SPARKS Karting Challenge
24th November 1996

For the third time in three years, the Johnny Herbert Fan Club staged an endurance karting event to raise funds for the children’s charity, SPARKS (SPort Aiding medical Research for KidS). The venue was The Raceway, Europe’s largest indoor kart circuit, where a couple of hundred people gathered early on a cold Saturday morning in late autumn, ready to do battle for a good cause. The end result, after a lot of hard driving and fun, was a magnificent donation of over £20,000, all made possible by the generosity of the participants, the circuit and sponsors Red Bull. Hugh Peers, SPARKS’ director, said that the donation would contribute to a project studying potentially fatal childhood infections.

Twenty teams of six drivers, most fielding a celebrity from the world of sport or entertainment, jostled for position for four hours on the excellent but tricky circuit. The teams' number 1 drivers were led away on the rolling start by Johnny, who had put his kart in pole position (of course!), and his near neighbour from Monaco, McLaren driver David Coulthard. Professional drivers James Kaye and Justin Bell also took part, and the other celebrities included: rower Matthew Pinsent (half an Olympic Gold medallist?), scouse high jumper Steve Smith, skier Konrad Bartelski, cricketer Mark Ilott, Justin Curry (lead singer of Delamitri), Radio 1 DJ Clive Warren, and motorsport journalists Simon Arron and Tony Dodgkins.

Johnny showed his mettle right at the start as he quickly opened up a gap of several seconds over David Coulthard. Surprisingly, David was holding up a gaggle of others drivers - until he had a bit of a spin. Competition was intense and the two F1 stars did not have it all their own way. In fact, the quickest lap of the day was not set by either of them. Young karting ace Jamie Segal took that honour with a 38.20s flier. Mind you, his dad does own and run the circuit...

One of the best dices of the race, just over half way through, was between Johnny, Justin Bell and young Mr Segal. Johnny said that the lightweight kartist flew past him up the back straight "like I was a big heavy lump". That inspired Johnny to retaliate and Justin got mixed up in the middle. There followed several laps of excellent entertainment for the Fan Club members and other spectators, until Johnny finally triumphed, shaking his fist in celebration as he passed the other two coming off the banking on to the long main straight.

For most of the event, Johnny’s team, imaginatively named "The Johnny Herbert Fan Club", kept the lead their team leader had established at the start. Until they were nobbled by a bribe... sorry, charitable donation to SPARKS... of £200 waved at the pit marshall who wouldn’t let Johnny out of the pits! Johnny retaliated with a bigger bribe/donation of £300 but by then it was too late: James Kaye’s team, Bramdeans Best had taken the lead. Some very quick laps by the Touring Car driver, including second quickest of the day (38.31s), also might have had something to do with it...

No less than six of the teams put in a sub-39s fastest lap. That means that at least six drivers put in quicker laps than Johnny's fastest of 39.08s and David Coulthard's of only 40.03s. Was David’s kart the problem or is he still weak from the recent loss of all his hair?! Whichever it was, that wasn't his only problem of the day. Before the racing started, the rather large security man, who was there to stop the ordinary punters getting into the celebrities' hospitality "suite", insisted on seeing David's pass before he was allowed in! "David Coulthard? Nah... pull the other one, mate. He's got much longer hair...!"

With 10 minutes to go, it was shaping up to be a nail biting finish. Bramdean and the Fan Club were only 6 seconds apart - could the Fan Club team catch them to retake the lead? It didn’t look like it as the Bramdean driver put in some quick laps and edged away. Then it was all over. The challenge was wiped out when the Fan Club team’s kart suffered a puncture. Despite pounding music and flashing spotlights building up to the chequered flag, the excitement evaporated as Bramdean cruised to victory by over a lap.

After the race, there was an auction of memorabilia, including a clock made out of a Williams carbon fibre brake disc, signed photos, pictures drawn by a fan, a few F1 wheels and tyres, and the odd bit of broken racing car. This and a raffle all helped to swell the stupendous proceeds raised for SPARKS.

The usual, and a couple of unusual, presentations were made. The latter included early Christmas presents of a $12 million cheque to David Coulthard, supposedly from "Ron and Bernie", and a huge tin of tennis balls for Johnny in honour of him being "the man with the biggest balls in Formula 1" - and because he once allegedly said that, in his next life, he’d like to return as a tennis ball in the ladies final at Wimbledon...

New balls, please!

Sometimes, though, it all gets too much (photo by Emma Tinning- 28Kb)...

Please send any comments or feedback to d.cunliffe@btinternet.com
This page prepared 25th January 1997