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Peugeot Driver Bradley Philpot Takes Girlfriend Around The Ring…

GK — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:48:32 +0000

One of our favourite drivers, Bradley Philpot recently took his ‘other half, Rebecca, around the Nürburgring; and taped the experience. Her response is somewhere between worried and impressed!

Find Bradley on Twitter: twitter.com/BradleyPhilpot

Please Support KartForce!

GK — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:38:04 +0000

We at GK have supported KartForce for some time. KartForce aim to get injured troops into competitive karting using their own kart and also modified hand contorls. We recently remade their website for them and so now it is easy to stay up to date on their progress! Watch out for KartForce at your local event; and be warned, they race to win! Find them at www.kartforce.org

Here are some images from a recent event at Daytona. Pictures by Chris Lucas / Overdrive UK.

BRKC 2013, Round 5 Edinburgh Report

GK — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:24:53 +0000

Round 5 Report courtesy of BRKC.

Local driver Neil Maccines scored an Overall victory on his BRKC debut at Raceland in Edinburgh with a last corner overtaking manouvre which caused much debate among the spectators.

With very changeable weather conditions causing problems for the less experienced foreign drivers, several local favourites emerged during the day.

BRKC stalwart Michael Weddell, series returnee Steven Dailly and newcomer Neil Macinnes all scored identical points totals during the heats to line up third, second and first on the grid for the A-Final respectively.

As the main event got underway, polesitter Macinnes and second placed man Weddell were able to establish a convincing gap to Dailly and Hackett in third and fourth. Weddell set about closing down the half second gap to the lead, and was able to move into first place with a decisive move in the technical bottom section of the track.

On the final lap the leaders were inseperable – and when a small gap presented itself at the final corner, Macinnes made his move, aggressively barging Weddell wide. The officials deemed the pass legal, and Macinnes won at his first BRKC event.

In the Heavyweight Class battle, 2012 champion Anwar Beroual-Smith proved untouchable with Gavin Love and David Whitehouse securing their maiden BRKC podium finishes in second and third place.

GridKings Lends A Lid To Peugeot Driver Bradley Philpot!

GK — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:50:17 +0000

Close GK friend, Bradley Philpot secured a drive with Peugeot for the epic Nurburgring 24 hour race after a gruelling selection process that spanned Europe.

We are big Peugeot fans here at GK with the 205 GTI being a firm favourite of us all. When Bradley got in touch asking about helmets, we were quick to aid him in making sure he had a fully up to date lid complete with HANS posts ready to race. Step forward the Bell KF3.

We wish Bradley all the best at the race and just know he’ll be out to impress; and will!

Summer Is On The Way!

GK — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:10:05 +0000

The summer is starting to show! As the original importer for the Bengio CARBON Rib Protectors, we are able to offer the best prices, see HERE. As well, the BRKC series we sponsor is going well, read the reports in our blog HERE. In other news, we designed the new KartForce website, it’s worth a look! See HERE.

BRKC 2013, Round 4 Bournemouth Report

GK — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:22:35 +0000

Round 4 Report courtesy of BRKC.

Sean Brierley moved back into serious championship contention with a stunning performance at Matchams Karting in Bournemouth, on a day when his main championship rivals suffered various problems. After practice, the drivers each took part in three heats of ten laps. When the heats were complete, the order at the front was Brierley, followed by Sam Spinnael and Connor Marsh.

Championship leader Lee Hackett could only manage to qualify for the C-Final after three difficult heat races. Ruben Boutens, another title contender also encountered difficulty moving up the order during the heats. In the A-Final, Brierley was able to maintain a lead at the start before Spinnael began to mount an attack. This in turn allowed Marsh to close in on the top two.

Near to the end of the race, Marsh began to increase the pressure on Spinnael and made a move for second place into turn 1. Spinnael fought to keep the place but ended his race in the turn 2 barriers. This allowed Michael Weddell to add another podium finish to his record at Matchams.

In the Heavyweight Class, James Fitchew scored an impressive victory, closely followed by local driver Anwar Beroual-Smith and Paul Lycett.

