Pressing the pedal to the metal, my hands tighten around the steering wheel. My eyes never leave the back of the go-kart in front of me.
A worker waves a blue flag, indicating that the person in front of me should move to the right. Moving to the left, I press the gas pedal harder and begin to pass that person.
Adrenaline courses through my veins with every turn, my eyes scanning the track for the next racer to appear in front of me.
Supercharged Entertainment, located at 987 U.S. Route 1, Edison, NJ, offers plenty of activities to do with friends. It is home to the world’s largest indoor go-kart track. It is pricey to race here.
The drive from Brookdale’s Lincroft campus is less than 30 minutes. BCC students could go with a large or small group of friends, enjoy the arcade, go axe-throwing, go-karting, or enjoy the restaurant upstairs.
There are two tracks inside, one is smaller than the other. The larger track is visible from the deck upstairs to watch the race.
“That’s us!” my friend, Victoria Gin, a 19-year-old BCC student, beamed beside me after the worker announced our race.
We walk into the room where full-face helmets go from extra small to double extra large in cubbies on two of the walls. The room is split into two: one side for the first track, the other for the second. There is a desk in the middle of the room, once we are inside, that has ‘socks’ which are for riders to put over their hair when using their helmets.
After putting on our ‘socks’ and helmets, we get close to the gate for the first track, on the left side of the room.
“Line up!” one of the workers announces to 14 people racing, including both Victoria and me. Victoria and I rushed to where the line started, so we could get the front karts. However, that backfired.
The worker leads us out of the gate and instructs us to get a neck cushion before lining up behind the go-karts. Then, she asks for the ticket for our race number and tells us which karts to go to.
She points to a column of go-karts on the left, and I walk over to the one in the front. I climb in and buckle up, then tighten the straps so I won’t move.
Once everyone is in their go-karts, another worker tells us to close our visors. Once mine snaps into place, all that I can hear is the echo of my breath within the helmet. The column of go-karts to the right of me pulls out first, then the one I’m in.
My right foot rests on the green pedal, accelerator pedal, and my left hovers over the red pedal, the brakes.
Pulling onto the track, my eyes are locked on the track, scanning for the racers ahead of me. My right foot is pressing the pedal as far as it can, while the electric purring of the ‘engine’ sounds behind me.
I round a corner and catch a glimpse of a racer in front of me. My hands tighten around the steering wheel. My eyes stick to the back of them like a fly to sugar. The track curves again, barely braking as my back tires drift behind me.
Inching closer, my body reacted in the best way to get around the person in front of me, taking the outside of the track. We take a sharp turn, and a worker standing to the side of the track waves a blue flag. The person in front of me moves more towards the right, and I rush past them.
I don’t even know if I’m blinking from how intense the feeling was. Passing one person, who wouldn’t be the last.
