Team of the day

Joe Gethen, Miles Savage and Clive Broadbent trying to get Kate's kart going

If there was such a thing as a 'team of the day' award, it would definitely have gone to GMS Motorsport last Sunday.

Kate Broadbent was sat on the dummy grid waiting for the start of the Senior Rotax final. The marshal waved his green flag, Kate hit the starter switch, and nothing happened. I'd started walking to the grandstand when I spotted Kate frantically jumping up and down in her seat to shake the kart, thinking it might be a stuck starter motor, but it wasn't. After a year of racing almost every weekend, the battery had decided enough was enough, and it had died.

Miles Savage (the GMS Team Manager) and Joe Gethen (GMS driver and mechanic) charged towards Kate's stricken kart, and I raced towards her too. "Get another battery" one of them shouted. One of them ran to the GMS lorry and the other started removing the dead battery from the kart.

The other karts, though, had already gone onto the track, and the marshal shouted over that we had one lap (that's about a minute) to get Kate on the track otherwise she'd miss the race.

It was all hands on deck. Miles had the new battery installed by the time the other karts were coming round to finish the lap, but we'd lost the screw that holds the battery cover in place. I really thought that was it, race over. But the marshal (probably because all the staff at Buckmore know Kate and are routing for her) sent the karts round for another lap. "That's it" he said. "One more lap". Then I spotted the screw on the ground, Miles rammed it into the battery case, the engine fired up, and Kate weaved into the rows of karts on the track, and just made it to the start. If her adrenaline hadn't been pumping before, it was certainly pumping now.

And then there was the race... Super driving from Kate (she'd been getting coaching from GMS the day before), and Kate definitely had the pace to keep up with the leaders. She was even going flat out down the hill into the Paddock turn (which she admitted was pretty scary the first time she did it).

Thanks though, go to the GMS team. Kate and I know that she would not have been able to race in the final if she wasn't racing with a team.

And the 'team of the day' award? It definitely goes to GMS Motorsport!