When I realised that most British kids would have the day off on Thursday due to the teachers’ strike, I asked Jon, our Group Sales Manager, to schedule some Junior karting sessions at all three tracks for the day. When he said he could only schedule some at Daytona Milton Keynes, I was a little disappointed. I thought that maybe we didn’t have the staff or something to operate a few Junior Arrive&drive sessions. But (as is sometimes the case) I was wrong. We don’t have the availability.

Both Daytona Sandown Park and Daytona Manchester are completely booked out on Thursday. From first thing in the morning to last thing at night, both venues have corporate team building events, incorporating conferences, meeting, break-out rooms, catering and karting. In each case, a large company is making full use of the venues. With 100 delegates each, they are having business meetings, presentations, team-building seminars and a team endurance race. Thank goodness for corporate events!

In the meantime, Daytona Milton Keynes also has corporate events all day on Thursday. But it uniquely has the completely independent North Circuit – where children from 5-15 years old can experience karting. So some kids (and their parents) will be delighted that we can help them out with a fun activity whilst those pesky teachers are having the day off.

So whilst these corporate groups (and the lucky kids of Beds, Bucks and Herts) get to go karting, what will the Teachers be doing? Striking! Now it strikes me that you don’t become a teacher to make your fortune. Just as you don’t become a fireman or a nurse to earn yourself a massive pension. You do it because of a sense of public service and because you care.

So going on strike is irony, right?

I enjoyed listening to The Now Show on Friday Night on Radio Four. If you are not familiar with it, its on at 6.30pm every friday night and features Hugh Dennis, Steve Punt and a host of other comedy masters giving their take on the topical news. Last Friday they has Jon Culshaw taking the mickey out of non-essential workers going on strike with a very funny sketch about government contingency plans to cover a threatened strike by Handbag Designers. I don’t do comedy myself, so I won’t attempt to repeat it here – you can download the podcast or listen to it on BBC’s Iplayer.

Anyway, if you are in Beds, Bucks or Herts and your kids have Thursday off, bring them karting. If you are elsewhere in the country, sorry – you will have to do something else!

Jim Graham
Team Daytona