Just thought I would add my 2c. Went out to Nanango on Sunday 20/11/2011 and had an absolute blast! The track is top notch, with some brilliant, flat out, hold onto your pants corners and well placed technical sections to make sure you're working for each second. I've been there twice, totaling 2 hours on track time. First was a 30 min session about 6-8 months ago, then 3x30 min sessions on Sun. Mates hadn't been there before. I've posted the time sheets of my three sessions, to show average speeds, times that are achievable on the track, and the possible variation to karts performance. The spikes in lap times are caused by slowing down to let the other two catch up so that we could race in a competitive situation, not just as a TT style event. On the third session, I had the slower of the karts, and as such my times don't spike as much cause I'm trying to catch them, not slowing so they can catch me.
There was some pretty varied performance from kart to kart, with a couple being noticably quicker than others, tho that seemed to be more about tire degredation than power fluctuations. So note the condition of your tyres before mounting your beast. I will note, that when informed about the problems with the karts(one had flogged tyres, and one pulled to the left somewhat) , the mechanics were straight onto rectifying the problems.
The staff are more than friendly. The ladies behind the counter are always ready with a smile and that warm country comfort. The guy's on track were professional and quite helpful. Throughout the day (3 hours spent at the venue) there was a consistent flow of people throughout the day, with some cavernous gaps between skill and confidence levels. Being that we were on for the full 30 min session, they'd space the groups out so that we'd have 5-10 laps with the three of us goin hard out and allowing us to scrape every thou we could from the karts with minimal interfierence.
The seats are probably one of the more comfortable kart seats I've found. Still end up with some 'golf balling' on your back, as the seats are quite wide, but for a 1.5 hr session, my back wasn't half as sore as 3x10 min at KP.
Honestly, the only thing I could fault them on is being 2.5hrs from Brizzy. But I tell you people, it's worth it.
Prices as of 20/11/2011 were:
Membership (incl licence) $2
30 mins - $32
20 mins - ~$20
10 mins - ~$10
*Not sure about the 20 and 10 min prices. didn't pay that much attention.
If you want a nice road trip and a day karting with the boys/gals/fam, don't spend your money at Big Kart, or Landsbrough, or Krapston Park. Go for the drive, make a day of it. The country out there is beautiful, the people are a whole different breed, and you'll get 1.5hrs of on track thrashing for under $100 (total cost less fuel was $98ea incl licence) Fuel was about $50, but when everyone contributes, is only $10-$15pp. So, that's a 1.5hr day on the track for ~$110. True, it's quite the treck, but oh so worth it.
Am thinking of organising another trip out there in the not too distant future if anyone else would be interested in goin for a cruise. No date of yet, but hell, the more people we got out there the merrier! DON'T FORGET YOUR SUNSCREEN! (Got some narly burns on forearms and front of shins)
*note, I refer to KP a bit as my measuring stick as I worked there during the upgrade from the Le Mans track to the abomination they have now, and raced there a bit during my teenage years. I know lots has changed in the last 9 years, but there's so much that will always be the same. And knowing Terry, he'll still be runnin that place by the balls.
