), a trip to a small little karting track in North Pickenham, Norfolk was not something that got me losing sleep the night before or worrying too much about preparing the car... afterall it was only a kart track 
Anyway, the morning of Friday 15th September arrived and up I rose at 6am to get my bits together for the day and set off to the track. Not quite the end of the world but I could have sworn I could see it from there
... tucked away in a sleepy part of Norfolk I arrived. Having passed Alan IV from MLR en route at the petrol station he followed me until a very nice road opened up before me and in a spirited fashion, I drove stright past the entrace 
... not a good start for the day The bumpy and rough track led down to what could be described as an interesting and compact venue (After the 13 mile Green Hell, everywhere is compact) and coffee and chats preced the days events.
A quick walk of the track and the full tight and twistie nature really hit home - this thing was narrow !!!
with some parts where I could have sworn a 3 point turn was more in order.... but not put off by this we proceeded for a couple of sighting laps - mainly to remember the way around it more than anything else - before lining up for our morning's practice runs.Lining up at the timing beams for the first run - i thought about my poor car and vowed not to drive too hard as it had only just recovered from the abuse of the previous week. Anyway, given the signal, I proceeded to give it a medium revs start at about 3k and shot off to the first corner on cold and sand covered tyres..... whooooooooooooooooa .... no grip. Collecting it a little for the short blast to the second bend, I realised that I dont do slow. Why bother doing this if you are not gonna give it some (within safe margins of course) - tucking it into the sweeping bend and aiming for the narrow opening down to the hairpin and back out of the complex turnign into the next tightening left the back stepped out a little but tyres were warming a little now and offered more grip.... this was fun
Round into the next lap, the car felt better with heat and clean tyres and a short blast over the finish line clocked my time of 57 something. Not bad for a first practice I thought.
The next laps got quicker and trading best times with DannyBoy, we were having a good time.
Lunch was an obligitory trip to MacD's (it would have been rude not to as we were so close) and back for the afternoon timied sessions.
As I was having to leave at 2pm to sort some bits out and take my daughter to guide camp, I thought I would only do two runs and would therefore have to nail it from the off.... looking to get in the 54 second range for a respectable time.
First lap - 53.86 - delighted
Second lap was a little trickier - vowing to beat the previous time and Danny who had posted a little quicker still with his extravagent driving style
I set off and was going well until I overcooked it on the tightening left and back end almost overtook me completely and having to back off for this. I did a 54.00 dead and called it a day.They were also timing 0-64 ft times which was not something that I had any intention of competing for as the strain on clutch and drivetrain is a little hard IMO but recorded a 2.12 second time for this.
Total respect to the guys in the EVO's - out of the box they handle very very well indeed and ruled the roost there. I liked to think that I held my own (sort of) with them though
..... oh yes and I am deluded
Results Table:
Some Pictures Below:
Cheers for the passenger laps Duncan, a little different to the Nordscheife hey?!?!
:lol: