The S4C motorsports programme, Ralio+, visited the Llandow circuit on Sunday (20-09-09), to follow the progress of Welsh speaking Cadet drivers James (72) and Harry (75) Williams.
The brothers did not disappoint, racing well all day. The action was captured on film, including the last moments of the Cadet final. Harry had captured the lead from lap 6 but CC Robbie Gallier overtook on the inside of the last corner. The win looked like a lost option for Harry with only a few metres to the line. However with a lot of determination and a heavy Welsh foot, Harry drew alongside and on the line took the win by 00.0011 of a second.
An excellent result for Harry and the Williams family.
The coverage was also excellent for the Club and karting. Diolch yn fawr to all involved.
The Ralio+ programme was broadcast three times,on S4C, but for those who missed it, the whole programme will be available on line by following the link below. English subtitles are available by clicking on the 'owl' symbol at the bottom of the screen. Enjoy.
http://www.s4c.co.uk/clic/e_level2.shtml?series_id=353635595

As mentioned last month Huw Lewis braved the waters of Lake Windermere and took part in the Great North Swim to raise money for CANCER RESEARCH UK.
It turned out to be a day, warmer than expected, and decked out in a close fitting neoprene wet suit, How was able to complete the 1 mile swim without freezing his toes off.
Several hundred other swimmers took to the water in batches throughout the day. Photographs of the heads and arms splashing and bobbing about made quite a sight.
"It was the hardest thing I have ever done." said Huw. "I can't wait until next year, to do it again. The sense of achievement was fantastic."
Huw raised well over £800 and was still counting. No small achievement in itself.

LKC members, Robbie Gallier,Weston Super-Mare and Ross Chell, Narberth, Came 1st(Robbie) and 2nd(Ross) in the Honda Cadet class at the NKRA grande final at Glan Y Gors park on the weekend of the 29-30th August. Robbie, the winner of the Southern Region Championship and Ross dominated the weekend in their class with Robbie taking 4 heat wins and the final.
  Robbie started on pole for the final and Ross in second it was a very close battle between the two of them with the lead changing hands on several occasions. Robbie took the lead back on the final lap and won by only 2/100 of a second from Ross.

Inside Welsh Sport is a new free monthly magazine. It is aimed at the 'grass roots' of sporting activities of all kinds.

The August edition features an article, from the LKC, outlining the sport of Karting with a brief guide on how to start.

The Magazine can be viewed, on line, at www.i-welshsport.com turn to pages 4 and 5.
Although the Magazine is free and available at a variety of locations across Wales. Hard copies can sent to subscribers for the cost of postage (£12 for 12 issues). Well worth a look, you might be in the pictures.

Huw Lewis, the oily hand and general gofer behind current Senior Honda Club Champion, Gareth Lewis, has taken on the unenviable challenge of The Great North Swim.
One of the major fund raising events for CANCER RESEARCH UK it involves a one mile swim in Lake Windermere.

It will be cold! It will be breathtaking. It will be hard.
Huw, from Sebastopol, near Pontypool, is looking forward to the experience and has been practicing and honing his skills at the doggy paddle.
Apart from collecting sponsorship the Club agreed to donate the August raffle to Cancer Research UK.

The total funds raised by Huw will be revealed after the event on 13th September.
If he stops shivering, Huw will be at the next Club meeting on 20th September.
We wish him the best of luck. At least he will end the day a lot cleaner than after a day at Llandow.

The Hog Roast for the Welsh Championship is £5 per head for friends and family. Drivers get it for FREE.

If you would like have a ticket for the Hog Roast could you please let Sheila know so she can get an idea of numbers to order for. Send an email to: sdkjones@hotmail.co.uk

Monies can be paid on the night.

For those at yesterdays meeting we hope you were fortunate enough to meet Ross Chells mam (Max) and James & Harry Williams mam (Hazel) handing out sponsor forms for Wales Air Ambulance.
For those that missed them or was unable to attend the race we are running the Welsh Championship meeting in June where you are sponsored to race with all money raised going to Wales Air Ambulance. We have been lucky to recieve match funding pound for pound upto £750 from Barclays Bank for which we are very gratefull .
A representetive from both Air ambulance and barclays bank are coming to the June meeting so lets show them what a generous lot we are at Llandow Kart Club.
For those that are able to raise sponsorship all names will go into a hat where several very nice prizes await.
If you require a sponsor form either give Tony a ring 07974102648 or email Tony at gullicka@aol.com

New special offer for Minimax and Junior TKM. Practice and race for ONLY £50.

