Kartmasters for Children in Need endurance race on Friday night 18th Nov and our Racing With Autism UK team were ready after a fun and sneaky practice a few weeks ago. I had not visited the Trafford kartingvenue since I was five years old and although the layout has changed we all got down to some decent laptimes topping the sessions.
Our team consisted of myself, Will Young, Maisy Philips, Adam Parker, and our Team Captain, Stacey Copeland, commonwealth boxing champion and Radio Manchester late show and sport presenter, who we knew would bring her good spirits and competetive nature to the team.
With Will Young putting it on pole we were off to a good start when the three hour race got going at 9.30pm, (although he did get punted off on the first laps and had to come back through from last). Everyone during the race doing their bit keeping us in the top three for most of the 3hr race. We split the stints for Adam and Will to coincide a driver swap on the refuel and make the necessary number of mandatory pit stops.Maisy did her middle stint posting our 200th lap close to the two hour mark and I did a forty minute stint in which I posted what would eventually be fastest team lap, and fourth fastest laptime of the event. Quite pleased with that given we were in the company of some professional racing drivers and top level karters.
All was going well for a podium,... that was until the 'buying laps for donations' feature was introduced. lol. To raise money and mix things up a bit, for a limited time teams were allowed to bump themselves up the standings for £5 per lap. When this all shook out we were still in fourth place and got ourselves back up to 2nd at almost 12.30 pm, 300 laps in, with 5 minutes left to go. As Will put in our final laps of the race we huddled together round the mic to report the result to Stacey who was live on air until 1am. During the interview Will had finished on track and came out to join us. In the dying minutes of the race hundreds more had been raised by allowing bought laps again at £10 per lap. The result of this mayhem led us to take the chequered flag while in fourth position on the scoreboard.
All good fun, it was a fantastic night, with great atmosphere and energy at the event, and lots raised for a good cause. Also a great experience for the team to be sharing the track with KartForce - Karting for Injured Troops , and the pro racing drivers too. Looking forward to expanding the RWA UK teams and entering in more endurance events in 2023.
Thanks to Salvo Cachia for organising an awesome, inclusive event, raising thousands for BBC Children in Need . His fundraising link below is still active until 30th November if you would like to donate
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And thanks to our team captain Stacey Copeland who we kept updated throughout her late show on BBC Radio Manchester , you can listen again on the link below , and catch her chatting 2hrs 26m in) with the team as we completed the race
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Also thanks to Motorpoint and JPC Specialist Motorsports backing us, & helping our team raise hundreds of pounds towards the event total.
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