Team GB3 & GB4 took victory at yesterday’s Racing4Charity Karting4MND race at Thruxton, against fellow contenders from the BTCC, British GT and wider motorsport industry.
Faced with stiff competition, including the Crazy Cart team featuring touring car aces Nick Halstead and Scott Sumpton, plus the Collard entry including all-rounder Rob Collard, ex BRDC British F3 race winner Ricky Collard and younger brother Jordan, Team GB3 & GB4 prevailed in the two hour epic, which has already raised over £5,000 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
The annual event is organised by Bill Williams and former F1 and Le Mans contender David Brabham, in honour of Bill’s brother Gideon, John Wickham and racer Neil Cunningham, who lost their lives to the disease in recent years.
Will Macintyre, a three-time GB3 winner this year including at Spa last weekend, qualified the kart third, and started the race. A storming launch saw him challenge for the lead, but only until a kerfuffle with Ricky Collard midway round the opening lap sent him down the order.
Keeping to the charitable spirit, there was no appeal to the steward’s office for a review, and so Macintyre had to fight back up to second place before the first pit stop.
There, a strategic gamble by the team to switch to an early fuel stop and avoid any potential pit queues (a decision in no way inspired by a pit wall discussion with Autosport’s Stefan Mackley minutes earlier) paid dividends as Jarrod Waberski took over.
The South African closed the gap to the leading Collards, and when he handed over to GB4 race winner Branden Templeton for the third stint, the British youngster powered into the lead midway through. With trouble then hitting the Collard machine, Team GB3 and GB4 suddenly had a lead in excess of 40 seconds.
Local man James Hedley, who made his FIA F3 debut at Monaco just a couple of weeks ago, was entrusted with the final charge. But the Crazy Cart squad, now bolstered by ‘Rapid’ Ricky Collard, who made a controversial mid-race move to the team, ensured a nail biting conclusion as he closed the gap.
Hedley though, complete with ‘billy helmet’, after forgetting the most crucial bit of safety kit he owns, claimed victory for the team by over 25 seconds. After donating over 200 trophies to drivers in MSV championships since 2013, team entrant and sponsor John Cavill finally picked up a trophy of his own, after claiming the Gideon Williams Memorial Trophy on behalf of the squad.
Victory was made all the more remarkable, with Templeton and Hedley in particular picking up some colossal hand blisters during their stints!
Macintyre, who celebrated his second win in four days said: “It’s an amazing achievement, really happy for the team, who came out here with one goal in mind and we did it! A brilliant job by Branden, James and Jarrod. We’ve sacrificed a couple of hands along the way but it’s all good!”
Templeton, who pulled off the winning move said: “It’s great to come out here and raise awareness for the charity and Motor Neurone Disease. We came out here with high hopes, and I pulled off the winning move, what more can I say!? But all good fun, and most importantly, we’ve raised some good money for charity.”
Waberski, who played a big part in the winning strategy move commented: “It was a good fun event, it was great to come together with other GB3 and GB4 drivers for a good cause. It’s been a great event and thanks to everyone for hosting it, we had some fun racing!”
And Hedley, who crossed the line at his most glamorous event of the season so far added: “The team did an amazing job, Jarrod, Will, Branden, they did the hard work and I brought it home. We pulled away a bit until that fast Ricky Collard bloke got in the kart and he was closing me down a bit, but the boys before did what we needed to. An awesome day, and it’s great to get the first win for the team at this event.”
For more information about the event and charity, click here to visit the Facebook page, or here to visit the Instagram page. Click here for more information about the Motor Neurone Disease Association.