by team manager Northern Munkah

"A full report into how we get on at Wembley – complete with any number of excuses we've gleaned from interviews conducted over the course of the year – will be published next week..." – or so we wrote on Friday as Crash.net prepared for an entry into the BP Ultimate Karting Championship.

However, after two hours of racing action around the circuit that will host the Race of Champions this coming weekend, it was the eleven other teams who were left to roll out the excuses after Team Crash stormed to victory by four laps - not bad for three fat blokes who expected to be slow and a racing driver who we didn't actually need in the end...

The event itself, to give the press the opportunity to sample the specially-constructed circuit ahead of the big event, saw twelve teams of between four and seven drivers doing battle in an endurance race – with Team Crash made up of journos Pete Wadsworth, Craig Llewellyn, Matt Salisbury and, our secret weapon, BTCC race winner Tom Onslow-Cole.

Having survived being rear-ended by a white van man en route to Wembley, and following two practice laps around the circuit, it was left to motoring editor Wadsworth to take the start from third place on the grid – although not out of choice after he was selected as the first driver while looking for his gloves back in the changing rooms.

Despite being tipped into a spin by one of our rivals – clearly shocked at the speed displayed by our 'slow' driver – Pete maintained his place near the front with only F3 driver Sam Bird able to make a move for position and pull away.

It soon became apparent that strategy would be key as well, with the decision to run four half-hour stints meaning that Pete hit the front as others pitted for driver changes.

Surviving the damp conditions following earlier rain, Pete pitted to hand over to Matt, with kart #8 soon moving into the lead. However, a coming together with Metro, while lapping the backmarker, led to the scandalous decision to hand out a drive-through penalty which cost more than 30 seconds and dropped us back to third place.

However, by the time the second stint drew to a close, we were the quickest team on track and back out front with our lead more than a lap.

Next up came motorsport editor Craig, with the regular kart racer looking to extend our advantage. Unfortunately, certain people hadn't clicked that slowing down on the racing line to enter the pits wasn't the cleverest thing to do, which meant that our resident Welshman found himself baulked on more than one occasion.