[Pumpkin]

Date & Time: Saturday 14 June 2003, 12.30pm

Location (Town/City): Basildon, Essex

Venue: Meet at Festival Leisure Park

Contact Person: Yvonne Bardwell (iamv2001@yahoo.co.uk)

Okay guys and gals,

Firstly, apologies for a long email, but it has to be done .........

This is it, the new Ford Centennial Celebrations Meet which is now officially a Big SX Meet - number 3 8) and replaces all plans made for Dunton in the Park 2003.

Depending on numbers and the positive feedback (or otherwise) I receive, I have decided to make this one a little different and we are therefore to go Go-karting!! Finally, I hear many of you cry :wink:

At the mo the karting centre has pencilled us in for 14:00 on Saturday 14 June 2003. I have 2 weeks (deadline 14 May) to confirm we are definitely going and then after this confirmation, I will then require deposit money from you. So I was thinking, that we meet on the Festival Leisure Park at 12.30pm and then all convoy to the karting centre. I am hoping parking won't pose too much of a problem. We race - there is a snack bar there for those of you who won't have already eaten and after the racing, for those wanting to come along (so please let me know this too), we will go to a restaurant for a pub grub type dinner, then all head off home

We are booked (provisionally at the mo like I said) to go to Rayleigh Indoor Karting Stadium:

www.rayleighkarting.co.uk

I have been once before, which was my first time karting (with work) and despite breaking the arm of my old pair of glasses , I actually quite enjoyed it.

At the moment I have allocated space for 30 people ONLY, so it will be very much a first come, first served basis, with priority given to those of you who had originally signed up to Dunton in the Park at Ford which was to be held on Sunday 15 June. I list below all the names of you guys that I have recorded. Please let me know if you want to come karting (whether you will be coming alone or with a partner/friend) or you now don't want to come at all, which is fine. I will assume a non response from you in 2 weeks time means you aren't interested.

Those who have already expressed an interest are:

Me, Kevin Handfield, Chris Downes, Ed Hicks, Paul Hawkins, Pete Drinkwater, Lisa Selby and Toby (I understand could do a Saturday, but not the Sunday meet), Richard White, Colin (BOK), Carolyn Brough, Darren and Laura, Dan (dannfireFRP349), Dan Armstrong, Terry Kirk, Rich B (Basingstoke), Kevin Thornton, Chrissie Moffat, Robert (Forest of Dean), Adam Hoxby and Scott Blackwell.

So, there is a cost involved :roll: The karting session is Formula 2 Grand Prix and costs £38 per person. A £20 non refundable deposit will be needed per person to secure your place so if you are definitely coming, please PM me so I can let you know my address for sending the cheques to. Please make cheques payable to Rayleigh Karting Limited and I will get an overall receipt for everyone nearer the time. The lady at the stadium said, please ensure bankers card guarantee number on the back of your cheque.

So what do I get for my money you ask? bankers card guarantee number on back payable to RK ltd

Well, the F2 Grand Prix includes:

6 heats (all drivers) (5 laps)
Final top 8 drivers (10 laps)
Trophies to top drivers.
Prices include VAT
Guaranteed exclusive racing (we only race against our own group)
Full race suit hire (you can bring your own crash helmet if you have one)
Video Rules and Regulations Briefing
Practice Laps
Race Directors Final Briefing
Computer Print Outs of race points
Pit Stop Bar open after racing only
They organise who races who for what heat over 6 heats each!!!
We can also choose to have our group photo taken which costs £3 for A5 or £5 for A4, but knowing us lot, there'll be plenty of digital cameras so it won't cost us a thing :wink:

A minimum of 12 drivers is needed for an F2 Grand Prix.

So I am hoping that covers everything for the time being.

Those requiring directions to the Festival Leisure Park, please click the following links. If you plan to overnight (Colin I know you were asking me), there is the Holiday Inn, Travel Lodge and Premier Lodge, all on the Festival Leisure Park.

LINK ONE

MAP LINK

Over and out for now. PM me if you need to.

Back to work now!

V & SEV
SX Meet Organiser

[R5CPD]

Yep, sounds great!!

[puma_driver]

Hi V,

Has been a while since I logged on and now i've seen this, I was just wondering if there was a seat free..... not a deff yet, would have to sort out work if I was to come. Can you let me know please

Thanks

[BOK]

Best have a light snack before.

Hehe I can see some kind of tactic here...going for the higher power to weight ratio 8)

Either that or you'll be eating a torch :wink:

[R5CPD]

I've already been checking out the layout of the track on the Karting Centre's website. I've had a goo look to plot the best lines through some of the corners. :wink:

At the end of the back straight, there's a tight right-hand hairpin. Looks good for a spot of biffing on the way in!! Given that I'm attending a BTCC meeting for two out of the three weekend's prior to this karting meet, might mean that I'll be up for a bit of Braille-driving out on the track!!

[Adpuma]

[quote="R5CPD"]At the end of the back straight, there's a tight right-hand hairpin. Looks good for a spot of biffing on the way in!!

Errr...say what? Just get a hotel room like anyone else, you filthy scoundrel!

[puma_driver]

Hey, Guess what???

Yep, i've gotta work Sorry V, I won't be able to come to this. Am a little bit gutted, would like to have given Chris a run for his money. Maybe next time. Hope you all have a wicked time!

[R5CPD]

Looks good for a spot of biffing on the way in!!  

