Thanks to a bit of jolly team building deigned necessary to spice up an otherwise unspectacular sales conference, last week gave me my first experience of Kiwi go-karting. And without wanting to come over all tall poppy-ish, I reckon that I may be harbouring a bit of a hidden talent. During my stint behind the wheel excursions into the tyre walls were expertly avoided, I nailed incredibly consistent lap times and caught the apex of every corner with almost surgical precision.

I also got absolutely stuffed.

The problem is this; for reasons known only to them, my employer has seen fit to recruit a number of people built along the lines of racing snakes. And this meant that they could enjoy a power to weight ratio similar to that of a Bugatti Veyron whilst my kart accelerated like a fat child on roller skates. Going uphill.

Not designed to move pie eaters

Admittedly at 95kgs no one could accuse me of having an entirely pastry-based diet, but I’m still a bit on the hefty side to ever give serious thought about making much of an impact on the race track. When it comes to the sportsmen at the top of that particular tree, less is most definitely more.

Take, for instance, Sebastian Vettel, the reigning Formula 1 World Champion who weighs in at a measly 58kgs. That’s about the same as a hamster which has spent a month on the cabbage soup diet. Then there’s Scott Dixon who, despite being a larger example of the breed, would still comfortably make the weight for under 85kg rugby whilst holding an average 3 year old child.

Not that this should necessarily come as a surprise. Given the extraordinary and expensive lengths that motor sport teams go to shed kilos from their cars in order to shave extra tenths of seconds from lap times, it would be a strange decision if they then chose to negate that benefit by putting a salad-dodger behind the wheel. Read the rest of this entry »