Lakeside Karting — Attraction in England

Having been to this venue three times before and thoroughly enjoyed it, I was very much looking forward to returning here again today.

I had a great couple of sessions in the Prokarts and decided to pay for a third session as I had time to spare.

On reflection, I wish I hadn't. Less than a quarter of the way through my session I was hauled into pitlane along with three others for seemingly 'breaking yellow flag rules'. I was present at the driver briefing at the beginning of my track time and, coming from a professional racing background I am fully aware of the dangers of yellow flags and the correct way of handling them as a driver.

As soon as I entered the yellow zone, I lifted the throttle, placed my hand visibly in the air and was prepared to stop if necessary. I was also using my vanishing point to good use and spotted the 'incident' which happened to be a marshall straightening a tyre wall after an earlier impact, way before I entered the corner where the marshall was present. Once clear, and with the green light on display I was back on full pace. In total, I lost 0.3s in that yellow sector which, under normal circumstances during a race meeting in other disciplines, I would have been deemed to have slowed enough in that sector and not been reprimanded for my actions implemented, let alone penalised.

However, on this occasion I spent 4 minutes in pit lane explaining the above to the marshall who had summoned me in to no avail and thus reduced my remaining track time. In my opinion, this was wrongly handled.

The briefing states 'half race speed' under a yellow flag, the problem with that is it is far too vague a description to start giving out penalties. Did I see the yellow? Yes. Did I slow? Yes. Was it enough by the circuit's standards? Apparantly not. Entering a yellow zone and suddenly reducing one's speed by 50% can also lead to a bigger issue, if the driver behind you has not been observant enough to spot the yellow and is taken by surprise by the kart in front of it suddenly decelerating, causing a second incident.

Overall, my experience today was a neutral one. After two cracking sessions (which also both had yellow zones during them, and yet my minor speed adjustment went without issue) the third session was a major let down, with me left feeling like I had been treated unfairly over the incident and as such I'm not overly sure at the moment I'll be returning as a customer. Although I appreciate the race director has a tough job to do - I believe that common sense should have prevailed and that I should not have been treated in the way that I was.

I would however, be interested in the thoughts of the company regarding my comments...

Disappointed! I decided to take my 8 year old son who hasn't done anything like this before and booked him on what was advertised as a beginners/novice session which clearly wasn't the case. He went into the barriers a number of times whilst getting used to the kart and track and was pitted an penalised by staff before the end. I find it astonishing that beginners (especially children) are not offered practice laps ahead of everyone else to get a feel for the track/kart or do not have a alternative track to ride on until they feel more confident. If I had known this was the case I would have gone elsewhere. I did not find the staff empathetic or patient enough towards him but instead told him that he was a danger to others and made him feel rubbish about himself and like he had been told off. He left the track feeling very upset which was not nice. This further knocked his confidence which I was trying to build and they made him feel he had ruined it for others on the track. The reality is that drivers going full pelt around you can feel extremely intimidating for children and adults alike if you are new to karting. A better system is required and staff need to be a bit more tactful when explaining things to children especially when their guardian is not present (I would have come in if flagged). They didn't notice that he required an insert in the first session or that he found it difficult to reach the pedals even after me insisting they checked. My Kart was taken by someone at the beginning of the session so I lost a few minutes while they were trying to get the person to come back in and no partial refund or extra time was offered for this mishap (the person was in the wrong session). Thank you for ruining not encouraging my son's first experience at go karting. After the race in the ladies changing room a male worker just walked in (without knocking to see if we were decent) and proceeded to hang up some overalls with no apology. Very...

By my opinion is things to improve. 1: Postcode given on site is getting you slightly in wrong place. So I was lucky for taking more time for coming. I don't think that they will allow you for next race if you'll get late or refund money. 2: Time between arriving and starting should be shorter, check in and breathing takes not that much time. Even if at check-in desk is just one person and if is 19 people racing like in my case you have to wait around 10-15 minutes, and you have to wait for another hour for race. 3: To many people was allowed for race, in my case was 19, you physically can't fit there so many people. Is not big enough for it. You're trying to gain speed and you can't, some people are slower or crashes in front of you and is just getting a mess. You have to be very careful, because passing a corner you might get into someone crashed there. 4: Racetrack is not the best quality, on corners are slightly higher concrete covered, passing them you feel like been hit by something and losing speed. 5th: You're not allowed to have any tipe of go pro video anywhere on you or fitted on kart, even if you're coming with your own kit. So you don't have a chance to record your race by any tipe of action cameras. They just will tell you that it's a safety precaution with their own inside rule, recommended, but they won't let you to use it anyway, which I found it very disappointed. In comparison to other UK or Europe places this was the only place where I couldn't record my race. Anything else was good, stuff was really nice and polite, breathing was done really good. You can have some fast food, cold/hot drinks and enjoy by watching a race. It's my honest feedback and hopefully you'll improve your customer service...