Va Bene

There's something reassuring about handmade products. Whether it's a chocolate lovingly poured, a garment meticulously stitched, or a cigar sensuously rolled, the product is not the product of a machine. And it just feels like someone has taken particular care over its creation.

When we bought Kate's first karting helmet, we followed MSAR Malcolm's advice and went for Arai. Every Arai helmet is handmade. And an Arai helmet just feels special when you hold it. It's almost like you're expecting to see someone's initials on the inside like an Emma Bridgewater mug or a Wedgewood plate. Somone has carefully made that helmet. Kate has two Arai helmets now - one for endurance racing with comms attached, and a custom-painted one for everything else, and I don't think she'll ever go for another brand.

This post though, is not about helmets. It's about rib protectors. If you've been following Kate's zillions of posts on social media, you'd have spotted that she's been struggling with a cracked rib. 4 weeks ago she came off the track in tears after a couple of practice laps at Bayford. There's not a lot you can do for cracked ribs. Bruised ribs - take ibuprofen and paracetamol. Cracked ribs - take ibuprofen and paracetamol. Broken ribs - take ibuprofen and paracetamol. And of course, rest (which means stop karting for a while). Well, nothing would stop Kate karting, and she raced the following day, doing the minimum required to get some championship points and a signature on her license upgrade card - that was 2 laps in timed qualification, and a single lap in the final (although it turned out to be 5 because of the number of false starts).

Some codeine helped. And a 10-day break to San Francisco forced her to chill. But she came back from sunny(ish) California with a day to recover from jetlag before the next championship race at Buckmore Park.

12 minutes of practice and Kate was still having problems with her ribs. So, we came away from practice early and headed for Dartford Karting. They had some Bengio lady rib protectors in stock. And yes, you guessed it, Bengio rib protectors are handmade - lovingly handmade in Italy. And boy, they are amazing. They are so light, and the lady ones are cut perfectly to protect the rib cage of a lady without squashing boobs. Lots of praise to the lady at Dartford Karting for helping with the fitting. And lots of praise to the chap at Dartford Karting who provided a Tillett Manetti seat for Kate to check out the effectiveness of the rib protector. And he even popped over on race day to see how Kate was getting on with the rib protector.

People say it's always worthwhile wandering round the paddock to see what gear people are using (whether it's kart parts or kart wear). And when we looked round the paddock at Buckmore, it felt like the whole world was wearing Bengio rib protectors.

Did it work? How was Kate? Va Bene! Kate raced the whole day without a problem (that's a warmup, a timed qualification, a heat 1, a heat 2, and a grand final), and she got the best result she's ever had in Senior Rotax at Buckmore. She still had rib pain, but it was not the acute pain she's been having. The Bengio rib protector contained the pain. When she wore her previous rib protector she was in agony. And today, the day after the race, she's feeling good and can't wait for the next race at Bayford this coming weekend. Result.

And now I'm wondering if there are any other handmade karting products we should be looking at...