SNOW,SNOW and more SNOW (AGAIN)!

Thursday 12th Febuary 2009

Still no biking, this week six of the biking crew went Go-Karting (indoors)!

All of the six who went were a competetive bunch, and when we had gone through all the safety briefings, someone asked ' what would be a good lap time for a punter then?'
The reply was 22 secs is a good time 21 secs very good lap record 19.73 secs!
The gauntlet was down! Soene was going to either beat the 20 secs mark or be thrown out/injured trying.
The race consisted of 20 laps warmup/qualifying, and then a 30 lap race.
during qualification Jeff broke the throttle cable, so ended up with a less responsive spare kart, then Cub managed to dislodge the chain from the drive sprocket, the guys at the centre did a sterling job of putting it back on with a spark plug spanner and brute force! Well done lads!
We pulled up at the starting grid, and the marshal put us into our starting order, I was dissapointed, but not surprised to see I was only 5th quickest.
We were all at 22 secs or there abouts so on the pace, apparently the concrete floor of the track doesnt get warm enough to go much quicker in the winter.
When the lights went out for the race start, the front 3 went off like lightening, and I was right up the back of jeff for 4 laps, nowhere to get past, and shouting at him to 'come on'. Next thing I know, he's away.... miles ahead, and I just couldn't close the gap.
I did eventually catch up, and as I did he backed off so he could have a dice with the others as they 'lapped' him. I kept on pushing and started to catch the others, as I did a massive shunt from behind knocked me into the barrier, and then another kart hit me in the left side. A battle now ensued!

With the aggressive battle under way, the lap times got better, but the driving standards did not! The race was over 3 laps later, and we all got out rather hot inside the helmets and overalls
Looking through the results afterwards in the pub, showed that I set 4th fastest lap time in the last 4 laps of the race, (when we were battling) 21.57secs the quickest being 21.21secs. Well done to Ben, Andy and Cub for fast laps and consistency, Had the slow to respond spare kart but managed to get away from me, when asked what he did to change the pace 'I stopped braking, and just rolled into the corners'! So thats the secret. a big well done to Scott who had only been karting once before, and not with us lot.

As for me? Well I'll never master smooth cornering, all the years sliding rally cars into (and out of) corners has left me with lightening reactions but a tendancy to brake late and throw the kart sideways, leading to a loss of forwards speed, and a slow exit, usually rammed upto speed by the guy behind!
Injuries? Slightley dammaged ego, a bruise to the left ribs, and cramp in my fingers for a while afterwards.

Cheers Jeff, an excellant alternative to biking in the snow!