The Northwest Karting Challenge and Social Gathering

[Sureboss]

First hydrogen powered Lotus Cortina?

 

[TheCracker]

First hydrogen 'lack-of-power'ed LC maybe.

 

[PAPPACLART]

That looks like a fantastic track, though a little to far for me.

 

[Famine]

That looks like a fantastic track, though a little to far for me.

I'm motorbike sure motorbike you motorbike could motorbike get motorbike there motorbike in motorbike no motorbike time motorbike at motorbike all motorbike on motorbike your motorbike motorbike.

Motorbike?

 

[Sureboss]

Tourettes for bikers?

 

[Duke of Pendle]

We have enough drivers for a good evenings' racing.
However, I can still add drivers up until the event.
So, if anyone decides that they would like to join in, just let me know. 👍

 

[Duke of Pendle]

Shameless double post, just to remind everyone that this event is just over a week away.
Time for last minute crash-diets, searching for those elusive hundredths, which will enable you to be in for a chance of the flashy trophy, together with the title:
G T Planet Northwest Karting Champion 2009

Still room for late entrants 👍

 

[Fastas]

Phil, I shall bring some scales and plenty of lead weights to make sure everyone is equal

I'm on a see-food diet at the moment, if I see food I eat it
D.

 

[Stevisiov]

I am going to be on strict dieting and exercise regime for the next few days, 10 and ahlf stone just isn't enough of a weight advantage to make up for my snail pace. 👍

 

[Sureboss]

I'm in. Flight booked home, coming up with Stotty. Got a room booked at the Heathside, £25! I'm not expecting much!

👍

 

[Stevisiov]

I'm in. Flight booked home, coming up with Stotty. Got a room booked at the Heathside, £25! I'm not expecting much!

👍

Great your coming Nigel.

Look forward to beating racing you again. 👍

 

[Sureboss]

Been ages since I've Karted. Certainly not since I was a (smaller) kid.

 

[Duke of Pendle]

Final (probably) post before the night 👍

There are 22 of us participating in this event.
There are trophies for 1st, 2nd and 3rd overall, and also a specific trophy for the GTP winner.

Please arrive by 8.15 pm at the VERY LATEST

I have just been informed that all participants must be minimum 18 years of age, but I don't believe that's an issue for us. However, if you look like you could be younger than 18, please bring some proof of age. I will be bringing my passport .

Strict rule: No drinking of alcohol before the event. If it is suspected that you have been drinking, you will not be allowed to race.

I will update the OP with this information.

Looking forward to a fun nights racing 👍

 

[Roo]

Don't forget, everyone staying overnight, that the Chinese Grand Prix coverage starts at 7am (race starts at 8am) on the Sunday morning after.

 

[Sureboss]

I'm not so sure my place will have a TV at £25 a night, I'm not sure they'll have electricity!

Is someone bringing a camera?

I was thinking on-board slow-mos?

 

[Stevisiov]

Is there any after race drinks going on?

 

[Duke of Pendle]

Is there any after race drinks going on?

There is a bar at the venue.
Warrington is well endowed with pubs.

To quote the great Arthur Daley "The world is our lobster"

Must be your round then Steve

 

[Stevisiov]

There is a bar at the venue.
Warrington is well endowed with pubs.

To quote the great Arthur Daley "The world is our lobster"

Must be your round then Steve

Ah great, looking forward to finding out who the fastest drinker driver is.

Leave the tab to the student hey.

 

[Stotty]

I'm not so sure my place will have a TV at £25 a night, I'm not sure they'll have electricity!

Not usre I fancy dropping you off there in the POrker... I might get car jacked!

 

[Duke of Pendle]

OP updated with address and phone number for venue.

 

[Sureboss]

Not usre I fancy dropping you off there in the POrker... I might get car jacked!

You'd probably get car-jacked if you drove a 2CV.

 

[PAPPACLART]

I'm motorbike sure motorbike you motorbike could motorbike get motorbike there motorbike in motorbike no motorbike time motorbike at motorbike all motorbike on motorbike your motorbike motorbike.

