Event date: 21 November 2021

Driving go karts on a wet track is a lot of fun, but messy. Not only do you get wet but the little bits of rubber which come off the tyres get stuck all over you.  Not everyone thinks the combination of fun, wet and mess is a good idea! I do.

Leading up to our drive from Caldermeade to Stony Creek Go Karts the weather forecast was for rain, if not all day at least some of the day. So, a messy but fun day looked like what we would get. But no. The day was actually lightly overcast but mainly sunny without being too hot. One has to admire the bravery of weather forecasters giving us hour by hour weather predictions!

Using another of Peter Williams’ world famous how-to-make-a-sortish-journey-longer-but-much-more-interesting drive routes we departed from the BP on the side of the freeway at Caldermeade heading for Korumburra for a toilet stop and then on to Stony Creek Go Karts, taking about twice the time of the most direct route but at least 4 times the fun.

Peter was unable to join us due to a knee swelling up dramatically (now under control but the fix may take time) so I assumed the role of lead car and Tim Oh graciously agreed to be bring up the rear and make sure we did not leave anyone stranded.

With a lovely collection of cars of different vintages and capabilities we had an enjoyable drive along a mix of easy and twisty sections, arriving in time to have lunch before the karting session if one choose to.

The Stony Creek track is excellent, challenging enough to require actual braking and throttle modulation and wide enough to allow overtaking by faster karts (the session is not run as a race so position means nothing). I definitely prefer overtaking to being overtaken but experienced both.

The timing system records each lap time and outputs a sheet for each driver of their times each lap, fastest lap, fastest lap in that session, rather deflatingly the fastest time ever, and a “race position” based on average lap time. The honours went to Mark Mackenzie for fastest average over the two sessions and Luke Devlin for fastest outright.

We don’t yet have a “fun-o-meter” but if we did I think the readings would be very high all round. Perhaps more importantly everyone improved from session 1 to session 2, so we all learnt something.

Lawrence Glynn | Member #3
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne