The Johnny Herbert Karting Challenge

The 2009 Johnny Herbert Karting Challenge is now over; I’m beginning to think it should be called the Johnny Herbert Weather Challenge instead! In 2008 we had the first snow of the winter and this year saw a deluge second only to The Lake District!

My ride in to The Raceway Docklands Circuit in South East London started at 6.00am and I encountered gale force winds, driving rain and hailstones………. an eventful journey. Arriving at the circuit was a relief and on entering the Raceways spacious reception area it was a sea of tranquillity in comparison to outside.

Preparations soon got underway and with the drivers registration desk set up my colleagues Simon Wheeler and Neil Morphew eagerly awaited the first arrival, it wasn’t long before the first of the early birds were there and were keen to get signed on and suited up………. The weather did of course play it’s part in disrupting the traffic flow and it wasn’t long before I was getting phone calls and texts from those who faced lengthy queues on the M25 and M11, not to mention the infamous Blackwall tunnel !!

Surprisingly we were running pretty much on time and although he had been delayed, Gareth Jones of “Gareth Jones on Speed” fame was soon carrying out pre-race interviews to entertain the early arrivals who were patiently waiting.

The charity to benefit this year is “The Harry Birrell Scholarship Trust” whose patron, Peter Phillips and charity chairman Stephen Sparrow once worked alongside Johnny in F1, hence the connection for us to help them out this year, more details of this charity can be found on our web site at; http://www.johnnyherbertkarting.co.uk

The teams this year were as always a varied bunch, some of course had taken part in previous years, in fact such is the popularity of this event it’s getting harder to squeeze newcomers in, perhaps that is why Will Dendy and Alan Dove of karting1.co.uk contacted me in May this year to log there entry, even that had been beaten by those teams from 2008 that had stated “put me down for next year please”!!

Stalwarts include “Team Forum” made up from members of Johnny’s web site, Team Evo 6 entered by Lynne Baines from Yorkshire, their star driver Scott Malvern has just been crowned National F Ford 1600 champion in only his 1^st year racing cars, Team “Made in Italy 3.0” managed by Andrea Colombo also had a big name star !!! none other than Riccardo Patrese who once again had flown in from Italy to take part along with members of his family, another team of Italian Gentlemen “Sick Boyz” (don’t ask!) was headed by Niccolo Ragnini another previous entrant, Howard Kayman and Lane Bednash who race all year in the Easy Kart championship had also entered again all looking for that elusive win!!

Having missed last years event Robert Crofton returned with his team from “Arbuthnot Latham Private Bank”

Also missing from last years line up but winners from 2007 were “Pacha” named after the London Nightspot, this time “Rebels” was added to their title …….they meant business !!

Herbies Heroes team is always given the No1, mainly because when the event first started celeb drivers were part of every team and you can no doubt guess who was in Herbies ! and yours truly was also a member for some years too, Antony Cannon is now the longest serving driver in that team having been in every event since 1994 with Andy Baker in second slot having joined in 1995 the first year the event was held at The Raceway in Kings Cross and it has been held at The Raceway circuits ever since, The Raceway Docklands is no doubt the only indoor circuit that can cater for an endurance race with 23 teams entered.

Teams new to the challenge this year included “The Odd Shapes” entered by Simon Delamare of Unique Actions, “Kent Ferrari Owners club” entered by Mark McAllister of Giant.com, as mentioned previously karting1.co.uk entered by Will Dendy and Alan Dove, CRS Racing had wanted to enter 3 teams but it was only because of a cancellation in the final week that allowed them in with just one much to the delight of Lindsay Morle. “Racedriversinc.co.uk” had entered two teams with Barry Scott being the organiser.

Honda may have pulled out of F1 but this year saw them come in to the Challenge with a team, this was to be captained by BTCC Champ Matt Neal but alas he could not make it on the day, Honda also very kindly gave us an extra donation to help boost our takings and I thank Sarah Fowler and Joanne Coaker for this.

The most surprising new team to join us must have been Team 23 for in our 16^th year it was none other than Johnny’s daughters Aimelia (17) and Chloe (19) and friends …… we all hoped that the genes from Father would be of help!

Although our latest format see’s the celebrity drivers in their own teams some are found elsewhere, James Jakes, GP2 driver was helping out Arbuthnot Latham, Chris Dymond and Tom Ingram were with racedriversinc, Andrew Kirkaldy and Harry Ticknell with CRS Racing, Matt Bell and Karl Haxton helped out the Ferrari Owners Club while Andrew Richardson added some speed to Team Forum.

