The team was:

• Gil Williamson
• John Farr
• Joe Czirbesz

Thirty (count 'em) THIRTY teams were entered for the race, and we were relieved to qualify 17th on the grid.

Our game plan was to drive an hour each, and Gil went out first, only to retire, winded, after twenty minutes. This was partly due to the fact that he had worn a padded waiscoat under his racing suit to protect the ribs, but found it suffocatingly hot. His early retirement was such a surprise to his team mates that John was still eating his Three-Course Gourmet Dinner Experience (chips from the canteen) when Gil started signalling for a pitstop. At the handover, we were in 14th place. A fellow competitor took the opportunity to run over Gil's foot in the pits on changeover, and Gil hopped off.

Joe took over and drove an excellent half-hour session, pulling us up to 10th.

John's subsequent session was terminated five minutes early by a premature enforced fuel stop (presumably a less-than-full tank at the start) but he had capitalised on the light fuel load by posting a lap time that was fourth best on the night. The fuel crisis meant we dropped to 14th again.

Gil pulled us back up to 10th, then blew it by committing an unforced error and parking the kart on the grass facing the tyres.

And so it went, with our placing oscillating between 14th and 10th. We finished 12 laps behind the leaders (who, incidentally, won the 10 race series at the event) and 34 laps ahead of the back-markers.

We have decided to describe the event as a learning experience, and, actually, we all enjoyed it. Knowing you are not going to get a cheap plastic trophy at the end, whatever you do, is a bit of a load off the mind. But WE'LL BE BACK.