At first, I was a little nervous about the idea of driving a kart around the track at the brand new Pacific Grand Prix at Pacific Raceways just outside of Covington last Friday — I am more than four months pregnant.

But Paul Zalud, president of PGP, said it was totally safe and that he was OK with it.

“It’s a great family sport,” he said. “It’s very safe.”

At worst, Zalud explained, I’d spin out because the karts are so wide and have such a low center of gravity.

OK then.

Sometime after noon I slipped on a head sock and a snazzy looking blue, white and black racing helmet, pushed the visor down, breathed through my nose and immediately fogged it over. I flipped the visor up, moved the sock down from over my nose so I could breathe a little easier, walked over to the kart and received instructions on how to get in.

Feet on the seat, I lowered myself in, throttle on the right, brake on the left. I could handle this. I mean, I do drive a Ford Mustang. If you could see me right now, you’d see a smirk playing on my lips.

A few moments later I was zipping around the track. Granted, I was trying not to push it too hard, I could hear my husband’s voice in the back of my head saying, “What are you doing, you crazy pregnant woman?”

Still, it was one heck of an adrenaline rush. Now I can see why someone like Danica Patrick, who races in the IndyCar series, or A.J. Almendinger, who drives in NASCAR, would immediately get hooked on this feeling and want to do more, go faster, get onto bigger and more challenging tracks. Both of those drivers participated in kart racing back in the day, Zalud explained, and got their start in this form of racing.

Zalud said this track, which is eight-tenths-of-a- mile long, has been in the making for a decade.

“We’re a race promoter,” Zalud said. “In 1994 we actually started building karts here in Seattle. There was really no place to use them.”

His company built a race series, Stars of Karting, that went from regional success to a national series.

“About 10 years ago we approached the Fiorito family (which owns Pacific Raceways) to build a track,” Zalud said. “It’s not an easy task, to say the least. It was a great opportunity that the Fioritos gave us to build a track here. We live here in the Seattle area, so it made sense to have a track here.”

Formerly a gravel parking lot, the land was excavated and gravel was sold for the third runway project at SeaTac International Airport, with that work beginning in 2005. The price tag for the project was around $2 million, most of which went into the infrastructure.

As a result of the excavation, the track is sunken, with a hillside spectator area overlooking a track in what has become a velodrome. From there, race fans will be able to see all the cars on the track from start to finish.

“To be able to see all 15 turns without having to move is unheard of,” Zalud said. “Whenever we’re doing something out here, people always stop to look.”

There will be two different karting series as well as super moto. In the latter event, motorcycles run the road course then ride onto dirt, with some riders going as fast as 80 miles per hour. Zalud said they’ve also had drifting racers out on the road course or among the many other uses. It would be a good place to teach new drivers about how to navigate the road in adverse conditions, like the rain that went off and on while I was out at the track.

And after 1 p.m. on most days, anyone can “Arrive and Drive,” pay a $10 license fee and $25 for a 12-minute session on the track.

My suggestion is to bring gloves if it’s a little cool and cloudy. Because if I’d had gloves on last Friday, I would’ve driven that little nine horsepower, two-speed kart until it ran out of gas. I ended up spending about 20 minutes on the track. I will definitely be bringing my husband, brother-in-law, my best friend and anyone else who wants to go with me next time I head out to PGP.

“If you have the mechanical skills to be able drive, anybody can get in one and be competitive,” Zalud said. “It’s just a great sport.”

For more information on Pacific Grand Prix at Pacific Raceways, log on to www.pacificgp.com or call (253) 639-RACE.

Reach Kris Hill at khill@covingtonreporter.com or (425)432-1209 ext. 5054.