UK

On the 6th October 2007 Nifco UK Limited sponsored an annual karting event held at Teesside Autodrome (the home of the largest and fastest outdoor karting track in the world!).

The event organised by Ben Hollings and open to Nifco employees, friends and family proved to be a resounding success with 24 competitors turning up for the event.

The day started at 8:30am by signing in and getting "kitted out" following that a short briefing session was held explaining the course and general race safety. We would be running on the largest of the courses available the 2.4 mile international circuit as used by the recent 24hr Le Mans event. By 9am we were in the karts and ready for the 20 minute practice/qualifying session!

We were instructed to take it easy for the first couple of laps to learn the track, but as you can imagine a boat load of testosterone and a healthy competitive spirit descended upon the track, by the 5th corner there was at least 4 people who had spun off; the combination of a cold track, tyres coupled with 50+mph and male pride proved to be their undoing, out braking themselves and ending up in the "kitty litter".

Coming out of the 8th corner, over the brow of the hill and down the back straight we were told by the instructors that your foot could be held flat to the floor along the back straight through turns 9 - 11, a very tight chicane before braking heavily from approximately 73mph!, it took some nerve and a healthy disrespect for your own personal safety! to keep it pinned, riding the curbs and trying your best to straight line the chicane, before the left, right double hairpins, then again nailing it for the sweeping right hander, heavy on the brakes (to avoid straight lining into the tyre wall) for another set of double hairpins taking you back on to the start/finish straight.

After 20 minutes of free practice/qualifying , we were all pulled back into the pits to obtain our race orders, (time for the male ego to shine!), with Ben Hollings the event organiser taking pole position.

With the race underway it was immediately obvious just how fast some of the competitors were, pulling away from the main pack after only a couple of corners; leaving the rest to battle it out, which unfortunately lead to the first retirement of the day after only 2 laps, a high speed mid-corner slide by John Halliday turned him from a competitor in to an obstacle! that Norman Brittan was unable to avoid "shunting" him off the track leaving poor old John flying through the air "pirouetting" like a gymnast of much higher calibre before landing flat on his face at the edge of the track just after the start/finish line. Fortunately for John he was only winded but decided not to continue; this prompted a red flag and race stoppage, plus a brief reminder of the track safety rules. Unfortunately for Norman it seems his impersonation of a crash test dummy has left him with a couple of broken ribs, though he did manage to briefly carry on racing before retiring himself.

Get well soon Norman..!

It was another 11 laps before the second and final crash of the day from Chris Garvey who appeared to forget where his brakes were! resulting in a very fast impact with the tyre wall between turns 15 and 16, which prompted another red flag and short stop to the race whilst the site safety team checked he was ok.

After 40 minutes of high speed paint swapping, race distance was called and we all eagerly awaited the results..!

Position

 Kart number Laps completed Total race time (mins) Split quickest lap (mins) On lap average km/h
1 14 21 39:42.768   1:22.361 17 41.246
2 19 21 39:49.853 7.085 1:22.707 7 41.124
3 11 21 39:52.304 9.536 1:22.636 17 41.082
4 2 21 39:54.715 11.947 1:23.079 10 41.040
5 10 21 40:11.075 28.307 1:23.984 20 40.762
6 23 21 40:15.968 33.200 1:23.874 18 40.679
7 17 21 40:26.216 43.448 1:23.664 6 40.508
8 16 21 40:46.482 1:03.714 1:25.854 14 40.172
9 13 21 41:23.983 1:41.215 1:25.520 18 39.565
10 22 21 41:25.777 1:43.009 1:25.599 17 39.537
11 15 21 41:26.271 1:43.503 1:26.681 19 39.529
12 24 20 39:55.476 --1 lap-- 1:27.295 12 39.074
13 9 20 40:25.664 30.188 1:26.198 17 38.587
14 6 20 40:46.274 50.798 1:28.693 10 38.262
15 4 20 40:48.036 52.560 1:27.754 20 38.235
16 5 20 40:56.589 1:01.113 1:27.422 18 38.102
17 18 19 39:53.533 --2 laps-- 1:27.060 19 37.150
18 7 19 41:01.953 1:08.420 1:34.758 16 36.118
19 3 19 41:22.225 1:128.692 1:29.730 17 35.823
20 12 18 40:22.364 --3 laps-- 1:33.307 17 34.776
21 26 18 40:38.450 16.086 1:27.261 8 34.547
22 20 13 40:21.522 --8 laps-- 1:34.256 2 25.125
23 8 2 11:56.615 --19 laps-- 1:51.651 1 13.061
24 21 2 11:56.615 --19 laps-- DNF DNF DNF

DNF = Did Not Finish

 

And so the congratulations for the three podium places went to: -

1st place - Ben Hollings

2nd place - Robert Robinson

3rd place - Nigel Tebbs

 

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The international 2.4 mile long circuit at Teesside Autodrome

From all who attended on the day we would like to extend our thanks to the staff at Teesside karting for providing a superb event.

Role on the 2008 championship!!!

Nifco UK Limited registered in England & Wales, company number 1392769

Yarm Road, Stockton-on-Tees, TS18 3RX, UK