Jan 14th 2013
Kartforce Team report
This was by far our best team performance to date. The lads performed on par with far more experience kart racers and professional racing drivers.
There were 20 teams – 6 drivers per team – in this 3 hr endurance race. We qualified in 20th place – last – but less than a second from pole position. That’s how tight it was.
As usual, Mark, our double amputee “Viking” was first out. Mark has an uncanny ability of slicing his way through the field at the start, and he did this again. By the end of lap 2 he’d made his way past 4 karts and at the end of his 30 min stint, handed over in 14th place.
Our Rookie, above knee amputee Welsh Guardsman Dale, was up next. This was Dale’s first race and he did us proud. He fought tooth and nail to defend his place, once getting into a real battle with World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff, only loosing 1 place on the grid in his 30 min stint.
Above knee amputee Stevie was up next – the “Fastest Tankie in the West”. In his usual calm but ruthless manner, Stevie picked off one driver after another and clocked up our fastest lap of the race – only 0.833 secs off the fastest lap of the race.
Ben Collins, ex Stig and James Bond stunt driver, took over with the team now in 12th. The kart had to be re-fuelled which meant we dropped a couple of places to 14th. The lads enjoyed putting Ben under a bit more pressure by telling him we’d had a bet amongst the team that any lad that didn’t go faster than the him had to buy the beer after. Four of the 5 lads clocked faster lap times than the Stig, which is a testament to how far they’ve come in such a short time.
“Mr Consistant”, our efficient Household Cavalryman took over in 14th place. Even after having the shortest stint of all the drivers, Martyn took us up to 12th place as after 20 mins, for tactical reasons, we called him in under a yellow flag. He wasn’t impressed, but understood why.
It was now down to our “Flying Scotsman” to take us to the chequered flag. This double amputee Black Watch soldier is not short on determination and, as Ben Collins said, “has serious skills”. Davie took us to our highest place of 10th and after a couple of racing incidents, crossed the finish line 12th.
This is an annual charity race held every year at the Autosports International Show at the NEC. This year’s race was in memory of Dan Wheldon, a British driver that was killed in an accident in a NASCAR race last year. Dan’s wife and family attended the event, which was raising funds for the Alzheimer’s Society. Some of the drivers racing included Johnny Herbert, IndyCar racers James Winslow & Dillon Battistini, Italian sportscar ace Emanuele Pirro, double World Superbike Champion Troy Corser, Rob Huff, David Brabham, McLaren’s Sam Michael and McLaren test & development driver Oliver Turvey. Also driving were ex-footballer Robbie Savage and Travis drummer Neil Primrose.
Once again, the lads have shown teams made up of far more experienced racing drivers that you don’t need all your limbs to race on a totally level playing field – you just need BRITISH BULLDOG BALLS!
The race will be aired on Motors TV several times over the next few weeks – as soon as dates are published we’ll post them on our Facebook page.
This was a perfect start to a new year of racing for KartForce. If this is what that lads can achieve in less than a year of karting, roll on the 2014 Johnny Herbert Karting Challenge.
See:
http://www.johnnyherbertkarting.co.uk/