Switch From Tonykart to Gillard


As 2005 drew to a close and over the Christmas period, Mike decided the family team had to move away from Strawberry Racing and the Tonykart chassis. Mike said that the decision to move had been a personal one, and had not been anything to do with Strawberry Racing, or the Tonykart.

When Mike had ventured away from Rotax Max during 2005, Strawberry had brought in David Bellchambers to take the drive he had held during the 2004 season. After the Renault ‘Champions of Champions’ race, and then at a PF International club meeting, Mike started to feel that he had been edged out to number 2 in the team to David. With this thought in his mind it was difficult to think of anything else, and so in Mike’s mind, would make it twice as hard to win the 2006 Rotax Max British Kart Championship.

“I had always said that if I was not on a Tonykart I would want to be on a Gillard, as the kart is very fast and easy to set up. Just after Christmas we were invited down to the Gillard factory at Stansted. Tim (Gillard) greeted us and gave us a tour of the workshop. I had never actually seen how a kart is manufactured before and I had a great evening looking at the various stages of manufacture. I was very surprised to see that all Gillard karts are fabricated in one jig, so they are all identical, and also one engineer does the welding.

Manufacturing a kart this way is slow and you may only be able to make small quantities compared to other manufactures, but the quality will be far superior. To prove this point, if you have five karts lined up, you should be able to take a seat, and put it in every kart. It should always be in the very same position.

After the tour we got down to business and a deal was struck. It means that we are now going to challenge for the 2006 British Rotax Max Championship on a Gillard!