Autosport International, the Racing Car Show, is once again being held at the prestigious Birmingham NEC Venue.  Among the numerous floors of motorsport entertainment there will be a purpose built Go Karting Track.  The track will be available to the public to try their gokart driving skills on an arrive and drive basis.  The car show is open to the public on the 15th and 16th January 2011.  The first two days prior to that are for trade and press only.

On the second day of the exhibition there is also a celebrity charity gokarting team race and members of the public can join an array of motorsport personalities by joining a gokarting team. Availability may well be limited but if you want to demonstrate your gokarting abilities to the Birmingham petrol heads we suggest you book your spaces now.

The Autosport show really has something for everyone and gives people the chance of meeting Formula One drivers as well as TV presenters and motorsport technicians.  More importantly you will be able to see historic cars and the most up to date, and expensive, high performance cars as well as drive in a Formula One simulator.

It really is a show rather than an exhibition offering lots of family fun.

All of us here at gokarting.co.uk will be attending the Birmingham show among the thousands of other visitors and we will let you know who posted the quickest gokarting lap time.

If you want to find out more of what is on offer just click here to see the gokarting area at the Birmingham NEC.

The third Lloyds Banking Group GoKarting Charity event was held at the Streatham Indoor Gokarting track on the 10th March. This event saw 55 drivers in 15 proud teams competing for the kudos of being the most professional drivers of Group IT.  We were delighted to see team representation from key suppliers Computacenter, IBM and Microsoft.

There was some great driving skills to behold and some even better crashes; the start was especially exciting with several racers attempting to overtake by going through rather than around the karts in front! Racing was held on the extended 600 metre International track which added to previous years events and made the track more challanging even for the more competent drivers in the group.

There was a clear winner on the night and we would like to congratulate The Three Amigoes (Tony Wetheridge, Steve Baggott and Drew Blackmore) for a fantastic display of gokarting. The other podium places were well contested and this ended up being a vendor affair with IBM pipping Microsoft to second place.

We won’t mention who came last but fair to say they at least enjoyed the evening!

The real success from the event was the generous sponsorship for charities and I’m very pleased to announce that the event raised £770 for the various supported charities, which is a fantastic and impressive amount. The chosen charities were -
British Heart Foundation – Lloyds Banking Groups chosen charity of the year who received £300
Rayleigh International (www.raleighinternational.org) – Water pump system in Borneo have been passed £170
Sport Relief – donated via Robin Mitchells site http://www.mysportrelief.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=71029 received £200
Orchard Cancer Relief to which we passed on £100 whom concentrates on a cure for testicular cancer

Also the are a few people that need thanking for making the event such a success
Jimmy our Race Director on the night who kept us nicely under control
Playscape and GoKarting.co.uk who helped us raise valuable funds
Alexina for adding a touch of glamour and for helping with the food

Lets look forward to next years event.  Everyone except the Three Amigoes will need to step up their game and practise their GoKarting skills.

 To hold you own private event or simply to test you and your friends driving skills just give us a call on 020 7476 1234 or drop us an email on events@gokarting.co.uk.

Thank you to everyone from Lloyds TSB who supported the BARNADO’s chartity GoKarting race held at Streatham Kart raceway on the 26th July 2007.

After months of preparation Dean Palumbo successfully recruited 48 competitors to race for each of their departments pride.  Teams from various parts of the Lloyds TSB IT department competed against each other in aid of the Barnado’s charity.

The gokarters came from far and wide, Manchester, Andover and even as far as Chingford, Essex!  This was an ideal opportunity for everyone to put “names to faces” and improve team spirits.

After a few polite introductions, it all became very serious - crash helmets on, let the gokarting challenge begin!

Once everyone had had a chance to get familiar with the track it was time to race and demonstrate just how competitive IT people can be.

“The Four Stigs” took a very quick advantage and virtually led from the outset - John Burnett, the pro among the group, regularly posting sub 26 second laps, which helped their cause immensly.  After two hours of solid Team Endurance GoKarting at Streatham the Four Stigs finished one lap ahead of the chasing group.  There was a signifcant battle for 2nd place between three teams, who all finished in a heap on the same lap.  The Krazy Karters held on to Second place by 0.340 of a second ahead of Penelope and Her Pitstops who finished a proud third.  Just missing a podium finish in 4th, the toughest position to accept, by a mere 2.590 seconds, was SD London. Throughout the race everyone followed their teams progress each taking turn to take responsibility for driving.  Team tactics proved to be important, as too many driver changes meant a gradual loss of position.

No one will be taking Lewis Hamiltons seat at McClaren but the scouts tell me to keep an eye on the deceptively fast Tony Wetheridge - smooth and slick. 

Maria Clarkin also deserves a special mention too - sacrificing her chance of driving for a demonstration of her catering skills.

We suspect the North of Watford team got delayed at the Watford gap.

Irrespective of any gokarting traffic problems everyone was involved to the very end and it is appreciated that the momentum was sustained throughout the gokarting event.

It is clear that everyone, as you can see from the above photo, enjoyed their GoKarting experience at Streatham especially as their participation contributed towards such a deserving charity.  We are also pleased to say all profits from both GOKARTING.CO.UK and Playscape at Streatham were passed onto Barnado’s.  Combined with a few extra private contributions from Lloyds TSB, Dean Palumbo and his team managed to raise a massive £700.

Congratulations to all involved and we would love to see you all again in the near future.  For details on how to book your own event, or to arrange a Corporate Team event for yourselves or your colleagues please take a look at http://www.gokarting.co.uk/ where you will find all the GOKARTING information you need.  If you want to talk through you event please also feel free to call us on 020 7476 1234 - we are happy to help anyone who is plannig a karting event.

We are delighted to have supported LTSB in their efforts to raise money for Barnado’s, which is such a worthy cause.  Have fun and we hope you enjoyed your GoKarting experience - see you soon.

It took a millisecond for us to decide to sponsor Emily Price and her mum Julie on their charity trek in Morocco.

After months of anticipation and preparation Emily and Julie started their adventure from the high Moroccan village of Imil, a couple of hours away from Marrakech.  With guides, mules and heavy backpacks the tough ascent started.  After hours of walking they reached Base Camp - a chance to relax and top up energy levels with some traditional mint tea served from a sliver pot in a Bedouin tent.  This was not a time to think of Gokarting but they both knew the physical punishment they were going through was for a deserving cause - SCOPE.

After an early start the following day the group began the hardest part of the journey - gradually making their way up to the summit at 4,167 metres.  With rugged paths, steep scree, boulders and snow patches to overcome the walk became increasingly tiring.  Six hours of trekking finally led to the highest point in North Africa on the rocky mountains of the Toubkal Massif - then emotions kicked in and the tears began - a fantastic achievement by both Emily and Julie.

Emily even had a moment to grab a couple of pictures at the summit - wearing our GOKARTING.CO.UK t-shirt.

After some time at the top it was time to make their way down.  A few spectacular falls, with no serious injuries, everyone made it back to the mid way stage.  It was a tough trail down to the Base Camp but the result was a nice shower and a traditional Morrocan lunch.

Everyone who sponsored them will be very proud of their achievement.
Congratulations from all of us at www.gokarting.co.uk and we are more than pleased to help SCOPE help others.