Temporary Event Power for GB’s World Rallycross

Several months in advance of the World Rallycross [RX] meet in Kent, we were extremely pleased to be contacted for the provision of temporary event power to support the race circuit and TV coverage over the bank holiday weekend at the end of May.

This Kent race circuit is the home of the World RX of Great Britain and is the UK’s shortest road racing circuit.  The venue will see a record breaking weekend of British motorsport action as the World Championships returns this year with a total of 63 cars including six British drivers.

Thousands of spectators are expected at the birthplace of rallycross to see the 24 Supercars and the return of the Super1600 support category where there will be a total of 29 front-wheel-drive S1600 cars racing.

Advance planning was necessary for the temporary event power for such a prestigious event with uninterrupted live TV coverage essential for the duration of the three day schedule! Powerhire met the client and their electrician at the race circuit HQ to discuss site power as well as the additional equipment, facilities and services that would be bought in to support the event.

Temporary event power would not only be required as a back-up for the site’s main power but also for the broadcasting compound, catering facilities, VIP area, caravans, mobile homes, medical centre, camping areas and the pits.

Following a successful meeting, the client was happy with the temporary event power we recommended.  On returning to our depot the Hire Co-ordinator allocated the necessary equipment and programmed in the servicing schedule and delivery as well as booking our engineers to monitor all equipment during the event itself.

On the Tuesday leading up to event and before any additional services were onsite the temporary event power was loaded onto our Powerhire lorries and our engineers delivered 19 generators, 3 fuel tanks, 28 distribution boards and the necessary cabling for connection.  Each piece of equipment was located and positioned as depicted by the site map drawing as previously agreed with the client.

As a precautionary measure 2 x 300kVA generator sets were synched together to provide uninterruptable power support for the TV outside broadcasting compound and one of our Engineers returned and stayed onsite for the duration of the racing weekend to monitor the temporary event power.

The event was once again a huge success with World RX Managing Director for IMG, commenting: “We were blessed with blue skies, a packed crowd and action-packed racing at our home round of the World Championship. The crowd arrived from the early hours to watch today’s qualifying, semi-finals and final and the drivers certainly put on a good show, with some bumper-to-bumper racing and overtaking on Hairy Hill which was surrounded by rallycross fans.