Site last updated:
 15 April 2008

The Playscape Pro-Racing 24 Hour Kent Karting Challenge 1996

 A team of 6 club members spent the weekend of 28th/29th September racing against 41 other teams in a 24 hour race at Heron's Park, Lydd, in Kent.

 Here is Louis' report on the event:

 We managed to qualify in 27th position out of 42 entrants. Our illustrious team leader made the start - a Le Mans start. So cool and collected was he, that Kam was seen to be ready on his stop watch so that he could see how fast he ran to the Kart. He made an absolutely blinding start and was one of the first to pull away. He must have made up about 8 places, including passing in the middle of two other drivers, on his way to the first corner. At the end of his first hour-and-a-half stint we were somewhere between 12th and 15th position. Louis went next, followed by Roland Slee, Dennis, Rick and Ray. We managed to get up to 8th position before dropping back to 9th which we held for many hours. A full course yellow during Kam's 3rd stint resulted in us making a tactical error. No one was watching Kam's frantic signals to call him in. When we did call him in the pace car came in as well and we lost a couple of places putting us in 12th spot. Many of us asked why we were doing this - it was windy, cold and raining from time to time - the answer, of course, was obvious to each of us the minute we were in the karts and racing - it is fun! Given that there were a number of professional teams, some from Belgium, Germany and Holland, we were all pretty pleased with our result. In fact we established that we were probably one of the top amateur teams present, and definitely the top British amateur team from Milton Keynes <G>. Of note is the fact that we beat the Benneton Formula 1 team in spite of them arriving with a Formula 1 car - fortunately, they were not allowed to use it.

And now for my own memories of the event:

After drawing lots for our kart and then locating it and carrying it to our allocated pit area, we attached the team numbers to it. While we were then checking the kart over by counting the wheels and kicking the tyres, we noticed much activity from the some of the other teams, who were practically stripping down and rebuilding their karts. Our newly purchased tools were sitting shining in their pristine box until team member Roland contacted Barry Callen, of Invicta Karting Promotions, to provide mechanical support for us. Barry arrived after the practise session, but in plenty of time for the start of the race, and checked over the kart for us. He declared it to be pretty well set up, confirming our own feelings after the practise session, but nevertheless made one or two minor adjustments, such as adjusting the tappets and tightening up the odd nut and bolt.

The weekend was extremely windy, but at least the sun was shining when the race started at 15:00 on Saturday. A Le Mans type start was used, and our team got of to a terrific start, zooming from 27th to about 18th place before the first bend (modesty prevents me from revealing the name of the first driver!). During the first hour-and-a-half before our first driver change we progressed up the field to 12th place. We spent most of the race hovering about 10th or 11th place, although we did at one point creep up to 8th. During the night the rain appeared and the wind got even stronger, threatening to blow the tents away. A tactical error during a period behind the pace car cost us a couple of places. We should have changed drivers and refuelled under the yellow as a large number of the other teams did. Most of the time we managed to follow our agreed tactics which were to go as fast as possible while avoiding spinning, and also to avoid damaging the kart by contact with other karts or the kerbs. In this way we managed to keep the kart running smoothly for the whole 24 hours, and had no trouble with it until the very last lap. When Ray crossed the finishing line for us our kart was making some awful noises, as one of the drive sprockets had packed up, probably due to inadequate lubrication. The race went on for some 7 or 8 minutes beyond the scheduled 24 hours, and some of the other teams had cut it a bit fine with their fuel. At least 3 karts had to be pushed across the line.

Electrical problems caused the race computers to stop twice, so the organisers had to manually collate the results of 3 separate race periods, which meant that we did not get the full results until 2 weeks after the race. We finished in 12th place, feeling very pleased with ourselves at having finished so high up in our first attempt at a 24 hour race. This position was particularly satisfying as most of the teams who finished above us are professionally involved in karting or some other form of motorsport.

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