A team of Karting enthusiasts will be living life in the fast lane to boost the funds of a children’s cancer charity.
Andy Kitchen, Steve Boam, Alistair Burnett and Simon Bricknell who work at Coventry-based Knowledge Management & Transfer (KM&T) will be heading to the North East to take part in the Teesside Autodrome – the world’s longest karting circuit.
The 2.4 miles of track will become very familiar to the quartet as they take part in a charity 24-hour Karting challenge on Saturday, August 28. The would be Lewis Hamiltons are aiming to raise around £1,000 for CLIC Sargent to help the charity provide clinical, practical and emotional support every step of the way for children and young people with cancer and their families.
Andy, Business Development Director at business improvement consultancy KM&T at the Coventry University Technocentre in Puma Way, said the main aim was simply to complete the 24 hours on the track.
“On the Saturday morning we will start our challenge with track practice to give drivers time to familiarise themselves with the karts and the track and then qualifying to determine our track position on the start line,” he said.
“There are 78 teams taking part and just like in Formula 1, will commence with everyone starting at the same time. At the start we expect a mad scramble to the first corner at which we hope to stay intact to run the full course of the race.
“This kind of challenge isn’t about being the fastest, it is about keeping on the track maintaining the momentum and keeping out of trouble. Naturally, we would like to race competitively and hence aim to keep the kart out there for the maximum amount of time before re-fuelling and changing drivers.
“It is very much an endurance race because until we start driving we won’t know how much energy it is going to sap out of us. The steering is very heavy and it is about maximising the time in the car and minimising handovers.”
Andy said CLIC Sargent had been adopted as the company’s charity for 2010.
He added: “We are a young, 6 year old organisation with many staff with young families and hence chose the charity as it seemed the most appropriate fit to choose a charity that helps young children.”
KM&T specialises in using “Lean Thinking” to evaluate organisations and proposes improvements to produce more well organised and simplified business methods of working, resulting in greater performance and productivity, quality and efficiency outputs.
