TEAM ALFA TAKES FIRST PLACE IN CAR CLUB DIVISION FOR KART ENDURO (last place overall)

Displaying self-awarded shiny trash can lids for their last place Enduro race two-peat, Team Alfa had some rough luck on the kart track yesterday. Racing action details below:

Dateline: Sunday, 20 March, American Indoor Karting, P-Town -
Team Alfa showed up to race yesterday, but with a different driver line-up. Tom, Mike and Rick were back along with Mike's brother Will for a total of four drivers. That meant each driver would have to stay in the saddle for 30 minutes straight - a new challenge for the Team. Mike qualified and took the first go and by the end of his run left Team Alfa only 5 laps down from the leader - a much faster pace than the Team's first Enduro. Mike's brother Will was next, but unfortunately Mike's wallet fell out of his pocket during the race and it was now laying on the kart's seat. It didn't seem to bother Will as he caught and passed the kart ahead of him taking Team Alfa out of last place for the first time ever! Rick was next and knew about Mike's wallet, but in the excitement of the driver swap forgot to clear the seat and worse yet, got distracted and didn't fully clip the seat belt either. After a couple of vain attempts to find the belt clip and reattach it while driving with one hand, Rick decided to fake it and hope the track judges wouldn't notice. Nope - black flag. Instead of pitting, Rick slowed way down on the straight, found the clip and hooked in. Eager to make up for lost time, Rick turned in a string of laps in the mid to high 26's to get back the Team back into second to last place, and even open the lead a little. Next was Tom's turn and with the last driver out (and Mike's wallet finally off the seat) things were looking good for Team Alfa to take second to last place! With a bad driver change by the last place team, Team Alfa was up three laps with less than 30 minutes to go. But alas, even though Tom drove with every last drop of his crazy Italian driver blood, the ballast penalty was just too much to fend off the blazingly quick driver the last place team had put on the track. Still, Team Alfa has nothing to be ashamed of; all four drivers turned in lap times in the 26's, we were in second to last place for most of the race, and were only 17 laps out first place as compared to 32 laps in the last Enduro.

Most importantly, Team Alfa lives to race again - and tomorrow... is another day!