A success that owes nothing to chance!The PF International circuit this year hosted the CIK-FIA World Championship for the OK and OK-Junior categories. It was largely due to the Trent Valley Kart Club that the popular Competition was a success. For the meticulous care given to the sporting, technical, media and public aspects and the omnipresent conviviality in a framework allowing the British passion for motor sport to express itself, the team from the club at Brandon deserves the warmest congratulations. A CIK-FIA International Race Director, as well as President of the Karting Committee within the MSA, Nigel Edwards participated in this interview as the President of the Trent Valley Kart Club.
Nigel Edwards, can you go back to the TVKC’s debut and your role in the club?
– We need to start by talking about Paul Fletcher, a fundamental personality in today’s karting in the UK. Paul is above all a great racing enthusiast who created and financed the PFI circuit in 1994. TVKC was born soon after to manage the organisation of the sporting events. It quickly grew to become the biggest of the country with 900 members. I was a simple member before being honoured to be proposed to succeed the outgoing president, ten years back.
How does the Trent Valley Kart Club work?
– It is above all a club of motorsport enthusiasts like hundreds of others in the United Kingdom. It is a structure and a place where members like to meet, not only during Competitions. Although Paul Fletcher is the owner of the track and continues to invest when the need arises, it soon became apparent that TKVC had to live up to this infrastructure in order to exploit its capabilities, while assuming financial autonomy. This is how the club has progressively evolved towards becoming a more and more professional operation. I am not talking about remuneration, but about the quality of services provided to competitors. From the outset, we had the ambition to make English karting exist at the international level. By bringing together skills and goodwill, we managed to form a team of true specialists. In the TVKC, everyone knows their role and takes full responsibility, which is motivating and above all very effective. We do everything we can to ensure that our customers are satisfied with the quality of what we offer them. Winner or loser, everyone must go home on a Sunday night safe and happy with their weekend.
What is the TVKC race schedule?
– The backbone of our calendar is our own championship. We organise a club race every first Sunday of the month. The formula is popular as we gather more than 300 Drivers each time, which is fantastic when we remember that the season starts in January in the cold and with very short days. We also run our Winter Series from January to March and we host some national races sanctioned by the MSA. This is about 15-16 meetings a year.
What are Trent Valley Kart Club’s ambitions?
– Successfully organising a CIK-FIA World Championship has long been our goal. The team had to adapt to the rules of international Competition and progress in many areas. We particularly cared about the reception of participants and the public. I think we have reached a very good standard, but it is always possible to do better. In any case we want to continue to offer excellent racing to all competitors who come to PFI. Racing is tough in this country, so we must never rest on our laurels.
CIK-FIA Best of 2017 / © Photo KSP