The challenge isn't so much staying on the pavement as much as following a sweeping line which minimizes speed loss - especially in our class, the four-stroke Briggs where making power takes forever. Racing karts run most freely in a straight line and any deviation from dead straight scrubs off massive amounts of speed. So like a downhill skier trying to maintain all his or her momentum, the object here is to turn as little as possible and carry as much of your speed as you can manage through the turn. This means making the largest arc possible: turn in for the corner from the right edge of the pavement, neutral apex at the very left edge of the track (but try not to drop your inside wheels off), then exit the turn on the very right hand edge again.

This corner is a great first turn for race starts, what with being so wide - two karts can go through there side by side without too much drama giving everyone a chance to race beyond the first corner.

Turn Two
Turn Two is also flat out as it is more of a kink than a corner. Again, the importance is to let the kart run as free as possible and not turn the steering wheel more than absolutely necessary. But in this case, Turn 3 follows immediately and it forces you to compromise the exit of Two - to let the kart run all the way to the right edge of the track on the exit will leave you horribly out of position for the entry to 3.

This is not a boring corner however. It is a good overtaking opportunity for a driver who has gotten a run out of turns 10 and 1 and will be able to get his or her nose inside of a competitor here. Although narrower than One, two karts can run easily through here side by side. But when they do, being that this corner feeds right into Three, things can get exciting fast. In fact, an overtaking maneuver here almost always guarantees a battle at the entry to Three - where the driver caught on the outside at Two has the inside line - and the advantage - going into Three. If a driver knows that a challenge is mounting, a little defensive driving can also be done here, staying to the left to protect the inside line leading into Two and drifting out to the right on the exit to protect the inside line into Three.

But even running alone, it starts getting exciting at the apex for Turn Two: Between Two and Three the kart will hit its top speed for the lap (about 48mph for our kart). That being the case, the driver should be very interested in what RPMs the motor is turning there. And there is just barely enough time for a 42 year old set of eyes to look down, focus on the tach, look up again and focus on the turn-in point for Turn Three.

Turn Three
Believe it or not, when our kart is working well, this sharp right-hander is taken flat-out, too. At the very most, on a bad day, it takes just a dab of the brakes. Either way, it is an intense, wild corner with high G-forces (remember, the kart entered this corner at top speed) and plenty of opportunity to get it wrong.

Entry is naturally from the left-hand side of the track and from there you carve your way towards a slightly-early-to-neutral apex and then out near the left side of the asphalt again - but not to far out there because the crucial Turn Four follows immediately.

On the opening lap, this is the first real opportunity for the entire pack to completely wipe each other out, and it's been known to happen. It's as perfect a place to gain a position that first lap as it is to lose one. Or two. Or three. It is possible to race two abreast through there but the drivers have to really cooperate. Fortunately, the "short course" connector goes straight ahead here to Turn Seven so there is a place to go straight and get everything whoa'd down if you have to.

It is a fun corner when everything goes well but there's not much time to enjoy it when it happens, since barely a breath can be taken before the most important corner on the circuit comes rushing up: Turn Four.

Turn Four
Turn Four is a vicious, merciless corner. The sharpest corner (I refer to it as "The Hairpin", though technically it isn't) of the ten, it also leads onto the long backstraight - meaning the entire corner is all about exit speed. Exit speed is crucial here - screw it up and you'll get gobbled up by the guy behind you that didn't, sure as anything. A half second can be lost on your lap time here alone.

It's a great place to pass, a late apex off of Three will allow more speed to tuck in on the inside of an opponent and take the corner away from them. But the move better mess up everyone around you, too, because the early apex you'll be forced to take to pull off the pass is going to have you in a terrible position for the exit.

Done right, this corner can be taken without lifting off the throttle, turning in very late, running the inside wheels over the curbing for a very late apex and then struggling to keep the kart on the road at the exit. So important is this corner that I look at the tach at the exit every lap to see how well I've done the corner. If I see 4700-4800 rpm, I'm completely satisfied. If I see 4000 to 4200, I know I'll have to dart and weave down the straight to block them other guys. (Not really.)

Turn Five
The backstraight is long and it provides a little time to relax. If you've done Four well, you get to feel good about yourself for a few seconds. If Four was a personal nightmare, you have a few seconds to curse yourself. But only a few because this straight is a good time to check engine temperature and make a fuel mixture adjustment if necessary.

At the end of the backstraight lies Turn Five. Lurking. With jaws agape. Waiting there for you to not be perfect on your entry. You arrive there at near top speed. I've heard some guys say it can be taken flat out, too, but I've never been able to do it.

As it is, even with a dab of the brakes, it demands precision. Just before the turn-in point, just when you've reached maximum velocity at the end of that straight, the road dips down, pulling you downhill when you need it least.

Five is a sharp left-hander and the turn-in has to be perfect. Turn in a fraction too late, you'll miss the apex and probably have to get on the brakes to keep from running out of road on the exit. Turn in a fraction too early and you'll apex too early guaranteeing you'll run out of road on the exit. And Five is not a happy place to run out of road - the curbing on the exit is rough and the ground slopes away on the other side, tending to suck you out into the grass if you give it a chance.

A lot of overtaking happens at the entry to Five, the result of good and bad exits from Four. But a driver sliding down the inside in the braking zone for Five really compromises both drivers. They're both going to have to be on the brakes, way more than usual. And one of them is going to have to surrender the corner - side by side ain't gonna work. If you're in third place and you see second place try a pass for first here, you're thrilled because you know you're going to gain tons of ground on both of them because neither one could go through that turn as fast as you will. And that's being nice! Because secretly you're hoping they're both stubborn enough not to give a little and they'll take each other off into the weeds. C'mon admit it. You know that's what you're thinkin' then.

