Thursday 9th February 2023
On Wednesday 8th February 2023, Alisha co-hosted a Charity Karting Event with ITV commentator, Richard John Neil at Brentwood Karting.
Alisha also had an all female team which she competed in - 'MEDAL Maniacs' based on the names of the drivers competing:
M = Macie Hitter
E = Ella Lloyd
D = Daniella Sutton*
A = Alisha Palmowski
L = Liona Theobald
*Sadly, Daniella had to pull out of the event due to ill health.
No one from this team had ever been to Brentwood Karting previously, so the race itself would be the first laps completed by each of them around this circuit.
The aim of this event was to raise funds for two charities, splitting the proceeds 50:50 between them:
The Charities:
Support Dogs a charity that Alisha is an ambassador for.
The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity a charity that Richard John Neil supports.
The Event:
The event was a sell out, 18 teams, with an average of 4 drivers per team totalling cira 72 drivers competing in the 2 hour endurance race.
Qualifying:
Macie Hitter did the 10 minute qualifying session, with team MEDAL qualifying in 6th, which was a great effort, especially as these were her first laps. However, there was a twist, with this then being converted into a reverse grid for the start of the race, meaning team MEDAL were to start the race in 13th position.
The Endurance Race:
Each driver completed equal 30 minute stints.
Stint 1: (30 mins)
Ella Lloyd started the race from 13th, but a first lap incident involving a large number of the field, saw her drop to the very back. Ella pushed hard to move up the field and with laptimes improving came in to end her stint in 8th position, a great recovery drive!
Stint 2: (30 mins)
Liona Theobald was next up and set about making progress again after dropping back to 13th as a result of the pit stop. Consistent laps meant that Liona was able to progress back up to 9th position as she came into the pits to end her stint.
Stint 3: (30 mins)
Macie Hitter had the next stint, picking up in 12th after the stop and quickly set-off to record some competitive and consistent laptimes. She progressed the team forward back up in to 9th position by the end of her stint.
Stint 4: (30 mins)
Alisha Palmowski picked up to do the 4th and final stint and re-joined in 9th due to the buffer Macie had made. Alisha quickly got up to speed and fought hard to close the half lap gap to move up into 8th and then a further quarter of a lap to move up in to 7th after recording the 5th fastest lap of the overall race.
Finishing Position:
7th / 18. A respectable top 10 finish especially after running last on the first lap due to the incident!
There were 3445 laps collectively completed by all teams and drivers.
Fund Raising:
The most important part of the event however, was to raise much needed funds for the two charities and the event was able to raise a very impressive and respectable sum as follows:
Total = £2760*
Split into £1380* per charity
* At the time of writing.
Thank-you to everyone involved, it was a great, enjoyable event (albeit extremely cold :) for two great causes.