Our office was buzzing with chatter today about two new arrivals, not staff, or children, but go-karts for our youth-led track. They arrived in the early afternoon and looked amazing.

These aren’t just any old go-karts. They’re specially built with dual-controls so that two drivers can sit side-by-side. Either one can control the steering but only one can operate the accelerator and brake. They’re great for people who need a bit of extra support, or who are just learning.

We’ve always had two-seater karts but they’re quite old now – we realised today that one of them, built in 1990, is older than many of the staff.

Obviously we needed to check the new karts were working properly and were up to scratch before any of the young people used them. I valiantly volunteered for this task, so Leftwing Idiot and I suited up and got into the kart.

There’d been some rain so Leftwing Idiot took it easy at first, but as he became more familiar with the handling he pushed it to see what it was capable of and we belted along. These karts aren’t designed for speed but we still picked up quite a pace, and travelling close to the ground it felt very fast and exciting indeed. Even so I felt safe in the new kart, and it’s definitely more robust than its predecessors. I even had a go at steering (while sticking one leg out at the same time!)

The new karts will make a big difference to how many disabled children are able to drive at each session, and after a thorough de-brief with our colleagues we declared the karts ready for action.

Today’s test drive was definitely one of the perks of my job, and soon there’ll be another – seeing children get their first taste of motorsport.