tommallett

Sometimes it takes a little provocation to drag you to something and then you really enjoy it. Go-karting is one of those sports.

It is some of the best fun you can have and for a very reasonable price too…certainly in comparison to other motorsport. It is also incredibly competitive, with every driver having theoretically equal equipment to play with so racing driver’s (famous) excuses shouldn’t come into play.

Anyway, India’s first native born Formula 1 driver Karun Chandhok was holding a charity event at the superb Whilton Mill track near Silverstone prior to the World Endurance Championship race and I went along to have a go.

It was incredibly competitive, as you would expect, and I discovered that despite the equal equipment it is possible to come up with some pretty convincing excuses!

We had a reasonably strong team of three, but could only qualify seventh on a grid of 22. Sadly our kart had a twisted chassis! So we swapped!

The race started and we held a steady sixth before an unscheduled pitstop with a broken engine, the next one had a twisted track rod and so we were dropped back into our first steed but five laps down! We were the only ones to suffer any issues and the event ran smoothly, but it did allow us plenty of excuses for afterwards, we would have been podium contenders otherwise surely?

However, it reminded me of a few things. Karting is great and I’m going to do more of it – back to club 100 I go! And secondly that nice guys can make it. Karun looked after us all evening and his charity makes a lot of sense too. Taking under privileged children in India and funding them through to degree level!

It’s a bit of a plug after a great evening, but if anyone is doing anything for charity soon it is worth getting in contact with him. In the meantime I am going to dust off my old TKM…