Sweeties, Pies and Ginger

Went karting with work last night to Red Lodge Karting, which is just off the A11 after Newmarket. I was really looking forward to it as the only karting I've ever done has been on the toys ones at the Avimore centre. I really didn't know how quick they'd be, or what it would be like running on a track with seven other teams.

For some reason I ended up getting there first, which I was quite surprised about, so it gave me the opportunity to have a look at the layout of the track. It didn't look very wide, but some of the corners looked quite challenging and it looked like it would be fun to drive.

After everyone else turned up, we got handed overalls, helmets and gloves to wear. Once we were all in our gear we had the obligatory safety briefing and then it was time for practice. When it came to my turn I didn't really know what to expect and I was quite surprised at how difficult the kart was to drive.

The kart seemed to want to pull to the right all the time and with the track being anti-clockwise most of the turns were left handers. This meant that to start with I was really fighting the kart round the corners which resulted in me going sideways on a number of occasions. My times in qualifying were pretty bad but I put that down to the fact that I've never done this before.

The race was to last two hours and with three to a team that meant we'd get 40 minutes racing each. We decide to break that down into twenty minutes blocks so that we'd each get two sessions in the kart. As it turned out most teams did this and I think for a beginner's point of view it was the right thing to do.

My first session was a nightmare, I didn't have a clue how good the breaks were, so I was breaking far too early and thus loosing too much speed through the corners. I couldn't figure out why everyone was so much quicker than me until I someone passed me like I was standing still. I decided that I'd try and follow them and take the same line to see where I was going wrong.

It turned out that you could go flat out round certain parts of the track that I'd been breaking like a maniac on; I'd also been taking the wrong line into most of the corners as well. So I started to experiment and try going flat out round a few of the corners and what would you know it worked! So then I discovered that the brakes were a lot better than I'd thought they were, so I could keep going a lot later before standing on them.

Round about the same time I discovered this it was time to come in a pit, so in I went and our first driver went out again. During the next fifty minutes I managed to grab a veggie burger and a drink and have a wee chat with a few of my colleagues. I also managed to get some tips from the chap doing the food about how to take some of the corners, which was quite cool.

Soon enough it was my turn again and I was on until the chequered flag; quite cool to finish the race I thought. We were sitting in fifth place one lap behind the next car and only around 12 seconds in front of the car behind. Obviously these changed with the pit stop, but everyone else seemed to make one around the same time, so it all evened out.

This time around I was far more confident in the ability of the kart, I was breaking later and taking more speed into the corners and trying to go flat out round more of the circuit. It seemed to work as I was only over taken once, while I managed to over take quite a few people. All too soon though it was the end of the race and I had no idea where we were sitting with respect to the other teams.

As it turned out we were still in fifth place but I had managed to un lap us from the people in front and was only 20 seconds or so behind them, which was about half a lap. I don't know what my fastest time was as one of me team mates set the teams fastest and you only get to find that out. It's a shame not knowing how fast I went as I can't compare how good I was with anyone else.

All in all it was a great evening's entertainment only spoilt by the hand gestures of a colleague who was taking far too seriously. I'd definitely do it again though; half of me is even wondering about just going along and having a go, yet another expensive hobby I could get into...