tasted the 10bhp kart. The later experience was simply amazing... I had my heart in my mouth... wonder what it is like in F1 with 700bhp.... The circuit design is pretty good. It has couple of U turns and some very high speed turns.

Its a fun way to spend your evening!

Formula for $uccess

One of my friends shared with me a documentary - Formula for Success. There are 8 episodes of around 20 minutes each showcasing the F1 technology and the way it evolves as a Business.

"Only during two hours on a weekend, F1 is a race, otherwise its pure Business". Its just amazing how the complete F1 model functions and what all goes into making it absolutely perfect. This documentary show lots of other businesses that have taken F1 as a learning model and have gained desired results.

Its a must watch!

Glamour in MotorSport

With Lewis Hamilton becoming the youngest F1 champion there is lot of content on the web that says he would become the richest sportsman in Europe.

Becoming the riches sportsman after winning a single championship! And we have Valentino Rossi, 5 time MotoGP champion, Sebastien Loeb, 5 time WRC champion, and quite a few others. I guess this is to do with the Glamour F1 has and the kind of money that flows in it. These are absolutely different MotorSports with different skill sets and there cannot be any comparison of F1 with MotoGp and WRC.

No wonder Valentino Rossi has tested for Ferrari and Sebastien Loeb will be testing for Red Bull.

Lewis Hamilton rulz!!!

Finally the champ has been crowned!

Although its his second year in F1, but its looks like a long wait. And wining the championship in the most thrilling manner in sporting history will definitely be a lifetime memory.

I had my heart in my mouth when Sebastian Vettle passed Lewis Hamilton 3 laps before finish in Brazillian Grad Prix. But McLaren and Hamilton kept cool and handled the pressure really well, since they knew Glock was on dry tyres and was slowing down. Remember what happened to Sebastien Bourdais at SPA? He slipped from 3rd to 7th during the last lap because his team chose to stay on dry tyres. But the media choose to put this in a different story - "Lewis Hamilton thanked his family and friends, everyone at McLaren camp and above all the Almight God, but one man he didn't thank was Timo Glock." and if this was not enough "Lewis Hamilton wins a controversial championship - Thanks to Glock". With all the artillery (media, hostile F1 drivers, race stewards, racist people)  against Lewis, he has pulled out an incredible championship - and this makes him a strong contender for the coming years.

In 2007, he scored 109 points from 17 races and finished second. This year, the champion scores 98 points from 18 races! Is that his luck or other drivers' mistakes or both :). Well, if at all Luck had to favour some driver, it had to be Lewis Hamilton. Last year was absolutely disastrous, both for McLaren and the drivers (Alonso/Hamilton). This pair could have done wonders like Senna/Prost in 1988, when McLaren won 15 of 16 races. But I guess the right thing happened for Kimi Raikkonen in 2007, who had been struggling with his Luck before he came to Ferrai camp. I really feel for Massa. Not sure if he would get this close in coming seasons, since he is considered No. 2 driver for Ferrai, unless Kimi decides to continue the same way as he did this year :).