Shropshire Star

Owners of Shropshire karting centre devastated by blaze hope to open by end of week

Owners of a popular karting attraction in Shropshire, devastated by a blaze at the weekend, say they are working hard to re-open for corporate karting by the end of the week.

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Fire broke out in the main building and workshop of Rednal Karting south of Oswestry in the early hours of Saturday.

The fierce blaze destroyed the building and thousands of pounds of equipment and vehicles inside - including manager Tom Wrigley's prized track racing car.

Despite the damage an owners' race day that had been scheduled weeks beforehand still went ahead on Sunday morning.

Scores of individual owners of racing karts turned up at the racetrack, which was unaffected by the fire, to support the company.

Mike Rees, the owner of the business on the former World War Two RAF base, thanked the owners.

"It was great to see so many people down at Rednal on Sunday," he said.

"We are currently working hard to get fully open for corporate karting by the end of the week."

One of the owner/drivers, Bob Bickerton, from Crewe, was among those who took part.

He said: "I was blown away by the destruction, but I was even more blown away by Mike and Tom's desire and bulldog spirit to come back from this better, bigger and more ambitious than before.

"I am looking forward to seeing Rednal karting rise, Phoenix-like, from the ashes and get back to what they do best."

Mr Rees said he and the staff wanted to thanks all the fire brigade watches who attended the fire.

"We were amazed to see them lay 2.5 kilometres of pipe to extract water from the canal to try and save our building," he added.

"All the team at Rednal have been well and truly overwhelmed by everyone's good wishes and genuine offers of help."

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