10,000 reasons to Go Karting

The Sun shone once again for our annual 6 hour endurance Go karting event at Buckmore Park on Saturday 3^rd May. This event is our main fund raising event and relies heavily on the support of those willing to race around the wonderfully exciting 1250m outdoor track at speeds of 75mph just inches from the ground.

32 teams took part this year meaning a very busy track with a lot of new teams as well as a number of the regular ones taking part. As always pole position wasn’t decided by practice lap performances but by the colour of their money as a sealed bid made for an interesting line up. One of the many Sir Robert McAlpine teams taking part managed to take pole position with the Cannonballers ready to roll. A total of just under £3,500 was raised on bid for grid alone with lots of teams bidding above £150 to secure a good position.

The event went without a hitch and lots of mini battles took place throughout the day but without incident. After half the race had been run and positions of teams had settled down the Race director opened up the chance to improve the position of those lagging behind by buying laps and throughout the rest of the day frantic purchases of laps resulted in a further £6000 being raised on the day bringing the money spent on the day alone to just over £9,550.

Along with money to date the total at the end of the day was over £11,000 not including anything raised on Just Giving. A fantastic amount raised and many thanks to everyone who took part and their sponsors for all their efforts.

In the end the race was won by a rogue team of Buckmore Park Instructors who had purchased a team and showed us all a clean pair of heels by winning by 6 clear laps, however due to their insider knowledge and experience they were disqualified by the Race Director and the champions of the real race were the Camp Freddie Team by just 14.679 seconds ahead of ‘Drive it like you stole it’, a very close race after 6 hours. Third place went to the GJD team (which consisted of just 2 drivers) who finished just 2 laps behind the leaders.

And the winners of the charity race a mere 604 laps ahead of the last team were the McAlpine American Embassy team who pipped a very late surge by the Red lanterns by only 23 laps. And in third place a mere 167 laps behind the winners were the Cannonballers .

On behalf of the whole charity committee and our members we wish to thanks all those that took part and all of their supporters for another fantastic  fund raising effort and also the Buckmore Park team who once again held an exemplary event for us. Hope to see you all again same time same place next year.