Remembering Senna

May 1, 1994, was when the last fatality occured in modern Formula 1.
It is that of the great Ayrton Senna. F1 World Champion in 1988, 1990 & 1991.
One of his quote: "Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose."
Safety in F1 and many other motorsports has come a long way since. Just look at the horrific accident of Robert last year, and Heikki this year, their lives may very well have been cut short prematurely if it had happened decades back.

The death of Senna has inadvertently robbed us of the chance of him competing with a certain up & coming Michael. How interesting that would be!!

Talking about safety, I realized now how important is the rib
protector for karting, especially more so when my bloody seat was not set properly!
Sigh! On the last blog entry i mentioned, it was quite a 'rib breaking' race, and indeed I was not wrong. Thinking I needed more track time, I went for a practice run on May Day.
On the 1st run, during turn 2 leading into turn 3.... i can't breathe. My left rib was sort of killing me. It was pain, a sudden sharp pain. I had to let the throttle go. I tried again on the next corner, holding my breath as I went thru it it was better, but i knew i cannot do this for long. How many laps, how many corners can i go without actually breathing??? Not many, considering the temperature is climbing throughout the day.

All in all, the seating position was really way out. I was sitting too upright, and my body is literally moving out of the seat through corners. It is no wonder I always felt as though I am been thrown out of the kart. With this motion, my left ribs was in fact hitting the edge of the seat. Imagine the number of times i was hit in the 30 plus laps last sunday..

However, i did try to drive a bit more after the seat has been set. It was much much better, but alas, the damage of the rib was done. Any compression on the area hurts. The pain then restricts my breathing, and in turn my concentration on the track dwindled considerably.

Now, I hope my ribs can recover, I wish too my seat position is indeed really set to my liking. The next bit of setting is that of the carb jetting. Driving improvement will be of the throttling. Fitness definitely have to buck up too. May 2008. let's hope it will be a better race for me this month. No more excuses not to do better, not to do well.