Thames Valley Centre (Bi-Annual) Go-Karting - 2009

 

 

On the 14th of November at the Premier Karting venue in Reading, an afternoon of fun packed action was enjoyed by the 45 people who made up the eleven teams that battled for superiority around the indoor karting track.  After the track briefing by the head marshal, the initial good humour and friendly atmosphere soon evaporated into a fiercely competitive period as the members of the eleven teams battled against each other to establish the starting order for the coming race.

 

During the race, it was required that each team should perform two additional tasks – these were to bring the karts into the pit area and with the drivers observing, the remaining team members had to remove and replace the steering wheel from a non racing Go-Kart and also during another planned stop, to remove the front wheels from another machine and then replace them onto the opposite axels from which they were removed.

 

It soon became obvious that team tactics were going to play an important part in the afternoons racing, as some teams quickly began to make the required stops to perform their additional tasks, whilst others flogged onwards trying to establish a good lead.  This was the approach that the Thames Valley Wrinklies took and at the mid-point when refuelling was undertaken, the team had a one lap lead over the rest of the field.  However as the race began to unfold and the red mist started to appear in some competitors eyes, tactical nudging and fiercely fought positional driving emerged that saw the teams containing the Healey racing drivers slowly forge to the lead.  They were however closely pursued by some other fast drivers who managed to end the day splitting the racers.  The Thames Valley team finished a gallant seventh.

 

During the times that the drivers were engaged in their gladiatorial combat, the remaining teams and their members chatted amongst themselves cheered on the drivers and relived their own drives, often trying to explain to each other why they had finished facing in the wrong direction, this all added to the pleasant and enjoyable time that everyone appeared to experience.

 

The members of the first three teams were each awarded medals and the final team positions were:

 

1.         Healey Heroes                          210 Laps          Best Lap          28.215 secs

2.         Wild Giles                                205 Laps                                  29.028 secs

3.         Healey Herberts                       202 Laps                                  29.056 secs

4.         Bicester Fireboys                      201 Laps                                  28.939 secs

5.         Mini Cooper Register               198 Laps                                  28.800 secs

6.         Rawles Motorsport A               196 Laps                                  28.808 secs

7.         Thames Valley                          195 Laps                                  29.441 secs

8.         Bionics GP                               191 Laps                                  29.691 secs

9.         Rawles Motorsport B               188 Laps                                  29.523 secs

10.       NAS Racing                             187 Laps                                  29.599 secs

11.       Barry Hunter                            175 Laps                                  30.412 secs