Turn Six
Provided you were able to stay on the road at Five, you can just keep the kart on the right side of the track because another lefty is coming up fast.

Six is slightly banked and slightly uphill and so it is flat out for sure. The exit tightens up a bit, and to give yourself a little more margin, driving across the wide curbing at the apex is in order. You have to keep an eye on the curbing on the exit, but you can usually make adjustments to keep yourself on the road.

If you were overtaken at Five, maybe you used your head and backed off early, let the other guy through, and while he was trying to stay on the road after an early apex, you turned in late for a late apex. If so, this is where that strategy is going to pay off because it's possible to exit Five faster and have that speed carry you past your rival going into Six here, stealing away the inside line and forcing him or her to relinquish the position.

That can be particularly gratifying since they only get to celebrate their Turn Five pass on you for a second or so. But, again, two karts aren't going to fit through this corner together so you'd better be sure they know you're there or they'll chop across your nose and it can get ugly fast.

Once through there you'll have to immediately start crossing the road to the left side in prep for Seven.

Turn Seven
Seven is a flat, long 180 degree right hand turn. It took me a while to work up to flat footing it, but it can be done. Going into the corner, a nice slide can be established as you aim for a neutral apex.

On the exit, you want to let the kart run as free as possible to start building speed for the fairly long straight that follows. But unwind the steering too much or too early and the edge of the road will be under you in a flash. Actually, the short course short-cut from Three re-joins the track right there at the exit and it can be used to an advantage. But, it can also lure you into a false sense of security which finds you not being able to get back to the track proper before running out of asphalt.

I've found this to not be much of a passing opportunity. It's hard to find a way to get inside someone on the run from Six to the entry for Seven, and even if you carry more speed out of Seven, the way the following "straight" meanders right, then left, then right again, it's not likely you'll be able to get around the kart in front of you.

Turn Eight
Although the straight between Seven and Eight winds back and forth a bit, the kart takes a path pretty much dead straight.

Eight is a lot like Six in that it is slightly banked and slightly uphill. But once committed to the turn, it has a completely different personality. The apex is a little late, but that is not as much for better speed on the next straight bit as much as a hedge against the lack of road at the exit. Nevertheless, for me the exit of Eight is almost always a crisis and a fight to stay on the black part.

It can be taken flat out, but if there is any self doubt about keeping it on the road, a touch of the brakes will be enough of a gut check to get you through it. Before the corner was repaved this spring, it was really rough through there. In fact, it was where I separated some rib cartilage and bruised a kidney last spring - just by hitting the bumps wrong! After that I would sometimes choose the smooth, slow line over the fast rough one in the interest of being able to race the next race.

There's not much chance to do any passing going into Eight, but it is possible to set someone up, and by apexing really late, to get a run that puts you inside of them for Nine.

Turn Nine
From the exit of Eight the kart needs to be guided back left across the track to set up for Nine.

Nine is a lot of fun. Similar to Seven, it is flat and long, but it is more than 180 degrees. The exit dumps you out onto the backstraight of the oval.

The turn-in is smooth and easy, and for our kart, a very cool flat-out drift can be established and carried right to the neutral apex. There is no trouble on the exit, the width of the oval's backstraight providing more than enough room. It is here that you begin building speed that you will still be using way over in Turn Three so the earlier you can unwind the steering here the better.

Passing going into the corner can certainly be done but isn't as common as squaring off the corner and getting a run on a competitor on the exit for an overtaking move on the way into Ten.

Turn Ten

Turn Ten of the road course is really Turns Three and Four of the oval. Finding yourself deposited on the left hand side of the track by Turn Nine, you need to move back across to the right, but only about half way - that will be all you need for a decent entry to Ten. In fact, going out too wide just makes the corner longer for you. It may be different for the fast guys in the Yamahas and Shifter Karts, but the Briggs just doesn't need it.

The track slopes downhill slightly in the first part of the turn which is good here. Again, a long corner such as this is robbing you of speed every inch of the way so a little help here is appreciated. The corner has a good bank to it but I'm not sure how much us road course guys benefit from it. We usually use such a low groove that I think it's more or less flat down there. The apex is dead medium or a little late in the interest of better top speed going into Three way over yonder.

It would be easy to hold the kart in tight and be no where near the edge of the track on the exit but, again, the trick is to give the kart as much free reign as you can. So running right to the edge is the way to go.

Ten is a good place to try a pass, especially if it's the last lap! As mentioned earlier, an attack can be initiated in Nine giving you the chance to sneak under the guy (or gal) ahead of you at the entry to Ten. Being that it's so wide and that it's the last corner of the circuit, it lends itself to (encourages?) bonzai, last-ditch, all-or-nothing moves.

An interesting note about the last corner on any circuit: In terms of lap times and testing the last corner is the most important corner out there. Do you know why? (The answer is below.)

Dumping you out onto the Main Straight there is really no time to relax here. You'll need to check the gauges and decide how much of a fuel mixture change to make (if any), look back over your shoulder to survey the competition (if you care about that sort of thing), acknowledge the flag man (nice to have friends in high places), wave to your crew along the fence on the right (lets 'em know your thinkin' 'bout 'em) and start turning it for Turn One again!