Minimal

Went karting again last night, this time down at Langbaurgh (Middlesbrough) as part of a 3-man team in a 90-minute endurance race. I can honestly say I’ve never been quite so bruised and battered after a race. I’m in a world of... soreness. I guess it’s not really pain, but leaning back in a chair is not an option. ;)

You want to know how we got on, right? Well, out of the 16 teams racing, we came 6th. I, for one, was pretty damn pleased with that, as there were some seriously good drivers out there. In fact, the event was organised by the local motorsports club, so I think we did rather well. I think Chris and Dave, my teammates for the night, were reasonably happy too, so a good evening out then.

Having qualified in 2nd place (each team member had a shot and the fastest person’s time was taken), we slid slowly down the field, as it seemed that most teams had put out their best driver first. Our tactics were a little different, preferring to avoid congestion both on the track and in the pit-stop driver changes. As each driver had to have two stints in the race, most people went for their first stop after about 15 minutes. We kept Chris out till 20 minutes, letting him get into a groove and claw his way back through the field. When he came in, we were back up to 3rd.

The rest of the race was a little hard to judge, as different teams’ pit-stop times juggled the leaderboard lap by lap. However, we spent most of the race hovering around 8th or 9th place. Despite sounding like a really long race before we started, the time just flew by and as the circuit floodlights came on, it was time for me to take the final stint.

Coming into the pits, Dave had got us to 7th place. After coming out again, we were back to 9th or 10th. Of course, I had no idea which karts on the circuit were our immediate rivals, so I just went for anyone I came across and kept an eye out for people passing me. About half-way into my shot, I started catching a guy ahead who seemed a bit quicker than most and for the rest of the race had some fantastic racing with him. Sadly, the only point at which I got ahead of him was when I was travelling backwards, having made a desperate lunge up the inside. Still, you’ve got to have a go, haven’t you?

Although we missed out on the trophies, we were still pretty pleased to have achieved our aim of 6th place. Next time, we’ll be looking for a bit more. :)