Join Kart Force as they take on celebrity drivers with the help of former Stig Ben Collins in a 3 hour endurance race at Autosport International. Featuring interviews with Johnny Herbert, Ben Collins and former Premiership Footballer, Robbie Savage.
1st KARTFORCE CHALLENGE CUP SAT 20th OCT - LLANDOW
This weekend was a major milestone for KartForce.
The
RAFMSA, together with the support of Silver Fox Karting and South Wales
Karting Centre at Llandow organised this event to raise funds for us,
the RAFBF and ABF. As it was such a huge success, this will become an
annual event that will be the final race of the annual Inter Services
Karting Championships.
It
was an excellent day – fantastic sunshine and nose-to-nose racing. We
entered 2 teams and even after several enforced stops due to mechanical
problems, the lads came 12th and 18th.
However,
this was only part of what made this weekend so special. Ken Denscombe
and Colin Lipscomb, owners of SilverFoxKarting had a surprise for us.
We’ve raced against SilverFoxKarting a few times this year and they were
so impressed by the lads determination and performance on the track
that they decided to build us a brand new racing kart. This was
supported by funds donated by Blewin Dolphin, who also entered a team
and raced against us.
Many
other companies contributed towards this kart so we have a long list of
people to thank. Please see all the contributors on the image below.
This
weekend was one we will remember for a long time. It means so much to
get all this support and encouragement from so many people. The truth
is, the lads don’t truly appreciate how much they’ve achieved in such a
short amount of time, with very limited equipment and funding. So when
we’re bombarded with all this sort of support it’s hard for to sink in
that’s this is everyone’s way of showing their admiration and respect.
It’s moments like this that make us overflow with pride to be British. From all of us at KartForce, “Thank you!”
Hello visitors to www.overdrive-uk.com - It's your gallant (hah!) Producer here...
It's been ages since I wrote something, so here goes. I thought it might be nice to bring you lovely people up to speed with what's been going on in "Overdrive Towers". Actually that's a bit misleading as we don't actually have any towers at the moment.
Rosie interviews the very enthusiastic Rhodri Jenkins
You'll have seen our coverage from the Autosport Show. This year we filmed on two days and we've already got plans for next year's event. Oh yes, we'll be back. And we'll probably badger Andy Noble from Caterham for another interview (He loves us, really!)
Other highlights from Autosport have been the artist Ian Cook who certainly provided us with a unique interview. I don't think we've ever interviewed an artist before! We also for the first time interviewed a bear on Ginetta's stand.
What you haven't seen yet due to a few issues with internet connections and a few other things is the footage filmed at the WyeDean Rally and also the first round of the British Autotest Championship. The problems are now sorted so hopefully the Autotest video will be online shortly.
Well, we've been really busy, but not on making our own programme! Firstly we delivered a documentary on the opening rounds of the Welsh Sports And Saloon Car Championship after being commissioned by the Welsh Racing Drivers Association to go and film for them. The resulting film has been made into a DVD and distributed throughout the Drivers and Marshals who attended the event, one of whom has since told me that he is looking forward to playing it repeatedly and boring his family with it...
The Pembrey shoot was the first thing for our Overdrive Filming Services (we're now known as "Team Overdrive Productions") and we're hoping to expand this business and will be pleased to talk to you about creating video or even full blown TV programmes related (or not, we're not picky) to the Automotive and Motorsport Industries.
Rosie and BTCC driver, Tom Onslow-Cole.
Although we're not doing complete programmes this year, we're making smaller features instead. The first one this year took place at Bedford Autodrome at the invitation of the E-Bay motors BTCC team where Rosie and I went off to interview Tom Onslow-Cole. A nice bonus was not only riding in the touring car with the man himself, but also getting to drive 7 amazing cars at the Autodrome. I've got a new respect for racing drivers after that - although I was best at Auto Solo and somehow bagged an award for Karting despite finishing 6th! Still don't know how that happened. You've probably already seen our interview with Tom on the site.
On the subject of the site, Our team has just grown a bit. We've now got our own resident Stills Photographer Chris Lucas who will also be doing some presenting for the features that we'll be releasing over the rest of the year, and off the camera, and indeed off the set but by no means making any less of a contribution is Daniel Gould - our new researcher and webmaster whose domain I've just invaded to make this post.
