Go Karting with Teamsport

I’m a little bit embarrassed about the number of hours I’ve clocked on Mario Kart.  There’s nothing more satisfying than whizzing past my brother while he skids off the road on a banana peel, or slamming Sunny with a perfectly timed green shell (…and nothing quite as frustrating as when I get bumped right on the finish line when they both enact their revenge).  We  all love it, and we’re pretty good at it.  I mean, okay, we still career off the edge on Rainbow Road (damn it!), but sometimes – and especially around Christmas time – we’ve played it for so long that we end up seeing red shells in our sleep.

With that in mind, for Sunny’s birthday this year I booked us in to give the real deal a go (…minus the red shells) at Teamsport’s Go-Karting track on Newport Road.  On Sunday nights they offer Unlimited Karting – 50 minutes of track time split into five, ten minute sessions.  So around the same time that the Brazillian Grand Prix was struggling with crashes and restarts, we were taking to the track ourselves.

All those hours spent on Mario Kart counted for nothing (…who could have guessed?).  It was tough!  In our group there were guys who came down to race every week and so our first round on the track was a punishing one.  Sunny got black flagged and pulled into the pits (for breaking the rules…), and I was more Maureen than Massa.  We got overtaken a lot.  We sucked.  We came last.  Well… I came last.  Not only that, but my hands were hurting from gripping the steering wheel so hard.

But by the third lap we got into it.  We stopped using the break as much and flew into the corners (…Literally, in my case.  Twice.  Ouch.) – screeching and skidding around each bend.  Our times got a little better.  We didn’t come last.  By the final round I actually managed to beat Sunny and clock my fastest time (which was still four seconds behind the leader, but still…!).  🙂

…I also clocked my slowest time in that round because I went spinning around one corner, slammed into the barrier and got stuck…  😦

Go Karting is even more fun than it looks, and also a lot harder and more physical than it looks – we were both surprised how much we were aching by the time we got home.  But we’ve already decided to go back and try and beat our times.  Also, apparently at the Bristol branch they do a Mario Kart themed night for members – which sounds amazing! 🙂