The GridKings prize for best move of the race went to Daniel Truman.

GridKings Design New Website For KartForce!

GK — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:35:18 +0000

We heard that KartForce were looking to up their ante online and offered to build their new website for them as part of our new Motorsport Web Design offering. We had raced KartForce not long ago, see HERE – and were only too pleased to put pen to pixel and bring their new website to life. Featuring online galleries, a calendar of events with maps and improved navigation throughout, KartForce are now represented in the very best way, as they should be!

You can visit the KartForce website HERE.

Alguersuari & Schumacher Return to Their Kart Roots

GK — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:11:02 +0000

With the way that the chips have fallen with the F1 team rosters, former Toro Rosso F1 driver Jaime Alguersuari has signed up for a season of kart racing. It appears that Jaime will combine his continuing role as a Pirelli test driver with a seat in the KZ kart category of the European championship, stating:

“The truth is that I miss competition and so I will compete in what most resembles a Formula One car,” said the 22-year-old. “I don’t know if I will return to formula one but I don’t want to believe that my career is over at twenty two,”

Not the only one it seems as newly re-retired Michael Schumacher is returning to kart racing also, and will race in the WSK Euro Series race at Ialy’s La Conca circuit for Tony Kart.

Team GridKings Win At KartForce Event… But Only Just!

GK — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:58:49 +0000

Team GridKings win at Daytona Manchester, KartForce endurance race (24th February 2013).

Team GridKings raced KartForce one year ago, In Birmingham, where we all seemed hampered by fun but peculiar Electric Karts. Fast forward 12 months, and it was time to race the Kartforce team once again… this time, however, there was a difference. KartForce have been practising and taking their karting very seriously with coaching sessions from top drivers such as Josh Hill and Red Bull kart champion, Bradley Philpot; this matched, of course, with their will to win has made for a quite staggering leap in sheer pace and racecraft.

Team GridKings consisted of Danny Cain, Alistair Mackey and Ralph Watson – and with the home advantage, we did fancy our chances – however, it soon became apparent that there were a lot of top drivers present. As a result, the racing was a joy to witness with very clean and professional drives from everyone involved. The KartForce ‘Vet’ drivers; Mark and Davie, put on a stellar performance consistently putting in sub 30 second laps, lap after lap; spectacular lap times by any measure; but consider that, also, there was a lot of traffic with 13 Teams competing, the track was packed! Their pace was matched only by our own team members and so the race, even after two hours, was unbelievably close. KartForce remained in 1st place for much of the race but toward the end, Team GK managed to reel them in and with the way the changeovers fell, we were able to jump them for top podium slot.

We must also mention all of the new drivers who were racing under the KartForce banner; great performances from all involved and keep up the great work. KartForce are a charity aiming to get injured troops into motorsport, racing both domestically and internationally.

Find out more about KartForce here: www.kartforce.org
Thank you to Daytona Manchester for organising the event: www.daytona.co.uk
GridKings involvement with KartForce began when we donated Koden kart helmets to the team, see here: GK Donates Koden Kart Helmets to KartForce

BRKC 2013, Round 2 Buckmore Park Report

GK — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:16:51 +0000

Round 2 Report courtesy of BRKC.

Jack O’Neill proved impossible to beat by taking a clean sweep in BRKC Round 2 at Buckmore Park.

Despite tight racing throughout the day at the front of the heats, Jack O’Neill won convincingly in each of his races from various starting positions. His main rival during the heats was Ryan Smith who also put in a terrific performance to win all of his heats. However, it was O’Neill who took pole position for the A-Final having secured the fastest lap of the day. In the final race itself, Round 1 winner Lee Hackett and Ryan Smith battled for second position, with Hackett narrowly claiming the position in the final stages of the race. O’Neill proved peerless at the front, taking the victory by over six seconds.

Other notable performances came from Alexandru Damian in fourth – who now moves to second in the Overall championship and Daniel Truman – who charged up from lower in the A-Final to take an impressive fifth place. In the Heavyweight Class, Russell Endean cemented his championship lead by once again being the only Heavyweight to qualify for the A-Final. Full results can be found HERE.