:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

First of all, a big THANKS to everyone who came along for the day yesterday! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did :) Though it has to be said I was too worn out even to post anything last night when I finally got back...

Great to meet so many people, put names to faces, etc. Apologies to those that I kept asking what their names were ;) but suddenly meeting around 50 people that you've never met before takes it toll on the old brain! Great also to catch up with the usual crew (Dave & Carolyn, Sal & Chris, Stef, Puff, and more and more... :) ). Dave was stunning in his new livery of a full Jordan race suit! :eek: Also sorry I didn't get chance to talk to everyone properly... maybe next time :)

There were lots of very nice (and very clean!) cars out on display - spotted an early Skyline and a nice Alfa/Lancia (?) parked in the Jordan car park too... Even mine was clean, after being comprehensively the most filthy at Jimi's Herts meet on Saturday :)

The karting was close and hard-fought, with Team Weave being stunningly quick and Arkansas Chuggabug right up there until a wheel fell off their wagon :eek: ! The Bitten Heroes (Jordan boys) won the day in the end. Great racing by all though, with even the newbies putting in some decent lap times by the end of the day. The track was very variable gripwise as it was drizzling on and off... made for some entertaining oversteer action :D:D

So... the results look something like this (position, team name, best lap):

1 Bitten Heroes 49.854
2 Team Weave 50.585
3 Arkansas Chuggabug 48.540
4 Fab Shop Four 50.199
5 Gazza's Gang 51.461
6 All Torque 52.100
7 The Muppets 49.770
8 Bitten Ham Rolls 51.212
9 Red Line Riot 52.102
10 Team 12 50.772
11 Flyin' Fat Boys 52.161
12 Norfolk Enchants 50.156
13 Northern Monkeys 53.428
14 Team 3 52.484
15 Sauber Grapes 51.551
16 Minardi-Gras Experience 52.414


Not sure how that'll look thanks to the formatting on Scoobynet - I'll try and post a scan of the original at some point :)

The meal afterwards was nice and chilled out too - nice pub, and.. erm.. thanks Sal for pointing out the gently rocking long boat on the river next to us: "Look at that.. I wonder what they're up to?" :eek: :D:D


So there we have it... a great day out, great people, great track, great fun. Later in the year, watch out for a proper factory tour, and hopefully a look in to the wind tunnel facility too :)

Cheers
Richard

[Edited by Bitten Hero - 2/18/2002 2:48:35 PM]

I think it was Arkansaw Chugabug with 3 wheels on their wagon..not us.


Jeff

Oops, corrected :)

Thanks Richard...

it was a great afternoon/evening!

Nice to meet Matt and co. as well as seeing some usual faces!

Gives us a shout for the next one!

Richard

It was a Lancia Monte Carlo in the carpark ...

Hi All

A big Thanks to Richard for a great evenings entertainment :D. There was some fantastic racing action that went on due to the changing weather that kept us all on our toes and sometimes on the grass. I would also like to thank the Whilton Mill mechanics for fixing 3 of the 4 Karts we tried to destroy ;). Evertime I went out I bought a knackered Kart back into the pits so a big appology to the boys on the 'Norfolk Enchance' team :D.

Cant wait till the next one

Cheers

Neal

Thanks Richard for a great day out. I didn't get to go to the pub afterwards as everyone I saw, was going elsewhere and I didn't know where to go. Sad but true.

Our team got through 2 karts, both with broken wheels....It may have been a different result otherwise.

I thought the Bitten Heroes should have been called 'Team small and light weight';) but that's just Suaber Grapes I suppose;)

Looking forward to the next event.

F

I had a fantastic time too :-)

Many thanks to Richard for taking on organising such a large amount of people.

Also a big thanks to the rest of Team Weave, Jeff's advice helped me shave a couple of seconds off my lap times (when it was dry at least).

Can't wait till the next one (please!!!! ;)) then the Norfolk crew can have a try at destroying their new twin engined karts ;)

Matt
P.S. Jeff, you were right! :D:D

You did very well Matt...

If anyone would be interested we could do something similar at Buckmore Park (bit more local to me !) with a nice view of the work on the high speed rail link...


Jeff

Beached Halibut
Thanks from me too......great evening:D

We were obviously not trying hard enough - our kart stayed in one piece;)

The sticking throttle (shut, or wide open, nothing in between) provided some entertainment when it was raining......:D :eek:

Sounds like you all had a great time - Im well jealous.

Deffo up for the next one as Ive just been karting two weeks ago and am well hooked. Going for our 3rd session in two weeks tomorrow.

Anyone else Kart around the Cambridge area? Me and a few mates use the Caxton track (only indoor) at the moment.

Bad Hair,

I also had a great time, but I feel I should point out that Team Weave never actually led the race. :)

And, no, I'm not a sore loser.

David H.

Duffer Hairdo ;)

Ok, changed the 'editorial' again to hopefully get it right this time!

Blazing Hurricane :)

David H

We did actually lead for a while...not very long about 10 mins.

Anyway you guys where trying to get me to slow down by hanging over the pit wall and pointing at the Kart...!..bl**dy cheek :-)


Jeff

[Edited by Jeff Wiltshire - 2/18/2002 2:56:08 PM]

[Edited by Jeff Wiltshire - 2/18/2002 3:16:25 PM]

My appologies also go to

1. The slow person I was shouting at to get out of my way ;).
2. The person whom I overtook at the end of the start finish straight jumping over the grass via the rummble strips 'A' Team stylie. Then waving at them ;)
3. The person I was fighting with on the esses while Overtaking 2 other Karts. Sorry for the slight tap that knocked you off ;)
4. The person whom I over took on the start finish straight whom I Gestured to buy putting my thumb to my nose and waving at them with the same hand ;)
5. And anyone else I have forgotten :D

Kart No. 10

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Oh yeah anybody coming to the Coventry area meet on March 3rd. See Midlands section for more info.

