SA man sets kart distance record
2010-09-07 07:12
Myk Prescott, a 46-year-old karting enthusiast from Honeydew, near Johannesburg, has set a 48-hour World Record for solo kart driving.
On Sunday, September 5, 2010 at 8am, an exhausted Pescott finished his final lap of the Zwartkops Kart Raceway near Pretoria, having covered 2010km over 48 hours.
“Every bone, every muscle in my body hurts,” said Myk, who battled with fuel-filter problems on his eight-year-old kart early on in the record attempt, which began on Friday at 8am at the popular Pretoria kart track. “Because of the setback I was forced to drive almost flat-out for the rest of the time. In total, I had only one-and-a-half hours sleep during the 48 hours.”
Prescott started racing karts 20 years ago; today his children race karts in junior categories. He is already the holder of the Guinness World Record for the 24-hour solo kart driving entry. He set this two years ago driving the same kart using a Rotax 125cc kart racing engine.
“I was given a rebuilt Rotax engine for this attempt by the importers, Ed Murray Racing, and it performed fantastically over the 2010km,” said Myk. He also did the entire distance on one set of Mojo racing tyres, using a hard (long life) compound.
Plans for the future? “Right now, I think I’ll sleep for a week!”
The record will be ratified by the Guinness Book of World Records as soon as all the documentation and video footage of the event have been approved by its publishers.