Motorbike?

Bit late on my reply here!

I would take my bike, but it has been in a sad state for sometime, especially after my accident back in november. The exhaust is crunched, I think at least one of my front forks is slightly bent. Also my Ohlins shock is in dire need of a service/rebuild. I will taking the bike to my friends tmrw, exhaust is coming off and being sent to be re-sleeved and my Shock is being sent off to a specialist for a rebuild.

As for go Karting, still planning on going to somewhere more local, just waiting for my firends to all become available.

 

[Stevisiov]

Not long to go now, I presume some people will have set off by now. Hope to see you lot soon for some good racing.

 

[Fastas]

On my way!

 

[PrudentBear]

I won the race home to post first!

We had a great night's racing. Many thanks to Phil for his efforts in organising this event and to everyone who turned out. It would be great to do it again some time. Well done to Stotty, the new GTP karting champion! There's a few pics in my profile.

👍

 

[Duke of Pendle]

Indeed, we had a great night of racing.

The venue lived up to expectations; friendly personnel, good consistent equipment, challenging track, professional and slick organisation of the event.
I would certainly recommend this venue to anyone.

It's always great to put faces to names. Everyone arrived in good time, and my first impressions were................everyone is so, well...tall!!!
I was certainly in the minority, being one of the very few sub-six footers.

The racing was close and competitive, everyone completing 5 races to accumulate points in order to qualify for the final. Top ten points scorers competed in the slightly longer final race.

Stotty was class of the field, winning the final.
Roo pushed him hard all night, subsequently taking second place in the final.
I came third, probably thanks more to defensive tactics than with outright pace.

Leaderboard prior to Final (GTP members in bold):

Stotty_______________44 points
Wanna_B_____________40 points
DukeOfPendle_________39 points
PrudentBear__________39 points
Duncan_______________39 points
Stevisiov_____________33 points
Roo_________________32 points
Carl__________________31 points
Fastas_______________31 points
Taylor________________30 points
Mike__________________26 points
Gavin_________________24 points
Bill___________________23 points
Richard_______________19 points
TheWinkler____________17 points (psn name)
BigWill69______________16 points (psn name)
Stacey_______________14 points
Sureshot______________13 points
GTP_MJH______________11 points
Nicci_________________11 points
Abigail________________7 points

After an evening-long tussle with Stotty, Roo ended the night with fastest lap.

Thanks to everyone for making the effort to turn up and making this event a success. Stotty's talking about organising a similar event in the South - I'll look forward to that!

Hopefully photos to follow.
OP updated with this report.

 

[Hyper-Dan]

Sounds like you guys had fun, nice pics Prudent, and well done to Chris for the win. 👍

 

[Fastas]

I had a great evening last night. Thanks to the Duke and Duchess of Pendle for all the organisation which made the event pass smoothly. 👍

It was nice to meet you all and as Phil said, it's good to put faces to names.

Congratulations to Stotty for taking the win!
well done to Roo for his very fast Fastest lap!

and Pru, well done for getting home quickly

regards, Dan

 

[Stotty]

Just got home after a night at friends in Wimslow followed by a thrash through the Peak District to visit my parents this morning and finally a 'gentle' cruise back down the M1/M25... and I'm knackered now!

Brilliant night out (and not just because I won)... great to put faces to so many names and on-line personalities... always a relief to find no axe murders amongst the group. Nigel was good company on the way up and seemed relaxed with the general pace of travel.

The venue is highly recommend... I've done a bit of karting over the years, and that's the best indoor venue I've visited. Loved the layout and personally I got good quality karts for my 6 races. Managed a couple of good results from back of the grid starting positions early on, and the followed that with 3 wins from 3rd, pole and 4th to get top points and pole in the final... then just a matter of avoiding mistakes as very difficult to pass otherwise. Had a great battle for fastesr lap alll night long with Roo, and he finally managed to beat me in the final.

