Date: 9th August 2008

Place: Leamington Spa. Mr Karting

1. Slippers
2. Ms Elshaw
3. Tangy Tom
4. Robin ya Mum
5. IainC
6. Chaz Shaw
7. Bex
8. The O Man
9. Dr Beatz
10. Delta
11. Tee-J
12. Mrs Tee-J
13. Paul

After a short introduction from Alan the circuit owner and a brief familiarisation with the Karts we were told that we had been upgraded from a "Grand Prix" to a "Super Prix". This meant, everyone gets 5 heats of 8 laps, everyone is then put into a 12 lap semi final and the top 6 on a points table would get put in a 20 lap final. Health and safety brief over, it was time to get kitted up and ready to race.

Race heat 1

Slippers 1st from 1st
IanC 2nd From 3rd
Tangy Tom 3rd from 2nd
O Man 4th From 4th
Mrs Tee-J 5th from 5th

Race heat 2

Ms Elshaw 1st from 1st
Paul 2nd from 5th
Dr Beatz 3rd from 4th
Chaz 4th from 3rd
Robin 5th from 2nd

Race heat 3

Tangy Tom 1st from 1st
IainC 2nd from 2nd
Slippers 3rd from 5th
Delta 4th from 4th
Bex 5th from 3rd

Race heat 4

Chaz 1st from 2nd
Robin 2nd from 1st
O Man 3rd from 3rd
Tee-J 4th from 4th
Ms Elshaw 5th from 5th

Race heat 5

IainC 1st from 1st
Bex 2nd from 2nd
Dr Beatz 3rd from 3rd
Tangy Tom 4th from 5th
Mrs Tee-J 5th from 4th

Race heat 6

O Man 1st from 2nd
Paul 2nd from 4th
Delta 3rd from 3rd
Robin 4th from 5th
Chaz 5th from 1st

Race heat 7

Slippers 1st from 4th
Beatz 2nd from 2nd
IainC 3rd from 5th
Bex 4th from 1st
Tee-J 5th from 3rd

Race heat 8

O Man 1st from 1st
Delta 2nd from 2nd
Ms Elshaw 3rd from 4th
Chaz 4th from 5th
Mrs Tee-J 5th from 3rd

Race heat 9

Paul 1st from 3rd
Tee-J 2nd from 2nd
Beatz 3rd from 1st
Tangy Tom 4th from 4th
Bex 5th from 5th

Race heat 10

Delta 1st from 1st
O Man 2nd from 5th
Robin 3rd from 4th
Slippers 4th from 3rd
Mrs Tee-J 5th from 2nd

Race heat 11

Paul 1st from 2nd
Tee-J 2nd from 1st
IainC 3rd from 4th
Ms Elshaw 4th from 3rd
Beatz 5th from 5th

Race heat 12

Slippers 1st from 2nd
Tangy Tom 2nd from 3rd
Delta 3rd from 5th
Mrs Tee-J 4th from 1st
Chaz 5th from 4th

Race heat 13

Paul 1st from 1st
Ms Elshaw 2nd from 2nd
Bex 3rd from 4th
Tee-J 4th from 5th
Robin 5th from from 3rd

After the heats were completed, the leader board looked like this:

It was then on to the Semi Finals

Semi Final 1

Paul 1st from 1st
Ms Elshaw 2nd from 4th
IainC 3rd from 2nd
Robin 4th from 6th
Delta 5th from 3rd
Tee-J 6th from 5th
Mrs Tee-J 7th from 7th

Semi Final 2

Slippers 1st from 1st
O Man 2nd from 2nd
Bex 3rd from 5th
Tangy Tom 4th from 3rd
Beatz 5th from 4th
Chaz 6th from 6th (Retired 2 Laps)

With all but the final completed the leader board looked like this:

O Man 1st from 3rd
Paul 2nd from 1st
Slippers 3rd from 2nd
Ms Elshaw 4th from 5th
tangy Tom 5th from 6th
IainC 6th from 4th

The final race was very trouble free through the first 10 or so laps with Paul leading the way and Slippers all over the back of his kart. O Man was a very short distance behind in third and the rest of the field was being slowly left behind. It wasn't until approx 3 laps from the end that Slippers and Paul had a coming together on the very last corner that let O Man sneak his way past. Credit to him for his patience, it paid off as right in front of him they stopped. Fortunately for him he was sitting far enough back to just get round them and into the lead before the red lights came on and the race was stopped to re-position the two crashed karts. O Man pulled a little bit of a lead from there to the finish with the closest battle being that for third place. Slippers was still all over Paul right to the death, but he just couldn't find a way past him. The podium positions were decided.

In First place The O Man
In Second Place Paul
In Third Place Slippers

After a quick presentation of the awards and Champagne for the winner it was off to town for a drink and argument about who cut up who, and who was using the karts as bumper cars.

Slippers was by far the most skilled driver there. He was always very smooth through the corners losing very little time skidding around like the rest of us. This is obvious from his superior lap time in the table below. That said, the driver of the day for me was Ms Elshaw. Not only did she post the second fastest lap of the day she also made it to the final coming 4th. I think it was unexpected by everyone, and for that she deserves a mention.

This one was slightly harder to pick. The obvious choice would have to be Carli. Not only for having the biggest mouth before the event, then coming nowhere in the leader boards and being the only driver to not post a time under 21 seconds. Plus the fact she only completed 2 laps of the semi final. My pick though must go to Tangy Tom for crashing his car into Delta's before we even left the car park. Well done you.

Overall we all had a great day out and it was well worth doing. I think I speak for us all when I say we will be doing something similar in the near future.