What else has been happening? Well we got an e-mail from Dave Player from the Charity Kart Force who approached us about a new project that has gone on to dominate most of our time. Kart Force offers soldiers who have been injured in the course of their duties [often horrifically badly] the opportunity to get back to some form of normality in their lives. 4 of them will be taking on the challenge of a 24 hour marathon to set a new world record - and as only one of the soldiers has both his legs, they will do this by using some really innovative and to my knowledge unique hand controls. These guys really are amazing and really do deserve your support. The upshot of Dave's e-mail is that we're working on a hour long documentary about these inspirational drivers and we're really pleased to be able to support the team in this way. The problem we've got though - Kart Force is a Charity and, well, Money's a bit tight for everyone at the moment. So we're asking for your support to help us make it a reality. Our goal is to fund the documentary and eventually get it broadcast so we can spread the guy's story even further. So... if you could see your way to donating a bit on our wefund page, that would be very nice of you indeed and if you donate enough we'll send you a copy of the DVD and a T Shirt in return. Many thanks in advance for that. Oh yeah, quick note, Yes, Team Overdrive Productions is a business, but honestly, we won't be making any money on this project, just seeing the lads get their stories out there a bit more is reward enough.
We're off to Middlesborough to film these wonderful guys next week, so make sure you're following us on Twitter and Facebook (new facebook page by the way after technical problems nobbled our last one)
So, apart from Kart Force (and that will even include a bit of Olympic Fever too!), we've also got some interviews with Ali Rushforth to pull together, and we'll also be hearing from precision driving legend (and multiple autotest champion) Russ Swift very shortly too. I will try and do a blog a bit more regularly from now on so watch this space for more ramblings!
Thanks for continuing to visit us here, and watch out for our new videos soon!
Even though weather reports stated heavy rain all day, all teams arrived on time, signed in, donned their race suits and the banter began.
Bang on time, with the efficiency that Daytona are known for, the race safety briefing started. As soon as it was over, drivers made their way outside to start the 30 mins practice and qualifying session. The track was dry and there was no rain, and the race started, again bang on time.
Up until the last drivers went out for their turn to put in a qualifying lap, “Team KartForce” was in Pole Position, but Pole went to “Wayne’s Team”, a team we created from individual drivers wanting to enter the race but didn’t have a team, led by Wayne Lidgbird. Had we known these guys were so good, we would’ve spread them out amongst the other teams - but our lads never shy away from a challenge!
“Team KartForce” started in 5th and after a terrible start we were down to 7th after the first lap. We remained in 7th until our second driver took over and consistently put in fast lap after fast lap, clocking our fastest lap of the race during his stint. He had the most fun as it was dry throughout his stint but he methodically made his way up the grid and got us back up to 5th place.
Then the Heavens opened and the rain came down, sometimes torrentially. The track was slippery and karts were spinning out, and lap times dropped for everyone. The more experienced drivers, like ex-European Champion Simon Nicholson from “Team Blue Lizard” who’s part of the Dino Kart Record (hyperlink to www.dinokartrecord.com) team aiming to break the existing 24 hr world record, shared their experience and knowledge with our lads and gave them plenty of useful tips.
Even though it got wetter and colder throughout the race, the atmosphere never changed. There was a fantastic yet healthy competitive spirit, but also an air of fun and camaraderie. As driver fought the elements and other drivers, the crowd cheered at every incident.
Our last driver was sent out for the final 30 min stint of the race and we were still 5th with a large gap to 4th place. However, as one of our most steady and consistent drivers, his lap times almost the same throughout his drive, he closed the gap and took 4th place. He continued closing the gap on 3rd place, but unfortunately wasn’t able to make it on to the podium.
For 2 of our lads, this was their first outdoor endurance race. For the other 3, this was their 2nd outdoor endurance race. Their excellent performance is testament to the fighting spirit of these lads, who even though they lack experience, their pure drive and determination pushes them to achieve these very impressive results – against seasoned kart racers. Once again, the lads have shown that you don’t need all your limbs to race on a level playing field with non-injured drivers – you just need British Bulldog Balls, and they have these in wheelbarrow-loads!
The lads want to send a special thanks to Josh Hill and Johnny Mowlem. Josh and Johnny have given their time to coach the lads and help them improve their driving skills. There’s no way the lads could’ve achieved the impression results in our last 2 races without the expert tuition that both Josh and Johnny have provided.
Our thanks also go to Charles & Jim Graham and their fantastic team at Daytona Sandown Park. Their support and enthusiasm ensured this event was such a great success.
Our next race is going to be a very interesting one. The lads are stepping up a class and, for the first time, will be racing in a competition ProKart. On Sat 30th June we take on 34 teams from across the Army, Navy and RAF in the Tri-Services Karting Championships. This will be the first time a team of injured troops will have entered this event and we aim to impress our fellow service personnel. We’ll be practicing in the new kart throughout June so watch this space for news of our next race result.
The team are training for a world record attempt for the most ground covered in 24 hours using hand controls on their karts. Here's a short clip from on board the kart as the team practises.
