Williams Esports celebrates a successful event at the British 24H Karting race

The event brought together an array of drivers from within the esports team, some of them meeting for the first time

Published

16 AUG 2024

Est. reading time

4 min

Williams Esports partook in the British 24h karting race at Teesside Autodrome last weekend, finishing in P9 out of 33 entries in the Hire Clubman class, and 45th out of 89 total entries. The event brought together an array of drivers from within the esports team, some of them meeting for the first time!

Andrew McWilliam, Carl Jansson, Kamil Grabowski, Michael Preston, Moreno Sirica, Robin Glerum, and Will Lewis came together to tackle this mammoth event, which was truly a test of their physicality and mentality.

After some practice on Friday, Saturday morning arrived and the team began the day strong, qualifying P2 in Hire Clubman class, and P7 out of all hire karts!

Following a short break, the union flag was waved and Andrew McWilliam took the #17 Williams Esports kart off the line. The team performed well in the first few hours, avoiding all the customary first lap incidents, and battling against other teams in a similar position to us, maintaining a podium position within our class.

As the pit stop window opened, Andrew finished his first stint and made way for Michael Preston to begin the stint rotation, which saw each driver complete around 1h30 each, before pitting for fuel and making way for another driver to enter the fray.

As the hours wore on, the team continued to battle valiantly, however it was around Hour 7 when the mechanical monster bore it’s teeth down on the team, and we entered a tricky period of successive mechanical problems, starting with the engine start cord breaking in the hand of Moreno, prompting our first engine swap, followed by flat tyres, bulging tyres, and more engine problems which saw the team drop as low as 19th in class by the lap around 10pm.

Undeterred, the team remained strong throughout the night shift – taking their mandatory service stop and steadily regaining positions as teams around them suffered their own misfortunes and made driver changes.

The sun rose on the second day around 6am, and the team was sat P14 in class, looking ahead to capitalise on the last 6 hours of the race – and that is what they did. Working hard as a team, each driver gave their all and the #17 kart rose the standings throughout the last 400 laps and rose the team to their final finishing position – P46/89, 9th in class, and 23rd in hires.

The team just broke the millennium lap threshold, completing a total of 1003 laps across the 24 hour race, the fastest lap of 1:21.245 was set by Carl Jansson in the early hours of the morning.

Whilst no trophies are awarded for finishing P9, the team did not leave empty handed, as they were awarded the ‘Best New Team’ trophy, as selected by the race commentators.

Driver Carl Jansson said: “It was a tough race, as we had a kart that was down on power by quite a bit, but we did our best and ran in the podium positions for quite some time. The pull cord for the engine went off in the pits, and about an hour later we had a puncture dropping us back quite a bit. Overall, we had a good race though without any major incidents and the pace was very good for the kart we had.”

Driver, and team engineer Michael Preston said “I think we came close to maximising the performance each of us could do, and the strength of our squad meant that we always had good pace at every stage of the race.”

“It is difficult to overcome the amount of mechanical issues we had but we didn’t let it affect our driving or our enjoyment of the event. Hopefully we can try again next year and try to convert to a better result!”

“Also a massive congratulations to Peddles (Chris Pedlingham) for setting a new world record for the most distance travelled in a gokart in 24 hours during the race!”

Head Coach Ben Hawkins was on site with the drivers, he said that “At Williams Esports, we pride ourselves on a holistic development program that provides our drivers with the tools and experiences necessary to excel both on and off the track. The British 24h at Teesside was one such opportunity, where our team rose to the occasion and demonstrated exceptional resilience and teamwork.”

“Despite numerous challenges (and getting to know the mechanics and pit crew all too well), they not only completed the gruelling endurance race but also achieved a top 10 finish, earning our first IRL trophy for Best New Team.”

“It is a privilege to work with such a talented and dedicated group, creating memories that will last a lifetime.”

Please join us in congratulating the team for their valiant effort, and for winning Williams Esports’ first trophy for ‘real world’ racing! Hopefully the first of many, and we are sure the next will be some silverware celebrated on the podium!

Finishing one position ahead of our team was the #4 Racing for Ange entry, which saw Chris Pedlington break the world record for ‘Greatest distance travelled karting on an outdoor circuit in 24 hours (individual)’ whilst raising money for the British Heart Foundation. Williams Esports extends it’s congratulations to Chris for this fantastic achievement, and if you would like to donate to Chris’ fundraiser, you can find it here.

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