Karting
The weather was a great mix for the karting, a drying track to start out which gave way to walking pace drifting once a shower hit (never laughed so much when racing). Could almost spin the wheels in a straight line, madness.
After the rain stopped, the weather just got warmer throughout the day and the track dried and increased in grip, to the extent we were back to only dabbing the brakes for the reverse Eau Rouge style corner. Quite the change from earlier.
The karts were more closely matched this time, with no obvious super fast or slow karts. Not saying they were anywhere near as even as we would have liked but complaints on this front were definitely reduced this time. I had some of my best racing this year, was nice to end up part of a pack at times.
My sympathies go out to the Swedes (Mike & Andreas), who, after traveling so far, ended up with some of the worst luck regarding karts.
The endurance race was unexpectedly cut short soon after our team (myself, cargame and ACCAkut) stopped for our last drive change + fuel, only to find there was none left. The marshals were also citing running out of karts as a reason. They did at least make up by letting some of us take out the "Thunderkart" for a few laps apiece which went down very well (allegedly circa 30hp, vs a measly 5½hp for the hire karts). Can we get 9 more for next year?
Evening
Amusement began soon after the awards ceremony when I awkwardly discovered at a roundabout on the way to Jason's that cargame and I were following one another. This was soon rectified though and the rest of the journey was without incident.
Alcohol did give way to some amusement as the night progressed, after nominating myself chef and even managing to cook some food (apart from the sausages Jason had hidden and neglected to tell us about) we had some laughs with twister though many (wisely?) declined to join in. Embarrassing photos to follow?
Poker and pool seemed to go down very well also, TVE is a flukey bastard at darts, three_jump is inventive with Jenga blocks, Stormcloud wins an honorary award for "most severely passed out" and people seem to think I'm starting to resemble Simon Pegg. The anniversary cake was quickly consumed, pretty healthy going for a cake I think; makes a very pleasant change from the chocolate encased variety I usually seem to be offered.
Morning after
Usual pleasantries, breakfast, helping clear up and people making their leave. Some people watched the F1. Becky, TVE, ACCAkut and I left in convoy about half way through the race and later grabbed lunch at a service station somewhere in the midlands before Tor and I had our tearful goodbye.