Engineering Blog

Rally takes care of its engineers allowing us to have amenities that most companies would only dream about… Beer on tap? Check. 2 foosball tables? Check. Kick ass dual proc multi-core developer machines with nice 27″ monitors? Check. Yearly company ski day? Double Check! But, one of the coolest things we get to do is the semi-regular forced fun events. Last year we hit up jump street for a few hours of much needed exercise. This year, however, our forced fun coordinator and fellow developer Sara planned something that may be very hard to top – 2 hours of track time at IMI Motorsports in Erie, CO.

We arrived at the track shortly before 3:00 to sign the waivers and prepare for the carnage that was about to ensue. The first group included Katie and Ryan who took the opportunity to spin each other during the first couple of laps – neither of which left the track. However, a few laps after that Ryan decided to get some payback, but that did not end well for him.

Ryan playing in the mud

The competition between groups was fierce for most of the day with several karts leaving the track (we were charged $10 each time) or going for a spin.

The setup

The Spin

Fist Pump!

The last group of the day included Eric-the-Red who was eager to show off his “racing skills” to everyone at the track. He quickly jumped out front for an early lead and was working his way through lap traffic when the following occurred -

The damage

In all we racked up 20 or so off track incidents, a dented fender, and a bent steering column. Not too shabby if I say so myself. I brought my helmet cam along but it was not until the end of the day that we realized that mounting the camera to the neck brace provided an optimal viewing angle. So here is a video of my laps around the track as well as a shortened clip of my spin.

Full carting video

Carting Spin

There are also more pictures of the event here.