It was team building and training with a difference in January as three of our drivers headed over to the French Alps for a race like no other, thanks to the generosity of a team sponsor.
Drivers Bobby Trundley, Aaron Morgan and Paul Fullick travelled to Serre Chevalier to compete in the 12th Ice Kart Trophy, hosted by RD Events. The trip was possible thanks to Absolute Mobility, a provider of accessible bathrooms, who kitted out our Sussex-based HQ with top of the range accessible facilities last year.
Engineering Director Al Locke also went along to fit hand controls to our kart and provide tech support, and Adam Deans from our linked charity, KartForce made up the final member of our race team.
The event saw 15 teams from 7 countries going head to head in 3 x 60 minute kart races on a custom-made ice track. The drivers were able to take part in practise before the race, and a qualifying session set the order for the grid in race 1, held on Saturday 18th January.
The team qualified P14 for race 1, then fought back for a P8 finish. In race 2 we qualified P7, dropped back to P15 after a rough first lap, then finished in P8 once again. In race 2, we had a tough battle and finished P12, before finishing P8 in race 3.
Aside from the racing, the drivers were also pushed well and truly out of their comfort zones, with a ride on a giant zipline, starting at an altitude of 2491m, and descending 1,100m into the Ecrins National Park.
Al Locke explains: “We had a fantastic time in France and can’t thank Darren and the Absolute Mobility team enough for making this happen for us. As well as a brilliant team building exercise, driving on ice gave the team really valuable practice on low grip surface, something that is hard to train for on UK race circuits. This teaches the drivers to be comfortable in a sliding car, to sense oversteer and understeer, and to correct for it using throttle, steering, and braking.
“Ice karting isn’t easy, and the drivers quickly found out that their prowess on a standard track didn’t translate quite so easily onto the ice. That said, they learned really fast and we put in some impressive performances to climb back up the grid after some competitive challenges.
“Being able to offer the drivers some real once-in-a-lifetime opportunities like the mountain zipline was also incredible. It was a weekend we won’t forget!”
