Part two of my Dubai karting experience was at Dubai Kartdrome.

I had been preparing for this trip for some time in advance and had targeted an event called the Ironman, which essentially is an hour-long session on a varying outdoor layout and is designed to test driver endurance and fitness.

Having spoken with the event co-ordinator back in April, I had to achieve a qualifying time of less than 1:18.00 on the International Circuit (a funny story here is that I misread the email and was aiming for a 1:15.00 right up until the day of the Ironman event) in order to be eligible to race.

I started early on the Saturday morning (racing at 8:30am) and, on a quiet but hot track, I started my practice and drive to qualify for the event (which was scheduled for the Wednesday evening). With a best lap time of 1:17.945, I had achieved my goal in my first session (not that I realised it!)

After about a 40 minute break, and the temperature ever increasing, I was out on track again, this time achieving a new best of 1:16.599. However, I felt that I had a long way to go at this stage to achieve the time required.

The heat was becoming unbearable so I decided to change my environment and walk around to the Indoor Kartdrome for a quick session before heading back for lunch. This was just a bit of fun, because there was nothing riding on it for me, but I’m always competitive when my visor closes and I went fastest in the session with a 32.787s – a full second quicker than my closest competitor.

After thinking that I had over a second and a half to trim off my PB, I returned at sunset a couple of days later to see what I could achieve.

The track was a lot busier this time around, with 18 people on track in my second session under the floodlights. Across the two sessions, I achieved 1:16.293, and even if I hooked up all of my best sectors, I would only just be in the 1:15’s.

I left the track that evening, pleased with what I had achieved, but disappointed that I wouldn’t be racing on the Wednesday.

Until I re-read the email the following day…

Look out tomorrow for the final instalment – the Ironman event itself!