Not ones to blow our own trumpet, we had to tell you about our recent victory over the import and domestic magazines at a Continental Tire event (just to rub their noses in it!).

Faced with smaller, skinnier (you could say they had the bodies of small girls) motoring writers and journalists, my chances of winning a go-kart race at Montreal’s 24 hour karting and paintball establishment, Circuit 500 (www.action500.com), were looking as slim as they were.

The indoor venue runs some well-maintained karts and the performance of all the machines I drove was very high. At least this gave me a fighting chance of staying close to the featherweights…

The late-night races involved a 5-minutes practice session, followed by 10-minute qualifying to get one of the ten places in the final.

Using crafty blocking and slipstreaming techniques, I managed to get the second fastest qualifying time by the end of the session, gaining a place in the final. Behind me on the grid were writers from Super Street, Import Tuner, Modified, Motor Trend and Car & Driver magazines, as well as some muscle and off-road titles. And that’s where they would remain!

With consistent 1.26 lap times, only Modified was able to live with the pace as we recorded average lap speeds in excess of 60km/h. This equates to almost 40mph, and considering there were two tight hairpins where you almost come to a stop, Circuit 500 ranks as one of the fastest tracks I’ve ever driven.

I have to confess one of Continental’s own engineers finished ahead of me but he was disqualified for being German and for speeding under the yellow. So I took my rightful place on the top step of the podium to receive gold and predictably lukewarm applause from my bitter adversaries.

Victory is mine!