See leaflet for more information and terms of deal. Click Here

The club now accepts e-mail entries. Please e-mail your completed forms to llandowcompsec@hotmail.co.uk

The Welsh Championship dates have now been released.

It will be run on the 20th & 21st June 2009, it is a two day meeting and entry fee cost is £80

It took time!

Like a script from a James Bond movie, or Mission Impossible IV. Furtive meetings in darkened car parks. Passing information from lap top to lap top. The secret agents from the LKC met with Dan the Man and achieved what many had failed to do in the past.

At long last the detailed results from the February and March meetings of the Llandow Kart Club are on UK Karting's Race Results and Reports.

The full location is http://www.karting.co.uk/Results.
scroll down to find Llandow Kart Club, click on the meeting date and enjoy.
All the information you might expect is there and more.

Individual heats and finals, lap times, fastest laps and some colourful graphics to show individual progress through each race.

I have always wondered how fast the karts are actually going. Now I know. It is all there.
If you had not thought of it already, add the Race Results and Reports section of UK Karting to your Favourites list and you can go directly to the 'page'.

Thank you to all who had a hand in making this possible. It is probably the best 10th Birthday present the Club could have.

Karting Magazine has printed the first of a series describing MSA licenced circuits around the UK. As the Llandow Kart Club is entering its 10th year we were chosen as the first to focus on.

The feature gives details of the 'The Circuit', 'The Club' and current 'Lap Records'.
Penned by James Hobbs, well known at the track as Hobzie. The article describes a brief history of Llandow with details of contacts and really everything readers need to know in order to race at Llandow.

Interestingly there is a note by Jordan Chamberlain, successful British and European racer, who describes his memories of Llandow. He compares Llandow to 'the prestigious track at Parma (Italy)... well known for its mixture of both technical and fast flowing corners.'

Karting Magazine is now available online to subscibers at reduced rates. Check out the website at www.kartingmagizine.com .

Just a reminder to those who have not yet sent their entries to Colin for the 2nd Round of the Llandow Club Championship.
Remember the £50 offer to Senior TKM and Junior Max drivers for the weekend of practice and racing on 14th and 15th March.
We would like to see this as a successful boost to grid size.
Also, it would be nice to see more Junior and Senior Hondas. 
Dust off the old Prokart and come to Llandow.
Details of email entry are in the News below.

Race and practice at Llandow Kart Club's March and April meeting for only £50 for the whole weekend.
That's right, A FULL WEEKEND RACING FOR ONLY £50.
All you have to do is go to entry form page, fill out the entry form and email it to llandowcompsec@hotmail.co.uk, or post to the address given, and enjoy a fabulous weekends racing at one of the country's best tracks, with great people and good organisation.
This offer only applies if you practice and race, race only at the full entry fee.

If the offer is successful then it is anticipated that it can be extended to the other classes over the coming months.
I hope this clarifies the matter somewhat.
We look forward to March 15th for another great day at Llandow.

Reports (in The Sun (17-2-09) (I didn't buy the Sun, I read it in the barbers), claim that former Karting Welsh Champ (twice), and F1 World Champ, Nigel Mansell has bought a dog. Not your average happy-go-lucky mutt, but a £15k SAS German Shepherd. Might he be called 'Cobblers'? This very expensive hound is apparently for 'protection'.

Not to be outdone, Tooty has become the guardian of Llandows own circuit defender.
It seems that 'Percy' has adopted the track and patrols the workshops and pits. Costing the odd tin of Kit-e-Kat and a free supply of mice, Percy comes in at a little less than £15.000.

Percy, who turns out to be a lady cat, has particular tastes, preferring the comfy seat of Tooty's Prokart.

Asked what could attract a cat to a noisy kart circuit?
Percy, smiled, and purred, " I like the smell of petrol in the morning." We will all feel safer on race days.

Due to the snowy and icy conditions in and around the Oxfordshire track and despite the strenuous efforts of the circuit staff, Shenington has had to cancel this weekend.
There will be 217 disappointed drivers.

In the spirit of comradeship and try to help out, Llandow has offered to extend our entry timetable to any Shenington drivers who still wish to race. The late entry fee has been waived.

