Carolynn will be driving Martin Hines’ 1980 Hermetite Zip kart “up the hill” at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The kart, an 250 air-cooled Yamaha Superkart is a similar machine to the one Carolynn raced when she was Martin Hines’ team mate in the all conquering Hermetite Zip Superkart Team.
Carolynn was 2nd in the British Championships and 6th in the World Championships during her stint in the Hermetite Zip Team and was 3rd two years running in the prestigious ITV World of Sport Superkart Challenge.
In the 1980’s the Silverstone Kart Grand Prix was an extraordinary event with over 60 Superkarts on a grid (and a B Final). Speeds in the Superkarts reached over 150mph.“I am extremely proud to drive Martin’s kart up the hill in his memory. He was the very best and we all measured our success against him. Although we went on to race with water-cooled 250 Rotax engines, the air-cooled Yamaha was the engine we all loved. It could be temperamental (let’s hope I can remember the knack of starting it after 25 years) but it was worth it to hear it screaming to 14,000 rpm alongside our left ear”
“The kart has been owned and beautifully restored by Simon Howard Weston who found the kart languishing in a tractor garage in a farm yard in Peterborough in 2004. He has painstakingly restored it to it’s former glory searching out the correct livery and stickers so that it is as original as it could possibly be. When Martin Hines examined it a couple of years ago he authenticated it and confirmed it was a chassis that both he and Carolynn had used in the 1980 season. Simon has two other ex-Martin Hines karts and a visit towww.kartinglegends.com will show photographs of the other three of Martin’s karts going up the hill.“I am delighted, but also a little nervous, to be asked to drive it”
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My father, Wesley Cairns (Northern Ireland Kart champion 4 years’ running during the 1970s-80s) bought the last of the air-cooled Yamaha of the Zip-Hermatite team, off her team-mate, Calvin Fish in that year. It was identical to Martin’s No.1 kart above. I just remember being in awe of it as a child and it was a beautiful machine to behold. Went like stink too when brought back to the Northern Ireland Karting championships.