It's quite an interesting read this, particularly seeing the perspective of a father.
I raced from the age of 8 until I was 17 and the last 5 years of that we were travelling from central Scotland to places like Buckmore, Clay, Golspie, Lydd etc multiple times per year. Having started at such a young age, it's hard not to take karting for granted as you come to expect that it's simply what you do at the weekends. Even at the age of 17 I still didn't fully appreciate what my parents had done for me. It's only since I graduated from uni and started a proper job at the age of 22 that I realised how much time, commitment and money it takes for parents to take their kids karting. My dad would knock his pan in Monday-Friday running his own business, we'd leave straight from his work on a Friday with sometimes a 10 hour journey ahead of us, often have a terrible weekend, arrive back home in the early hours of Monday and he'd be back to work at 8am with his wallet no doubt a hell of a lot lighter.
I've had this conversation with my old man countless times over the years and we both think that we got so much more out of karting than we put in. For me, I gained a lot of confidence and learned so many life lessons that have helped me in both my career and personal life. It's only because of those that I've been able find a great job and at the age of 28 afford to spend a chunk of my money on karting again! Even with me only now racing once a month, I still have no idea how he managed to do what he did for such a long time. I'm pretty certain he doesn't regret all of the time and money spent one bit though. He's now enjoying spannering for me one Sunday every month and am sure gets just as much enjoyment out of it as he did all those years ago.
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