Overcoming Your Fears in a Go-Kart

“Are you nervous?” I asked

“No” came the reply, confirming my suspicions. He goes silent and grouchy when he’s nervous.

So I shut up.

We drove in silence.

A year ago, he tried karting at a friend’s birthday party and was hooked. In the beginning, it was all spins and pandemonium but he kept wanting to go back. Six months later he was in the top ten in Finland in indoor karting. With motorsport, there’s only one direction: more expensive, so for this summer season we made the move up and bought him his first (used) kart.

And it’s a beast, goes from 0–100 km/h faster than a new Ferrari. I started to doubt my parenting acumen, but he was committed, so I wanted to support him.

We were on our way to his first race on an outside track, he was entering the legendary Keimola Cup in Helsinki, a whole new level. In rental karting, you pay and drive and the karts have three times less power. Now you need a mechanic to help with the setup. In English, for beginning drivers these mechanics are known as “mum” or “dad”.

While on the subject of languages, in Finnish the word for a mechanic is “mekaanikko”. The word for a mistake is “moka”. I am most definitely a “mokaanikko”. I already have an impressive burn scar on my forearm from the exhaust pipe. I thought that would teach me. it didn’t. I burnt my arm again yesterday.

So we arrived at the track and the car park was like a miniature Formula One paddock. We parked next to a family with a driver the height of the fire extinguisher we were required to bring along. Appropriately, the little lad was dressed in a red overall.

“How long have you been driving? I asked.

“Oh two years” came the reply from behind the helmet. He couldn’t have been much older than four.

Everyone was so well set up with their tents, vans, tables, chairs, tools and trailers. We had our kart and a trolley.

Race day is long, there’s a ton of things to remember, which I would have tried to remember had I known what I…