Karting enthusiasts who took to the track at Ellough for the seventh annual grand prix have helped to raise funds to benefit projects in Gambia.

The event, held at Ellough Park Raceway in Beccles on June 3, is organised annually by Bungay Rotary Club and this year a substantial sum of the money raised will go The Kubuneh Nursery and Lower Basic School, a project which the club’s newest member helped to establish in rural Gambia.

Thirty-five teams, involving around 175 drivers in two races, created some exciting competition throughout the day, and together with the proceeds from a barbecue the event raise £1,400. That will be divided between Rotary International’s global initiative, End Polio Now, and the Gambian project which Mary Seamons helped to establish and which Rotary in Bungay is currently supporting.

Ms Seamons, who was inducted as a member of the club at its weekly lunch meeting at the Buck Inn at Flixton two weeks ago, said: “We are raising funds to purchase a stockproof fence and have it erected around their large vegetable garden, which is currently open to marauding animals.”

She has travelled to Gambia to see progress on the work on a number of occasions. The school now provides education for around 300 children – the previous phase of the work provided them with toilet facilities.

Richard Cundy, chairman of the Rotary Club’s international committee, said the End Polio Now project was one in which Rotary International was working in conjunction with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to eliminate polio worldwide.

“Cases now have been reduced to single figures in just two countries and so an end is in sight,” he said.

He said he and co-organiser of the Karting Grand Prix were grateful to all those who took part in Sunday’s event or supported it, for helping to make it such a success and helping to raise so much money.

The club’s next event is a Kids’ Fun Day due to be held on July 7 - the first day of the Bungay Summer Festival. The festival will run until July 22 and will be themed around the 330th anniversary of the Great Fire of Bungay.