13/08/2026
🇬🇧 2026 British 24 Hours race report 🏁
It's another year, but not just any British 24 hours for us. We headed into the weekend knowing that it was our final race as a team after 10 years, and we were all determined to get the best possible result on our final outing for Reuben.
This being our final year, we decided to start at the back of the grid for the hell of it, well 2nd to last thanks to Teesside Tigers' kart problems in qualifying 😂.
The flag dropped for the start of the race and Paul gained us over 25 places in the first few laps thanks to both his overtaking skills and avoiding the first lap chaos. By the end of his stint we had gained 51 places and were P9 in overall hires, but a penalty for a pitlane infringement meant we had to serve that immediately, without taking fuel. This meant that Sean ran out of fuel immediately into his stint, although thankfully it was at the end of the lap so he was able to make it back to the pits.
At the end of Sean's stint we ran out of fuel once again just as we were about to pit, setting us back a few places but we weren't going to give up. Owen and Alan had their first stints, followed by Paul and Sean's second stints and by midnight we were up into the top three overall, despite an exhaust issue that cost us a further minute in the pits.
The team then did a mega job through the night, with great pace and staying out of trouble, and we were sitting P1 in overall hires with a 2 lap lead.
Unfortunately that's where things started to unravel as with 3 hours to go we suffered a broken chassis. This meant the kart didn't want to turn left, and it was pulling massively to the right down the straight. With an incident at the last corner and the issue getting worse over the course of 10 minutes, we decided to bring it to the mechanics bay. With the kart being unrepairable, we were able to jump into a spare kart. Unfortunately the spare kart was only fueled to do a couple of laps, so we had to pit again on our first lap in the new kart. From this point on all we could do was keep pushing and hope for a bit of luck to get us onto the overall hire podium.
The heavens opened for the final stint of the race, but unfortunately the luck we needed didn't arrive, and Paul brought the kart home in 5th place in overall hires, and 2nd place in hire elites.
Not the result we wanted in the end after having the lead that we had, but that's what makes the British 24 hours so challenging. It's never over until you've crossed that finish line, and we still have some silverware to take home for Reuben. 🏆
A massive thank you to the whole team for their incredible effort all weekend as always!
Thank you once again to Teesside Karting for hosting this amazing event, and thank you to all our supporters over the weekend and over the last ten years.
It's truly been a pleasure to Race 4 Reuben. 🧡