Massive thanks to Phil for organising a great night... the Southern return will be August at Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey... a really good outdoor track with twin-engined karts... and I'll be defending my title

 

[Roo]

21 drivers, including 9 GTPers, took to the track for the ingural GTP Karting Challenge. The format was a pair of 3 1/2 lap practice sessions, half the field in each, followed by the heats: 14 in total, each driver racing in 5 of them, all also 3 1/2 laps. Points were the same as F1: 10 for the win, 8 for second, 6 for third through to 1 for eighth. The top 10 drivers went through to the 4 1/2 lap final, points deciding the grid order. Fastest lap counted for nothing except bragging rights ()

Drivers

Driver		Kart Number
Stacey		1
Carl		2
Mike		3
Nicci		4
Taylor		5
Gavin		6
Matt		7
Abigail		8
Bill		9
Duncan		10
Roo		11
Stotty		12
Sureshot	13
Stevisiov	14
Richard		15
The Wrinkler	16
Prudent Bear	17
Fastas		18
GTP_Wanna_B	19
Big Will 69	20
Duke of Pendle	21

The Roomobile:

Grids for Race Heats

		1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th
Heat 1 -	20	5	11	2	19	16	8	13

Heat 2 -	18	6	1	7	15	17	4	10

Heat 3 -	21	20	14	13	9	11	12	3

Heat 4 -	10	19	8	5	18	4	6	2

Heat 5 -	17	9	15	7	1	16	12	21

Heat 6 -	8	3	13	6	10	18	14	20

Heat 7 -	4	2	9	17	1	19	5	11

Heat 8 -	7	16	12	15	21	3	14

Heat 9 -	13	6	10	4	8	5	9

Heat 10 -	1	15	21	19	3	20	18

Heat 11 -	12	14	11	16	17	2	7

Heat 12 -	3	18	19	21	10	8	1

Heat 13 -	11	5	9	4	17	13	15

Heat 14 -	2	14	16	12	20	7	6

I haven't got the results for everyone's heats - all I know is that I got a 4th, 4th, 5th, 2nd and 1st in mine. If anyone wants to either add yours to the thread or PM me I'll put a table together. (Prehaps I'm taking this too seriously?)

Sureshot and Stevisiov, not at all acting up for the camera:

The Final - Grid

Pos	Driver		Number	Points
1	Stotty		12	44
2	GTP_Wanna_B	19	40
3	Duke Of Pendle	21	39
4	Prudent Bear	17	39
5	Duncan		10	39
6	Stevisiov	14	33
7	Roo		11	32
8	Carl		2	31
9	Fastas		18	31
10	Taylor		5	30

The Final - Results - 4 1/2 laps

Pos	Driver		Number	Fastest Lap		Difference
1	Stotty		12	1:04.60 (Lap 4)		
2	Roo		11	1:03.77 (Lap 3)		 +2.66
3	Duke of Pendle	21	1:05.67	(Lap 4)		 +4.84
4	Stevisiov	14	1:04.27 (Lap 3)		 +5.14
5	Fastas		18	1:05.89 (Lap 4)		+11.60
6	Duncan		10	1:05.67 (Lap 3)		+19.46
7	Carl		2	1:07.25 (Lap 3)		+20.74
8	Prudent Bear	17	1:07.06 (Lap 3)		+22.74
9	Taylor		5	1:07.54 (Lap 2)		+23.12
10	GTP_Wanna_B	19	1:13.52	(Lap 2)		+1 lap

That was fun! I'm bruised and achey but it was worth it. Big thank you to the English Duke and his Duchess for organising the whole event and looking after my camera respectively. Good to meet some more GTPers, although I don't think I met all who were there. Battling Stotty for fastest lap all evening was entertaining, as was the final, which was epic fun with some good clean racing. Congratulations to Stotty for taking it! I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did 👍 Looking forward to round 2!

Edit: Nigel, why were you Sureshot and not Sureboss?