OK an update, just to confuse things even further.
This afternoon, the place was very busy. Nathan and I booked three 20-lap sessions, which normally takes us an hour, to hour-and-a-half. But there were so many people there queueing for rides, that we only got two of our three races in the time from 5pm to 7pm.
Before we left, we spoke to one of the managers, and she was saying that there's no way to predict how many people will turn up on a Sunday, some days the place is deserted, other days it's crazy busy like it was today.
So if we continue with the idea of "Arrive and Drive", there's a chance that if it's busy, we may not get much track time, or it might take us quite a while. And if there's a fair number of other people on the track as well, we could even get split up and not race as a group.
So it basically comes down to this - if we want to make sure we all race as a group, we can reserve the track for an "
exclusive hire" - which gives nine karts a block of time to race.
The cost would be $500 for two 20-lap races for up to nine people. (So if we get nine people out on track, we're looking at $56 each...)
I'm starting to feel less comfortable with the whole idea of just turning up - I was OK with it based on the last couple of weeks, but after today's circus, I'm worried that we'll turn up at the same time as half of Perth...
What I think we should do, is turn up at say 5pm, and Nathan and I will go out for one 20-lap demonstration drive, to give you an idea of things like the racing line, how to handle a kart, all that stuff (I know there's a few people who hasn't driven a kart yet.) Then we either do one of the private functions or an exclusive hire, and get the whole track to ourselves from 5.30 or so.... For the exclusive hire, we need exactly nine drivers. Nathan and I are confirmed as two of them, so we need another seven to keep the price to $56 each.
Thoughts?