Bilton Grange pupil with a passion for Go-Karting raises £19,500 for Ukrainian refugees

 

A Bilton Grange Preparatory School pupil has raised £19,500 to help Ukrainian refugees by organising a sponsored go-karting race at Rye House, Lewis Hamilton’s old racing track in Hertfordshire. 

Jarlath Sayer, 9, who lives in Clay Coton near Lilbourne, organised the charity event for 26 teams with the aim of completing as many laps as possible in three hours. He secured the agreement of KartSim to provide a Karting simulator at the event and Belgian-British racing driver Lando Norris donated a signed replica helmet for the fastest lap. Freddie Hunt, son of Formula 1 world champion, James Hunt, also helped support the event and entered a team to the Le Mans-style race.   

Jarleth’s fund-raising efforts came to the attention of Toto Wolff, head of the Mercedes Benz Formula 1 team, which donated items for an auction as part of the event, including gloves signed by Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, signed technical drawings of the 2021 F1 car and a group tour of Mercedes’ Formula 1 headquarters. 

Red Bull Racing also donated a cap signed by Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, two of their current F1 drivers, while Sky F1 donated a cap signed by all their presenters. 

Jarlath headed up the auction, waved the start and finish flags and presented the winner’s trophy to an all-female team headed up by professional racing driver Jess Hawkins. 

The schoolboy said that hearing news about children in Ukraine, who were having to leave their homes, their family and friends and their school because of the war, prompted him to try and help. 

“I love go-karting so I decided to see if I could raise money by organising a race that people would pay to attend to help those children. I could not believe it when Formula 1 teams got involved and the event got so big.” 

Jarlath is a keen go-karter, competing in the British Karting championships for the Jamie Green racing team. This is his rookie year in the championship, driving an IAME Cadet kart with other drivers aged between eight and 12. 

Gareth Jones, Head Master of Bilton Grange, said: “Jarlath’s achievement is remarkable. His desire to help others and his initiative to actually make a difference is very special, and an example to others that we should rightly celebrate. The world needs more compassion, more philanthropic gestures and more energy channelled into supporting others. Jarlath has demonstrated all of those qualities in his fund-raising.” 

Bilton Grange Preparatory School is part of Rugby School Group. Located in 90 acres of woodland in Dunchurch, near Rugby, it has 390 day and boarding pupils.  https://www.biltongrange.co.uk/


02.08.22