Neal :D

Branded Hippo


[Edited by NM - 2/18/2002 3:54:42 PM]

Jeff,

We weren't trying to put you off...we were just saying "that's the guy that Bob isn't catching!"

There was some debate about stealing your team's "To The Pits" sign, and hanging it over the wall, but we were just too honest!

Must have blinked, and missed you guys leading the race. Which quarter was it in?

David H.

[Edited to add who the post was directed at.]

[Edited by dharbige - 2/18/2002 4:06:54 PM]

Thanks Richard,a top karting experience the monkeys loved it.Rich

David

I thought you where pointing at me saying 'that was the overweight fat git who did Bob up the hill with tremendous style nay sennaesque in his abilities and is now pulling away at a rate of knots"

Sorry didn't catch your real meaning...!

We led the race in the 2nd quarter when my star pupil (Matt) was driving.

Jeff

PS Who where the bunch a whippets that Richard imported to drive for his team ? I reckon that in future they will need to be 2 in a kart just to even the weight advantage up!

Jeff,

Not meaning to split hairs too much (:)), but are you sure you led in the second quarter?

That's when I was driving, and when I went out we were a lap-and-a-half clear of the field (thanks to our own ringer!), and when I came in, we were still in the lead, albeit only just as we lost the lead (to the Bitten Heroes) during the change.
I know I got overtaken (twice, I think), but perhaps Matt was un-lapping himself.

Did you see the lead on the T.V. screen, or were you keeping track trackside?

David H.

David

According to the timing screen Matt came in when leading (might have been due to pitstops etc)

You would have beat us into 3rd if you could have kept all your wheels on ....

Jeff

We don't care that we were cr*p! We had a blast! :D:D:D:D

Doing a 51 second lap is not bad for a lanky 17 stone person! LOL ;) ONce again, thanks to Richard for organising it, and I hope that we can have another one there once the new karts have arrived, and the weather has become a little warmer/drier. I'm sure I'm not alone.

Thanks to my team too! Sauber Grapes rule ( well, OK then, we don't) :)

Matt

I feel a shoot-out coming on later this year :D

Richard

(Bitten Hero not anything else B* H* :) )

[Edited by Bitten Hero - 2/18/2002 5:10:43 PM]

Don't see how you're going to make 'Bitten Hero' fit DHL or Damovo.
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines02/02/s8486.html
F1's in a sorry state when the most exciting bit is speculating what colours the cars will be in the forthcoming season ;)

I think B&H will still be there somewhere so I should be safe! Though apparently it's not been decided yet what the wording will be on 'unbranded' races (i.e. no cigarette advertising), so I may yet have to change my username :( We'll see :)


By the way, while I think about it... does anyone have any ideas as to how the day could have been improved yesterday (organiser hat back on again :) )? Feel free to post here or mail me off-line with ideas - all accepted gratefully - as I like to make these things as enjoyable as possible. Maybe a half-hour drive-around (for those who want to take the less direct route!) in between Jordan and karting? Any other ideas?

Cheers
Richard (Being Hopeful :))

You could start by turning off the smell at Jordan! :D

Just a note to say thanks for a great day. :) I told you we would come last, my team didn't let me down! We only needed to replace our kart once so we'll have to work on that.... The ladies in our team were indeed very brave (and scared) as their only previous karting experience was on the pier at Brighton :), my other team member (my not so little bro) had his first drive of any vehicle whatsoever that day (I can't believe he's from the same gene pool ;)) so I was proud that he put in a 53sec lap before the rain came :)

Can someone tell me if the track had dried completely by the end? I thought it had but others said it was still slippy. That would be all the mud on the racing line then :).

Only requests was to control the weather and do the karting in the daylight, both from a spectator perspective as it was cold, and viewing from the side was limited. Oh, it would have been nice to have the same No.s on the back of the kart :).

Hot summers day next time please!

Again, thanks Richard for organising this - a pleasure to have met you :)

Justin

Thanks!

Yeah, the farmers round here insist on creating that unique "countryside smell" on a regular basis... I had a cold and didn't even notice! :)

I agree about doing it in daylight etc - it was a bit difficult to see what was going on. Next time will probably be in August, so nice and warm and hopefully dry! Karting's never a great spectator sport at the best of times to be honest.

Glad you and your lovely ladies enjoyed it, and your brother's lap of 53s is most impressive for a first time driving anything! Nice one... :)

Thanks for the ideas,

Cheers
Richard

Richard

Thanks for a great day. Well worth the drive down from North Yorks

Looking forward to the next time

well done.

Nige.

Thanks again Richard - magic !
Looking forward to the rematch !
As for improvements - only one - another 10 degrees C air temp would be nice (hint for a summer meet !) :)

Norfolk Enchants - when are the secret practice sessions ready for next time ???

Stan

Blistered Helmet

Improvements? - I don't mind racing in the dark at all (more difficult to be spotted when you give someone a nudge;)) but daylight would be better for the speccies; and Saturday would be better than Sunday for us commuters that have to get up at the crack of dawn on Mondays.....

Fantastic day out Richard :D Well done for organising it, we had a really good time :)

As for the next one a Saturday would be good and daylight even better, oh and can it be a bit warmer too? ;) :D

Sal