Shenington 24-hour Pedal Car Race 2023
Date: 27th Jul 2023
Author: Explorers
We returned to the ultimate endurance Pedal Car Race, where this year 2 Belgium teams made the long trip over the channel to compete. Our 2 teams were make up of the following;
Girls U16: Tonianne, Olivia, Jess, Poppy, Emily & Molly
Boys U14: William, Cooper, Jamie, Charles, Harry & Charlie
We travelled up all together in a minibus with some very dated music from James our pit time keeper and lap monitor. Setting up camp was challenging in the dark but we all settled down quickly in preparation for the race the next day.
Poppy and Emily joined our team from Silver Arrows Explorers.
Some of our team hadn’t raced before so took some time in the morning to practise steering the cars on the correct racing line. Indeed a few direct hits to the sign entering the pit lane did provoke a few riders/officials to ask if we needed to go to specsavers, others were more concerned about the cars which just goes to show how passionate people are about this sport.
Midday came quickly and the race started with everyone up for it. The weather was pretty hot and soon we all realised how hard this was going to be. Lap after lap we pushed hard to keep up with the other racers in our categories. As the sun fell we switch the light on and experienced racing in the dark, thankfully the temperatures also dropped. As midnight approached the boys were stopping to prevent possible injuries during the night. There was no such luck for us girls, we continued through the night with a few going to bed for 4 hours at a time to help with the final push in the morning. As the sun rose it was important to keep the morale up and our leaders did everything to cheer us on. With a few hours to go we worked together to complete the final push, 494 miles between both teams is no mean feat. I’m so happy to be part of the team and made some great friendships.
Placings
Girls 1st Place U16 and U18 and 2nd Adults
Boys 2nd Place U14 and U16 and 3rd U18
-Toniann
