Tom Flanders

This year I did 19 races and practices as the Go Kart Racer indoor track in Burlingame. That's six more than 2006, but I spent only three dollars more in 2007 than 2006, thanks to my wife finding some discounted gift cards and taking advantage of some of the track's special offers. My average finish for the year was 1.79, a big jump from 2006's 3.08, and 2005's 6.17.

My best race of the year Nov. 11. I qualified third but dropped to fourth after the first corner, then worked my way up to second. I love passing.

When I signed up for the Audi Driving Experience I just thought I'd being doing some autocross drills, but the finale of the event was doing a half dozen lead-follow laps around Infineon speedway in an Audi TT. Much fun. A hundred on the back straight and eighty through the esses. The weird thing was how easy it was. Even at a hundred miles and hour you have a lot more time to prepare for the approaching corner than you do at the kart track.

For 2008 I'll be doing the Burlingame track about once-a-month or so. My goal for the track is to improve my best times and try some more competitive races, perhaps a league race or two.

In addition there are a few other kart tracks I'd like to try. I've never been to the indoor tack in Fremont, and I'd also like to try one of the outdoor tracks that have arrive-and-drive karting. Unfortunately there aren't any in northern California.

I'm also looking for other chances to get on a road course again.

In preparation for all this I'm reading a couple of books on race driving. In the past I read a book on kart racing and it helped me knock two seconds off my best time. One of the new books is similar in content, but much more detailed. The other book is about the mental aspects of race driving. We'll see if these help.