At a recent branch meeting we decided that for the Christmas branch meeting that instead of doing the usual, traditional, thing of having a get together in the rugby club we would go karting. On the evening of the 18th December seven of us met up at Newport Supakart. The invite, as are all our invites, was extended to all members of our Facebook group which does contain non-HOC people. However only 7 took up the invite. On the night we had Brian Hudson, Pete Caslin (from Bristol), Alan Harper, Steve Llewellyn, Murray and Andrew Wiltshire and myself (Mike Jeffs). Murray suggested and organised the visit, so thanks go to him.
At the appointed hour we all gathered and registered, we then got shown a safety video that explained the flag system and what we should and shouldn’t do. After that it was a matter of putting on the racing overalls and finding a helmet. We were allowed to take our own helmets and gloves but some of us forgot that. We got to watch another bunch of guys and gals ripping up the track but were eventually called to get in the karts. Personally I had never done this before and was looking forward to the experience with trepidation.
Once underway the action was furious and as there were other people on the track who were not part of our group it was soon obvious that some of them were very experienced. Me, I was Captain slow and struggled a bit toward the end of the session. My mouth was extremely dry and my arms were dropping off but boy was I having fun. After a rest we had a second session but this time the track organisers had managed to get our group out on track on our own so we were just racing each other rather than strangers. I was much quicker on this session but I think so were the others. However after about 8 or nine laps I was tiring quickly and settled into a steadier pace.
At the end of the session we all agreed that it had been tremendous fun and that we would be back again but before then perhaps we should go 10 pin bowling as it was less strenuous . On the night we had 2×15 minute sessions and agreed that this was about right for our abilities and fitness levels. The following morning reports on Facebook all mention the level of hurt we are suffering.
Keep safe and Happy New Year to all, hope to see you all on a road somewhere.
