Mondello Park’s Operations Manager Ian Beatty has been confirmed to drive a KTM X-BOW in Irelands inaugural Cannonball Run in aid of Barretstown Children’s Charity to be run on the 11th, 12th & 13th September 2009. This will be the first time an X-BOW has been seen in Ireland and it is with great thanks to KTM Austria and KTM UK for making this happen. He will be partnered for the weekend with his business colleague and friend Dave Humphreys.
Barrettstown Castle was founded by Hollywood actor Paul Newman in 1994 after his success of his Hole in the Wall camps in the USA. He started the charity with two million dollars of his own money to get the children’s camp up and running and it has been a huge success ever since. It caters for sick children who have life threatening illnesses and to date has catered for over 12,000 children, the castle needs to raise over 4.5 million euro per year to operate and 96% of this money comes from companies and individuals. This event aims to raise money for Barrettstown Castle.
Speaking at the launch of Cannonball Ireland 2009 Ian had this to say “ I’m really looking forward to Ireland’s first Cannonball Run it’s shaping up to be a great weekend and is being organised to raise funds for an excellent charity that is Barrettstown Castle. We will be visiting the castle and it’s children on Friday before heading to Killarney for our first overnight, Saturday will see us in Galway before heading home Sunday. A very special thank you must go to Manfred Wolf in KTM Austria & Jeff Lau in KTM UK whom have been very supportive of the event in providing me with the first KTM X-BOW to drive in Ireland and I’m quite excited about this”.
The KTM Ian will be driving is an X-BOW Clubsport which has a carbon fibre racing monocoque with a crash box made from visible carbon fibre, a racing underbody and rear diffuser in aluminum composite and carbon fibre front splitter. This version of the car is powered by an Audi 2.0 TFSI engine producing 240 horsepower and weighs 805kg which produces a 0-62mph time of 3.9 seconds. To harness all this power to the wheels it has a six speed gearbox and a mechanical limited slip differential. The seats are fixed in place, however the pedals are individually adjustable in order for the driver to get into his or her most comfortable position, the steering wheel harnesses a lot of the controls of the car such as the lights and indicators and is also removable. To keep you secure the car has six point safety harnesses, racing head supports, a main power kill switch, dry battery & a hand-held! fire extinguisher.