No one seems to have mentioned karting since 2015 so here goes.
It was my elder son's stag do on Saturday so 11 of us found ourselves at the outdoor karting track at Tockwith near York looking foward to few laps in the 2-engined 250cc karts. I had taken both my sons occasionally for some years and we all thought we knew the track well, but new owners had taken over and reversed the track direction. If ever there was a case of needing to know the track backwards, this was it.
We raced in one group of 5 and one of 6, each group having 2 sessions. For the first few laps, despite driving kart no.13, I managed to hold my own in the top 3 but then the lighter guys learned the track and were soon passing me, but not before someone spun and punched me into the tyre-wall. I saw my son-in-law spin in front of my son and get T-boned. Son needed a few moments R & R after that. I think he piled into the other kart with his foot still hard on the brake.
Remembering the briefing when the owner told us it was possible to take the chicane flat out, I decided to have a go. It was obvious that most of the group were chickening out halfway through because the engines would go pop-pop-pop on the overrun. My confidence far exceeded my ability. Driver error meant my kart took a sloping apex kerb hard and launched into the air, the engines' revs soared, and I didn't land until well after my braking point. Then it was straight into the tyres in a cloud of smoke from locked wheels, collect some spectacular bruises and wait for a marshall to push me out. In the break between sessions I rightly became the butt of much humour from my son's heartless friends.
In the second session I had a different kart with much more sensitive brakes. It took a lap or two to unlearn the hefty shove on the pedal that the first kart needed to slow my bulk down. Then it began to rain with increasing severity. Assuming the kart's unwillingness to turn had a lot to do with the absence of a differential, I figured out that I should go steadily round the outside of all the bends. Outside that is, while avoiding those karts stuck in the tyres. The youngsters' enthusiasm and confidence was their undoing; by the time we were red-flagged I absolutely owned the hairpin. I also wished the kart's bucket seat had some drain holes. Bucket seat, boom-boom!
Outdoor karting; absolutely the most fun that someone my age can have with their trousers on!
Let's have your karting experiences.
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Karting new
Karting new