Those wishing to enter are advised to contact Nigel Clark at the SWKC and not the usual Colin Lipscomb who is unavailable.
Telephone details of entry to  01446 795568

The weather at Llandow this Saturday and Sunday is expected to be dry, light winds and temps of 7 or 8. Thanks, no doubt to the Gulf Stream, the Vale of Glamorgan is free of ice and snow. The roads are clear south of the M4. There are still problems with ice in parts of the high ground around the Rhondda and Merthyr Tydfil. All in all the Gods have smiled on South Wales.

We look forward to welcoming those who wish to race.

Now and again it is good to realise that there is a life outside Karting, especially when we know the people involved.

Some of us knew that our very own Llandow Burgermeister, Senior Prokart stalwart (retired), Nigel Kent had an interest in arrows. Not the little things you can hurl at a dartboard, but the real things projected with not inconsiderable scientific skill at a target some distance away. Some may have seen parts of the Archery competitions at the recent Olympic games, and wondered at the incredible contraptions they call bows these days. Counter balances, sighting gadgets and other strange bits and pieces protrude from every angle. Seems like a lot of work, not much like the bent bamboo and string we used as kids to torment the neighbours. It seemed the loosed 'arrow' took on a life of its own, often missing the intended target and finding an unsuspecting window several houses away.
Not so with the Kents.

As a family, true to the traditions of the medieval Welsh longbowmen of Agincourt fame, they have achieved considerable success at the WFAA Welsh Indoor Championships held at St Fagans last month. As members of the Llantwit Major Archery Club, the Kents took three of the nine gold medals won by the Club.

All familiar faces at Llandow meetings,
Mum, Elaine took gold in the Ladies Compound Sighted group.
Son, Jac won gold and the Junior Boy Unlimited title.
Daughter, Imogen, gold in the Cub Compound Sighted division.
Dad, Nigel, came 5th in the AMFU.

Well done to the whole family for their outstanding results.
Mind you, the next time we are standing in line for our regular intake of bacon buns and tea, maybe Nige can explain what on earth all this 'new' language means. 'Barebow', 'recurve', 'compound', 'sighted' and 'unsighted', also AMFU, CFCS, AFCS, and JMFU. We are all used to TKM, MSA, ABKC etc., but there is obviously a whole new world out there. 

Following their top 6 finish in last years final at Buckmore Park, Alex Everett and Sebastian Hutchinson, joined by fellow Llandow karter J.J. Wilson, represented St. Cyres Comprehensive School, Penarth, in the British Schools Karting Championship.

Held at the Cardiff Team Sport indoor track on Tuesday evening (27th January). The boys achieved an emphatic win to put the team into the Wales and West of England regional finals.

J.J., new to the team for 2009 produced a solid performance, winning both his heats and matching Alex and Sebastian's heat wins.

The next regional finals will be held on 28th February. We wish them the best of luck.

Round 1 of the LKC Championship is also in February.
Please get your entries and membership to Colin in plenty of time. It might be an idea to start warming up your long-johns.

The next session will be held at the SWKC during the February half-term. Please phone 01446 795568 for details. Remember for only £5, 8 to 16 year olds get instruction, all the gear and laps of the track.

Bring along a friend and show them what karting can be like.

Members out there may submit items of News to the Website editor.

Those interested might like to checkout the Stars of Tomorrow website. ( I am sure you all have it on your 'favourites'.)

Look at the Gallery of pictures taken at the Autosport Show. Some well known LKC faces are evident amongst 'the great and the good' including our very own man with the mic.

Look carefully at the display of 'flying karts'. Kart no.4 is piloted by a driver with a distinctive orange Day-Glo helmet. We must ask Neil how he managed to keep Mac in one place for so long.

LKC would like to congratulate all those at the Devon circuit for their perseverance and successful campaign to remove sound restrictions.

The Court battle was hard fought and a great victory for common sense and Karting.

Fortunately at Llandow we do not have the same problems but certainly other circuit will be taking note of the result.

South Wales Karting Centre are giving 2009 Llandow Kart Club members an exclusive offer on the 25th January 2009. Members can have a FULL DAY practice for only £25.

Offer only available to 2009 members and for one day only, so sign up now.

Happy New Year. Welcome to 2009.

This year is Llandow Kart Club's 10th Anniverary.

Fancy going karting for just £5 at South Wales Karting Centre?? See this leaflet for more details click here