Everyone is still hopeful of finding a new location so feel free to visit the blog to see how we progress.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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Try to keep your eye on our GoKarting blog as we will hopefully soon announce the opening of a brand new gokarting track serving the London area. As soon as we have news of a launch date we will update this gokarting post.

Regrettably after a 15 year presence in Streatham the venue will wave its final chequered flag. Unfortunately the track will stop operating on Sunday 28th August.

The venue has had to close for a significant Streatham High Road redevelopment scheme.

The track closure is tinged with sadness as it formed a large part of the SW London community. Hopefully the arrival of a brand new track will provide London based clients and local people with another convenient location and a track that will fill the Motorsport gap left by that closure.

Keep your eye on our blog for gokarting news and hopefully one day soon you might be one of the first readers to book in at the new venue.

Once you have contributed to the charity or simply watched the gokarting challenge perhaps take a look at the Greenwich Docklands track in closer detail.  Get a group together and email or call to book a visit.  It is a great place place to hold your next kids birthday party.

Several rivalries were renewed as a total of 13 teams took to the 600m International track to compete in a 90 minute Le Mans style Endurance event for the honour of Group IT champions. It soon became obvious that this challenge was being taken seriously as more than a smattering of participants owned up to having their own helmets at the safety briefing!
The IT specialists excelled at demonstrating their expert driving skills.  After the practise session everyone was ready to push their way to the front.

So onto the race….the crucial start of the race saw a number of collisions which quickly identified those up for the challenge. “The Three Amigoes” (Tony Wetheridge, Steve Baggott and Drew Blackmore) pretty much led from start to finish but were closely followed (for the second year on the trot) by the IBM team led by Doug Jarvis. The last podium finish was hotly contested but the “Con Tractors” team of Alv Hill, Jake McCarthy and Steve Hoel won the day.

The dubious honour of the wooden spoon went to “The Others” consisting of Andy Lock, Slava Gnevko and Julian Gevers. A special mention to Svetlana Burkova who was the sole “Spice Girl” doing it for the ladies….she had plenty of racing strength and while holding the racing line managed tactically run some drivers off the road.

The event raised £500 for the BHF (including matched giving) and £250 for the London Wildlife Trust so a big thank you to all who took part, to Jacky Norman for helping with the food on the evening, Andy the race supervisor at Playscape and Steve at www.gokarting.co.uk for facilitating the event and maximising the opportunity for charity donation.

Fernando Alonso’s continued climb up the Formula 1 table has been steady and almost predictable.  The Ferrari season start could not have been worse with supporters wondering why Alonso was so special.  You cant deny Alonso is talented and now Ferrari are firing on all cylinders they make an awesome pairing.

The Korean GP looked to be a Red Bull walkover with Hamilton and Alonso fighting for that last place on the podium.

Then the rain came.  The complexion of the whole F1 championship was to change under one sustained cloud.

No one would have thought Webber was going to take too much kerb, spin out of control and take out Hamiltons main competitor for third in this Korean race, Nico Rosberg.

The race developed further with numerous safety car interruptions, tyre and wheel nut issues as well as pit lane problems.

And so it was to be, Vettel, clearly the best driver of the day forged ahead and forgot to turn the Air Conditioning off forcing an early retirement with engine failure.  Alonso automatically took the lead and fortunately for Hamilton climbed on to his sure fire podium place upwards, to finish second.  Hamilton must have been happy with that.

Not going to touch the Button coverage I am afraid.

So Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren-Mercedes is now 21 points behind his nemesis Alonso. Wedged between them is Mark Webber, a firm favorite with many an F1 fans, himself only eleven points behind the leader.  Chances are its a battle between the top 2 but who knows?

The next Grand Prix in Brazil is key.  Can Lewis Hamilton get the points he needs to make the last race a real fight for the championship - chances are, he might!  In 2008 he needed to finish 5th or higher and you can all remember the last lap and you all know what happened dont you?  Lewis is about 12/1 to win the championship - surely that is more fun that watching Alonso drive to win his third World F1 Champions trophy.

Anyone checked the weather out in Brazil yet?  Lets hope both Brazil and Abu Dhabi are as much fun as the Korean GP.

You already know Alonso and Hamilton are champion go kart racers so there is no need to mention that.

Fancy burning some rubber at a London gokarting track - see gokarting.co.uk

The best gokarting availability will soon go so it is best to get in early.  Even with a small office we can accommodate your group.  As it is the season of good will we would hope the more drivers you have the merrier the exclusive gokarting event will be.

Just give us a call on 020 7476 1234 or email us events@gokarting.co.uk to see how we might make your Christmas a memorable one.

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.

Does it make sense!  It does but results have been pretty random from accident riddled races to those races that simply don’y offer any entertainment what so ever.  Even Webber wanted a boring Spanish Grand Prix, and we got it!

Are other teams in the chase relying on the RBR-Renault being unreliable?  We at gokarting.co.uk think so.

Although behind Button on 21 points, is Hamilton still in with a chance?  We also think so.  His racing has been more aggressive and Buttons passive.  So we reckon, get on Hamilton - even after a grid position of 5 at Monaco qualifying - we think at 5 to one against to win the seasons championship Hamilton is a great price, that realistically can not be ignored.
His car is a dominant force - the difference to others is the word “regularly”.  Lets see how the Monaco Grand Prix goes - it may be difficult for Lewis Hamilton to progress from grid position 5 but this really is the race he needs to make an impact on the championship table, so a win is imperative.

Come on Lewis, step up to the F1 plate - I reckon it is yours for the taking.  Jenson wants to trouble him but when needed he might just have to help Lewis Hamilton win - he is driving better than Jenson this year.

If you want to learn how to drive like Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button take a look at gokarting.co.uk for inspiration.

Luke has impressed all observers with his driving technique and his ability.  Even when unexpectedly down in the field he has shown the right mentatility and competitive drive to work his way all the way through the competition.  His smooth driving style nurtured in a gokart has resulted in yet another British driving Champion.

Luke has long been a Race Director at the Raceway and continues to run events for our clients.  If he is Race Director for one of your events just ask him for some driving tips, he will always help.

His motorsport career, like many F1 stars, started with gokarting and he has competed at all levels.  It sometimes helps to work at a gokart track!  His first taste of success was in 2001 when he raced to become the Hoddesdon Kart Club Champion.

His next step will be to defend his Champion status in 2010 and grab the MINI CHALLENGE S Class to boot.

All of us here at www.gokarting.co.uk wish Luke all the very best of British luck.

To find out when the 2010 series starts and look at Luke Caudles past results take a look at the Mini Challenge website on www.minichallenge.co.uk.

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.