The Pro Drive team recently had the pleasure of attending the annual “Past Presidents Championship Cup” karting event hosted by one of our legal sector partners, the Surrey Law Society, at the amazing outdoor Daytona racetrack at Sandown Park racecourse in Esher.
16 teams of 3 drivers took part in an endurance style event lasting 1.5 hours, with live commentary and a leaderboard updating in real time providing a real sense of competition. Each driver in a team had to race at least once, which meant at least 2 mandatory pitstops per team during the event – although you could end up having to make more stops for certain infringements.
The karts are fitted with 270cc petrol engines and are capable of 50mph at the end of the main straight – you can certainly feel that speed as you head into the 1st turn which is a flat out 180 degree corner. The rest of the 900m long track is fairly twisty with a couple of shorter straights and several opportunities to overtake.
Team Pro Drive comprised Bruce “Mad-Dog” Penson, James “Driving Miss Daisy” Stock and Matt “Confused” Taylor. With a fair amount of karting experience between the 3 of them there was some degree of confidence that a podium was up for grabs. Despite qualifying 10th on the grid, by the end of the first lap team Pro Drive made it up to 4th after a first corner incident involving multiple drivers. Despite more incidents than an afternoon on the IT support desk, the team settled into the mid-field area between 6th and 8th place, eventually finishing in 8th just 5 laps behind the podium spots.
The weather played along and treated everyone to a glorious British summer evening to really set the event off. Pizza and drinks were available to enjoy in the spectator’s area which has a great view of the last section of track, all provided as part of the package.
The Surrey Law Society are raising money for Cancer Research and were able to take the total raised so far this year to over £2750 with a raffle at the end of the evening. It turns out that team Pro Drive are better at raffles than karting, with James and Bruce both winning a bottle of sparkling wine – Bruce even won a second bottle but graciously declined so someone else had a chance to win.
As part of our long term patronage of the Surrey Law Society Bruce was invited to present the champagne to the winning team – congratulations to Gordons Partnership on holding on to the top spot on the podium for another year. While team Pro Drive didn’t make the podium this year we’ll definitely be back to race again next year, we’ll just have to have lots more practice in the meantime.