Errr...say what? Just get a hotel room like anyone else, you filthy scoundrel!  :lol:

Ha-Ha!! Yes, thank you Ad!!

[R5CPD]

I just wanted to post a quick thanks to say well done to V for organising such a great event!

I think that I can speak for all of us to say that we all had great fun out on the track and also enjoyed the fine meal afterwards.

Despite my best efforts, I would like to congratulate Simon for coming out on top at the end of the day. Obviously, upgrading to an Audi TT has honed his driving talent!!

I hope also that my BTCC-style driving tactics didn't create too much drama during the races. :wink:

Anyway, well done V and I hope that we can look forward to another Essex karting meet later in the year!!

[scottyb]

Well done V for a cool meet,

I think the correct term for V's trophy was 'Best Bird' but respect to Colin for the politically correct term 'Best Lady'.

And to put the record straight, I would like to blame "the first corner" just after the start/finish straight for my lack of points in 2 heats and I would also like to blame "the marshals" for letting everyone drive past me and then waiting a few more seconds before unhooking me from the first corner on both occasions. I would then like to blame my "right foot" for its insistence on pushing the pedal a little too hard....

Anyway, hope this is a more regular occurance and i'm sure the vicious competativeness some of us experienced will fade in time :twisted: :arrow: :arrow: :arrow:

[PaulH]

Yep, many thanks V for arranging a fun day of karting. Didn't manage win a trophy unless you include the big bruise on my hip caused by Adam crashing into me at high speed! :sorry: :shock:

Sorry couldn't stay for food, too many things to attend to and also desparately needed a shower! :eyes:


Till the next one.

[Black_Kat]

Great days fun.

Well done to pro-driver Simon winning with his flash race shoes 8) and to Yvonne for best bird, I mean lady driver :wink:. Well done Chris for collecting the most warnings!

I think I might owe Chris something for helping clear the way. I was sitting fifth on the grid at the start of the final, a bad first turn in the first chicane caused me to go wide :oops: which Yvonne took full advantage of (she takes no prisoners on the track). She then managed to get past Chris and we both spent most of the ten laps on each others tail trying as hard as possible to get past. It came to the last corner before the checkered flag when Chris thought he could squeeze past. A shunt on Yonne's kart pushed her wide with loss of momentum. I was then alongside Yvonne and going for the line, I am glad her visor was down as I bet the language was bad. Well I managed to pip her to the post to grab fourth by 0.16 seconds and Chris managed to get his third rolled up black flag. Cheers Chris, a good laugh.

Oh, the four car pile up was amusing and at the same time frustrating.

The meal afterwards was good too. Another great meet.

I have posted the group photo to the album and the results. I had to chop the results as the forum restricts the height of pictures to 600 pixels.

Kevin.
T5 KRH

Save it for the track :!: :twisted:

[Pumpkin]

Morning PumaPeople,

Having read the posts from you all thanking me for organising Saturday's Go-Karting Meet, I just wanted to thank you all for thanking me! It was a huge success and the turn out - 15 of us - was great! Also thanks to Ben and Ed who joined us and to Carolyn and the other half (sorry name escapes me!) for showing to say a quick hello. Good to see Colin and Ad back on the road with the FRP's and hopefully soon Chris will have his back too

I think Chris, Colin, Scott, Paul and now Kevin! have summed the meet up pretty well. It's funny how the boys seem to be the ones with bruised thighs and bottoms :wink: Funny, I come out unscathed and sporting my 'Best Lady Driver' trophy 8) Who'd have thought I'd be pitting my wits against the boys in the 10 lap final I did it as much for me as I did for the girls - talking of which I think the girls deserve a thank you and big pat on the back for making the effort at giving karting a go - from the qualifying results, you'll see, that for beginners, they did pretty well - good on ya girls And thanks to our very own Chris for buying me a welcomed large glass of white wine following his dirty tactics on me in the final lap :wink:

A big thank you to Kevin for posting the group photo taken at the stadium and for cropping the results for all to see. These can be found in the album section of this Forum site. We didn't actually take many, if any photos at this meet, because we were all too busy concentrating on our driving!!!

Well done to Simon, Darren and Ben for winning the 1, 2, 3 trophies 8)

The meal afterwards was very tasty too and nice to see Heather and Larry join us for that. I think it rounded the day off nicely.

Why do I get the feeling that I will be organising another karting meet before the year is out? Guess we will just have to wait and see!

So, see you at another SX Meet soon, which just so happens to be Big SX Meet 4 on Saturday 19 July 2003 at 12 noon, meeting as usual, on the Festival Leisure Park. Go on ...... you know you want to :wink: Don't forget all other upcoming meets as well.

V & SEV
SX Meet Organiser

[Adpuma]

We'll have to do that again! My excuse is that it was just too much damn fun taking every corner sideways to bother with trying for really fast lap times. I swear I had those little karts almost 90 degrees on some of the quicker corners.

Funnily enough I got passed by a mate of mine on my way home, so ended up spending an hour or two along Saafend seafront with some of the lads from fiestaforum and zetecs.com. The majority vote is that the F2 spoiler stays on the FRP. It does get no end of looks and admiring (yes, really) comments from people in general too, like the guy in his 50s who complemented my 'lovely car' when I was putting in a few quids' worth of Optimax.

Anyway, see you all again soon. Try not to get too jealous of my Peugeot. 0-60 in under 17 seconds is quite an experience, ya know. :wink: