We arrived at the venue, alongside Snowplanet at Silverdale, dashed from the warm car into the building, only to find that all three huge roller doors were wide open. This was necessary of course to get rid of exhaust fumes, which worked very effectively by keeping a constant stream of ice cold air flowing through the huge building.

So much for the warmth. It was then that I realized that every other time I had gone Go Karting, it had been summer or close to it! Note for organisers – Go Karting is not a winter sport!!

So, as the 16 in our group gathered, we huddled together, dressed as though we should have been at the Snowplanet, ducked outside from time to time to absorb a pathetic amount of warmth from the sun between showers and waited for the previous group to finish, somewhat late.

Then it was our turn. We had eight teams of two, with each driver doing 15 laps and then changing over in the pits, until the fastest team reached 120 laps.

Once we started the cold was forgotten and the race was on and the time seemed to go very quickly. In fact the 120 laps take a little under an hour to do. From shortly after the start, there were the normal mutterings about some Karts being faster than others. Strangely enough these mutterings came from those who were lower down the table on the continually updated results screen. Personally, on the part of the course where it was possible (and necessary) to be ‘flat to the floor’, I found that I always stayed a constant distance from the Karts in front, which convinced me that the Karts’ performances were very similar.

The member of one team, after the other member decided not to continue, pressed on, without incurring the time penalties of the driver changes. However, that team came last anyway, so there was no real advantage.

The organisation was slick and safety was well controlled. Contact between Karts was a ‘no no’ and subject to an ’in pit’ time penalty, or removal, if persistent. I think ‘yours truly’ was the only one to receive a summons to sit in the pit for a penalty, when Geoff Broadhead spun in front of me and it was difficult to avoid hitting his Kart.

Go Karting did not seem to suit the females in our party and they dropped out of their respective teams early on. Both of them found the levels of testosterone a little too high (though I cannot imagine why!) and physically the Karts are quite heavy to steer. Although I did not notice it at the time, I later found I had large bruises on my elbows, particularly on the right one, because of banging against the frame of the Kart on the mainly right hand turns.

At the end of the fray, we all took off to the Albany pub to find that the normal bar was closed for a private function. Some went on to another spot in Albany, but we headed for home, not wanting to miss the All Blacks v. South Africa.

Many thanks, Cammie, for organising yet another very successful event, despite the cold!!

Peter Stanes

Check out the Results page HERE.