Last but not least were the celebrity teams, these had been hustled into place as they arrived by Team Forum member Lou Massara, The “Racey Ladies” were Tiffany Chittenden, Sarah Playfair, Louise Richardson and Gemma Ross, “Cars International” headed by the owner Paul Osborn and assisted by GP2 driver Sam Bird, Alex Brundle,Paul Rees and Martin Leach, “Gareth Jones on Speed” had the main man Gareth at the helm with his podcast companion Paul ”ZOG” Ireson, Bradley Ellis, Jake Green, Duncan Tappy and guest journalist Craig Llewellyn, Radio 5 Live who’s producer Jason Swales had entered a great team comprising not only himself but F1 star Anthony Davidson, Alan Van Der Merwe who swapped his FIA medical car duties for a kart ! Johnny Noble from Autosport.com, Andy Stobart from Bridgestone and presenter David Croft, our main man Johnny Herbert was joined, as is becoming the custom, by Johnny Mowlem, they were assisted in the quest to win by Ollie Millroy, James Cole, Wayne Boyd and Dan Clark a formidable bunch!………..

After the mandatory drivers briefing it was time to take to the track for a practice and to set times that would dictate the grid positions, the relative calm of the day was broken by the sound of 23 karts being fired up and  spectators jostled for a good viewing position ………… after a hectic session it was The Pacha Rebels who took pole with Made in Italy in second spot.

The next item on the agenda was a bit of fun entitled the “Shoot out” for this we select 4 drivers which in this case to keep the sexist lobby happy we had 2 guys and 2 gals ! these were Tiffany Chittenden and Louise Richardson for the gals and Jo Reilly and Jake Green for the guys, there task was an out lap, a flying timed lap and an in lap each taking a turn in the same kart, it proved to be as entertaining as it always is, but alas I did not record the times to report to you, what I can say is that if it hadn’t been for Tiffany going slightly wide on one bend with the subsequent loss of a couple of tenths she would have no doubt beaten Jo Reilly to the trophy ………. Jo’s it was.

Just 15 minutes later than planned we had the green flag to start out 3 hour endurance race with all teams having their allocated driver for the first stint in place, such are the tactics involved in such an event that most teams will allocate a manager to decide who drives when and for how long.

The next 3 hours were fought hard and fast but at the chequered flag it was The Pacha Rebels who crossed the line with the most laps completed, 248 to be precise 3 laps and 38 secs in front of Team Evo 6 who were 1 lap and 8 secs in front of Made in Italy …fastest lap of the day was set by Racey Ladies driver Sarah Playfair at 41.62 with Made in Italy setting a 41.65 both in the last stints, Pacha’s fastest was a 41.88 but it was no doubt consistency that paved the way to victory.

So there was the result ……1^st “Pacha Rebels” …… 2^nd “Evo 6” ……3^rd “Made in Italy 3.0”

Throughout the day folk were invited to have a go in a ¾ size cockpit of an F1 car provided by Jemlar Ltd with the idea of setting the day’s fastest time, £5 per go added to the days takings and the overall winner who also broke the lap record by 3.5 secs was TKM champion, Formula BMW and Formula Palmer Audi driver Matt Bell, a definite star of the future!!

Another attraction to be held before the podium ceremony was our trackside auction which thanks to some great items made a vast difference to the days takings, these included a ride in a classic Ferrari 250/GTL driven by Johnny Herbert no less and donated by Cars International of Kensington, a Brawn GP cap donated by the new World Champion, Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel’s fireproof undies ( signed of course ) , a race suit donated by Radio 5 live belonging to presenter Holly Samos but signed also by Jenson and for good measure Johnny decided to auction off his Team Dynamics race suit ………. Yes the one he had on!!

Earlier in the day we had held a raffle and my thanks go to those who donated items which included Mark Webber, Brawn GP, McLaren International and Jemlar Simulators Ltd, special event T shirts had been manufactured and sold by Lee Edgell and supplied by Lisa Cullen.

MonacoKool very kindly donated some places in the Johnny Herbert Suite at Woodcote corner Silverstone at the 2010 British GP ( hoping of course that it will be held there!) which were sold through a silent auction bid and Jake Green had donated a weekend for 4 people in an English Country Cottage.

With Johnny presenting the Trophies to the top 3 teams the curtains came down on another “Johnny Herbert Karting Challenge”

Although I am still counting we grossed approximately £18,000 so a good day indeed for the Charity.

My thanks go to all those people who helped make the event a success and especially to Simon Wheeler, Neil Morphew and his company Arisia for the web site and technical expertise, Michael and Sandra Segal and Jolyon Brand from The Raceway and Photographers Dan Overton, Dave Ayres, Dave Baker and Paula Hamilton.

Roy Craig (organiser JHKC)