MILTON KEYNES, BEDFORD AND LUTON BUSINESSES ‘SHOWIN' WHAT THEY'RE MADE OF' AT THE MAZARS MEETING OF SPEED 2009
Daytona presentations
On 2 September at 7.30pm the heavens opened and 120 business people from across the Home Counties flooded the drenched race track at Daytona, Milton Keynes. Word of Mazars' first endurance race, last year, had spread throughout the business community, and their events team reported that competition entries had come in at lightning speed.
“Our first endurance race was so popular, we simply had to do it again,” said Stephen Eames, Partner at Mazars in Milton Keynes.
With 30 teams of four people, each driver had to race for at least 20 minutes in the 90-minute challenge. After a qualifying round, some karts span out on standing water as a control car led the way into a rolling start. They were off.
“When it is wet, you have to drive incredibly smoothly and consistently, without aggression, or you simply slide off the track,” advised Lloyd de Boltz-Miller, who endured similar conditions when he set the European distance record for driving a kart for 24 hours in August 2009.
On each lap, high-flying business executives flew off the track and onto the banks – ironically, some were professional bankers. The end of each driving stint saw helmets removed to reveal beaming smiles.
The racing was much fiercer compared to last year's event. Teams who finished last in 2008, leapt up to the middle of the scoreboard, suggesting practice sessions and serious driver selection regimes. Secret weapons were commonplace in the top three teams. Some had found secret go-karters within their company, others had pulled in directors from northern parts of the country who were known motor racers, and some even had a race car in the garage.
Twenty minutes in, Cool Runnings were in the lead, a team consisting of Mark Stratford, David Mitchell, Matthew Reeves Smith and Phil Rogers from Project First in Milton Keynes.
Halfway through, Drive it Like You Stole it took the lead, otherwise known as Bruce Eggleston, Dominic Jones, Dhrupesh Modasia and Luke Bailey from Bay Restaurant Group from Luton in Bedfordshire. They were closely followed by Slippery When Wet, Martin Boakes, John Watson, Ben Stumpo and Greg Scott of Thesaurus Computer Services in Milton Keynes.
Team Soliciting, Andrew Kerr, Mark Thompson, Peter Hampson and James Thurgood, from Borneos Solicitors in Bedford and Milton Keynes, threw in the competition's fastest lap of 1 minute 35.569 seconds.
Hoards of supporters gathered round the leaderboard for the final ten minutes of racing. Slippery When Wet was in second, pushing for a first when, in the final minute, a puddle with John Watson's name on it cruelly triggered his only major spin of the race.
The final leaderboard spelt out the results: in third place with 48 laps was Slippery When Wet (Thesaurus Computer Services), in second, also with 48, was Cool Runnings (Project First) and in victorious first: Drive it Like You Stole it (Bay Restaurant Group).
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Issued on behalf of Mazars LLP by Rachael Bonfield, Solution Factors Ltd.
Email: Rachael@solutionfactors.com
Tel: 01908 587793
About Mazars
Mazars is an international firm specialising in audit, tax and advisory services that operates as an integrated partnership in 50 countries worldwide.
In the UK, Mazars is the eighth largest partnership in terms of audit fee income, has the fastest growing tax practice amongst the Top 20 firms, and was named ‘Large Firm of the Year' at the Accountancy Age Awards 2008.
The firm employs more than 1,000 people and has over 100 partners based in 17 offices throughout the UK.
Clients include international corporate groups and listed companies (17% of the FTSEurofirst 100), public sector bodies, a wide range of owner-managed businesses (some of the UK's fastest growing entrepreneurial businesses as measured by The Fast Track 100) and numerous private individuals.
Mazars reported a global turnover of €745 million for the year ended 31 August 2008, and is a founding member of Praxity, a worldwide alliance of independent accounting firms.
Posted Tuesday January 19th 2010
By Rachael Bonfield