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 Hamilton's 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, it
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 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, six-year-old organisation with many
staff with young families and we 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.