Santas raise £20k

An attempt to break the world record for the largest amount of Santas on bikes raised over £20,000 for charity at the weekend.

Gitte Monahan, Secretary of the Antics charity asked MCN to pass on “a big thank you to all the bikers that turned up at Rockingham to help raise money for our charity. We were there and know how cold it was!!!”

The attempt fell just short of breaking the official world record of 2685, with 2633 Santas showing up, and was well down on an unofficial Portuguese attempt which saw over 5000 two wheeled Saint Nics turn up.

The record attempt, which was organised by the Record Breakers company, was set up to raise money for new children’s cancer charity Antic but was dogged by problems.

It was originally planned to hold the event at Silverstone on December 5 but the costs were too high and it had to be moved to Rockingham. Then the three stunt riders who were supposed to be entertaining the crowds on the day failed to turn up.

Record Breakers’ Mark Porter explained, “The record attempt was originally set for 2:30 but the entertainment failed to turn up so we had nothing to fill the hour between registration and the start of the record attempt. People started coming up to us and asking if we could bring it forwards so they wouldn’t have to ride home in the dark. We wanted to do our best to accommodate everyone and so moved the record attempt forwards by an hour.”

Representatives from Antic were at the event to help out with Father Christmas registration and were really pleased with all the money raised.

Record Breakers plans to hold the event again next year and plan a little bit further in advance, starting the campaign to attract riders at the end of August to avoid this year’s problems.

The company is also organising another record for the worlds fastest Santa with Bob Walton’s 217mph Hayabusa. Walton did a demonstration ride at Rockingham but the official attempt will be at Elvington in March.