Ashbourne College headed to the tracks for another round of Go Karting!

Staff v Student Go Karting is one of Ashbourne’s longest standing activity traditions, and without a doubt one of its most popular. Competitiveness is rife, among the staff as much as the students!
Our track of choice is North Greenwich, as they offer fast petrol karts and a long, twisty track, perfect for getting your Fast and Furious style drifting on. For the last session back in November the staff begrudgingly conceded a victory to the students, who took first and second place in both races. Back then we promised them that in the next session they would be going down, and so it was with much friendly (I promise) banter that we headed down to the track on this cold February night.

When we arrived, as we were so many people (28 in total!) we were split into three groups. Warmup and Qualifying race first, which would decide which category you were placed into out of Fast, Medium and Slow. Then, a grid start race with first across the line after the chequered flag was waved scoring victory. The warmup race started off slow while everyone familiarised themselves with the karts and the track, but as confidence everyone became faster and faster. At the end of the three warmup rounds the categories were announced. Staff and students were fairly evenly split between the three categories, and so it was clear that it would be a close finish.
Everyone cheered and yelled, supporting their friends as they raced. Tim Cooke, the premises and IT assistant took first place in the slow race, with Clark and Zenty coming 2nd and 3rd respectively. In the second race, a fierce battle broke out between Lee (the Director of Studies) and Rob (Head of Year 12) as Rob fought for lap after lap to pass Lee, shaking his fists in frustration as he went. His moment soon came however and he passed him, coming a comfortable 5th place while Lee took 6th. We then noticed something amazing – Lucas Frayssinet, our own French motocross professional, was running from side to side of the track viewing area, speaking urgently into his phone. We soon realised that he was coaching one of his friends around the track, shouting advice of where to position himself, when to speed up and when to hold back. We watched in amazement as Zubair’s position in the race went from 10th to an incredible 3rd, getting the fastest lap of the round! The medium raced finished with maths teacher Sean in first place, and Lucas Barrett in second.

It was then time for the fast race. Need we even tell you who the winner was? Not only did he win by a clear margin but Lucas actually ended up 5th on the track’s leaderboard for the fastest times of the week. You’d almost think he was a professional!
At the presentations everyone cheered and clapped as everyone went up to collect their trophies. All in all the staff won 2 out of 3 races, so I would say that we took the crown this time! Another excellent Ashbourne outing, and there will be many more go karting nights to come.