I can remember when I heard the news about another kart. If I recall right, it was around the time the N64 came out, and
I started hearing about this from the Camblesville site of Jared Roses' for Super Mario Kart. I started picturing
right at this point what the posibilities could be. After watching how well Jared and his friends were at GP, I knew
there would be no way I'd ever catch these maniacs at this classic game. With a new kart, I knew I'd be able to get
a headstart on everyone, and I honestly thought there would be noone that would ever take #1 away from me
if I was to do this. I'd pass the game, then go to the first track and set a WR, then I'd set WR's on the rest of
the courses and keep improving til they were impossible to beat.
As the pics came out about the game, I took a good look at them. Since at this time, my only net access was at LCC's
Library, I spent most my time checking every site about what the next kart is gonna be like. At this point, it was
called Mario Kart R, and I saw how everything was gonna look. I was flat out inpressed at that point, so you
can definitely tell that when the game finally came out, I was even more breathless when I saw the graphics. I even
saw a split timer, that they ended up ditching. That blew, but that's life.
Besides this, I mainly kept tabs on all the kart sites, and awaited the time they'd get a time trial section.
Once they did this, the sky was the limit. I did start to get tired of the same ol' things on the sites though. They'd talk
about the game, the items, and whatever else.
They'd waste so much meaningless time on that, and didn't even
cover the stuff most important half the time. Also, they posted reviews, like a gazillian of them. Man, if you
read them, you'd laugh so hard at how ignorant they were of the game. However, some people were pretty insightful
when it came to some of the negatives about kart in the other 3 modes.
Lets skip to what I saw just as I was beginning time trials. My first time I got was on Luigi Raceway and I
achieved a 2'10. My time went down pretty fast to the 2 minute mark. My brother played the other courses, but
I was determined to just stay on this course til I got a time I was proud of. At this time, I had no idea of the scores
that were out there. Finally when Jake Spirek (lamer) finally got a time trial site up, he overpopulated his site
with effects and all he offered was a single spot for the WR for each course. Just think, people actually PAY
him to make sites for them now =).
Anyhow, I noticed a guy by the name of Salam Salhani. He had the current WR on LR in the 1'50s.
I surely looked at this as a challenge, but his time was pretty fast for me cause at the time
I had just broke the 2 minute mark. interestingly enough, I started messing around with the 3 shrooms at the end, and
with this, I was able to break in the 1'40s. Little did I know that next week, I'd find this guy ahead of me
again and by 2 seconds. Man this was fustrating, but I am not one to back down to a challege, especially a game
that I promised myself as my new years resolution that I'd be the best in the world at!
I lowered my time again, and then the final straw hit me... Salam in 1'45s!!!! He also had a 33"60 fastlap. My fastlap
was 33"61, so that severly pissed me off. I did know I could beat him though. After awhile longer, I did beat him
and got barely passed him. Aroound this time, Jamie (my brother) made a recommendation that I CHANGE DRIVERS! I thought he
was nuts, cause DK was the best guy in SMK, and these people that like Lightweights in Mario Kart 64 are just
trendy scumbags. Well, I changed my driver choice to yoshi, and POOF! Bigtime Fastness on LR. I took off 2
seconds off an already impossible time I thought. Man this was great stuff. I went to the other courses and
slowly got records from most of them. If they didn't have some shortcut I couldn't figure out, I was very
able and willing to get the WR. MMF was 1'22, BB went sub 2, and alot of other great achievements at the end
of February.
Basically, the impression I got from my competition as I looked at how inconsistent the times were was some 12 or 14
year old kid playing just for the heck of it, and thinking he's all that when he gets a good time on one course
and sucky ones on others he never touches. I had absolutely no respect for my competition. As I was smashing
Times that were listed, and I was keeping track on paper, it got to a point where I owned nearly every record, except
the ones with Trendy SCs!
At this point, I envisioned myself eventually having all these records, and noone being able to stop me, cause however,
I had the jump on the competition, and there was no way these immature kids could take on a 19 year old with
the motivation I had. I also thought about being in the Guinness Book Someday for LR and other things along with that. Even
getting my scores into nintendo with proof and an OMG reaction from them. Later I learn just how useless this would
have been, but with these thoughts, I now close this section. The Next Topic I will meantion is an individual
that was the first ever to catch me totally by suprise... No other than... THE GREAT GREGG GORCZOWSKI from Illinos!
