The UK’s premier karting event for insurance people, Insurance Endurance, took place on Friday 13th September and was once again a quite unparalleled triumph. The fact that Bankstone News is the main sponsor of this prestigious highlight in the UK motorsports calendar would not, of course, in any way encourage us to report it’s having been a quite unparalleled triumph if it hadn’t. So that’s got that out of the way.
On a perfect early September day, the almost literally numberless hordes of eager contestants had more fun in one day that the average human being can expect to experience in an entire lifetime whilst competing for one of the most coveted sporting prizes in this or any other universe. The strapping young athletes of Sagicor arrived in smartly matching race suits and were every bit good enough to finish a close second to Lamprey & Sons, who, thanks to a superb family effort from Michael Symons and his boys held off all comers to clinch first spot.
Pitching up third were Harrogate-based RescueMyCarp.com, whose sheer dogged perseverance in going round and round the same few loops of tyre-fringed tarmac quite fast for hour upon hour on end under a blazing late summer sun richly deserved a place on the least elevated section of the podium.
It seems hardly worth mentioning Amlin – aside from their having accidentally recorded the fastest lap and somehow – narrowly and doubtless fortuitously – having held Bankstone Racing off the much coveted fourth place.
Lead by the redoubtable and ever-youthful Commander Andrew “CO Jones” Jones, it was in fact Bankstone Racing who were perhaps the true stars and moral victors (in some subtle sense that does not, alas, spring immediately to mind) of the day’s proceedings. We salute you mighty Bankstone Racing! In a just world you would, of course, have carried all before you and not just finished second in the pitslop challenge behind (Oh, the ignominy) Sagicor (yes, them again).
The Bike Insurer – logically enough – finished ahead (in 6th) of their stablemates The Van Insurer, back in 8th, a mere three places ahead of Bankstone News who hung back diplomatically so as not to hog the glory and breezed through in 11th place. The Bike Insurer also deserve recognition for compiling a highly vivid record of the day’s sun-soaked proceedings which you can see here and for promising to provide a video highlights reel which may well be ready by the time Bankstone News goes to press next week (in which case we’ll tell you).
There were lots of other teams, of course, though, frankly, too many to mention. The food was utterly splendid, with many participants opining that it alone would have been well worth the price of admission – especially if someone else was paying.
To cut a long story short: anyone who missed this must-attend insurance hospitality event will, by now, probably be kicking themselves close to or beyond the point of requiring urgent medical attention. Stop, you maniacs! You can come next year and experience the thrill for yourselves. In fact, you positively must.
On a more sombre note, you may have heard that there was some monkeying around with the pit boards at the 2012 event, with various lewd and childish obscenities crudely spelled out, to the utter consternation and deep disgust of all right minded persons present. Fortunately, tough new rules on such things ensured that there was no repetition this year of such unedifying antics.
No! All of their photos have the logo and arrow in exactly the same place. Wash your mind out.
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