Caterham goes karting

THOSE two cornerstones of heroic driving - Caterhams and karts - have been spectacularly combined in a new entry-level motorsport series.

The Surrey firm who brought you the Seven have drawn on their years of staging one-make racing series - and, more recently, their F1 experience - to create a karting series for keen racers, with the £4,995+VAT package and the machine itself, the CK-01, making at their debut at this month's Autosport show down at the NEC.

Caterham Group CEO, Tony Fernandes, said: “Caterham Karting will once again make this fantastic sport accessible to everyone, without losing any element of the competition and experience. In fact, with tight regulations and totally transparent, controlled costs, Caterham Karting will simply be the best value, most competitive and most fun karting in the world.

“This is not just another new karting championship, this is a revolution in motor racing. Motorsport for all is finally here.”

The package, designed to appeal to novice drivers, includes the kart itself, the necessary training to get your racing licence, entry into a six-race season, and full technical support from the gurus at Caterham itself. The CK-01 is ideal for either launching your motorsport career or - more likely - having an absolute ball on the track for less than the cost of a Citroen C1. It's also - and I know this probably doesn't get said very often - a fantastic looking bit of kit. If you're keen to find out more, go to www.caterham.co.uk or call 01883 333 700.

Can I have a go?

Plans for Skelmersdale karting track mooted by charity

PLANS are being revved up to turn a disused industrial site in Skelmeradale into the bigest indoor go-kart track in the north west.

The scheme, which has been submitted to the borough councill's planning department proposes turning a vacant unit at Pimbo Point, on Potter Place into a karting venue.

As well as for private and corporate users it will also be used for the training and education of young people.
The Mary Poppins Foundation charity are the applicants and intend to run the site on a non-profit basis.

The charity states: “The primary business of the company is to provide a brand new bespoke designed go kart facility.

”Our company will assist young people in education aged between 14–19 years old, and other local people of various age groups, with a view to helping them into future employment.

“Our company will also develop and deliver courses in conjunction with local community groups to help improve the quality of life for local people.”

“All machines will be brand new and our track will be the biggest indoor one in the north west region.”

The karts used will be four stroke, Honda 200cc 6.5 bhp engines, fitted with additional silencers and mufflers to help reduce noise output and improve CO2 emissions.

In addition, track ‘furniture' will help to minimise the noise heard outside the building during karting sessions. The charity would also use the venue as a training facility for young people in the town, aged between 14 and 19, with additional classroom and training facilities.

The proposals, if approved, would also create around 30 jobs.

Council planners believe the proposal will be given approval, particularly as it using a site which has been vacant since 2007.

In a letter to the foundation, West Lancashire borough planner Jonathan Harrison wrote: “Although the proposal is in principle contrary to Policy DE5 of the West Lancashire Replacement Local Plan and Policy EC1 of the West Lancashire Local Plan Publication Document, subject to a thorough justification being put forward it is likely that the proposed change of use would be recommended favourably and the benefits of bringing this vacant unit back into use would prevail.”

The application is due to be considered by West Lancashire Borough Council's planning department later this year.

Why can't karting be an Olympic sport?

AT LEAST one of the Simister clan's spent the weekend in Weymouth watching Team GB set sail in their quest for medals.

It's just a shame I don't share their enthusiasm; I'm not militantly anti-Olympics by any means, just relatively indifferent in much the same way I am with any global sporting spectacular that doesn't involve engines. The only horsepower at London 2012 is the sort Zara Phillips enjoys.

Which got me thinking; why can't motorsport feature in the Olympics in future? If you count the first modern Olympic Games as the IOC's efforts in Athens in 1896, then the games aren't even as the old as the car itself, a chap called Karl Benz having invented his first runabout a decade earlier. Almost as soon as Karl had finished did someone suggest it'd be sporting to race one of these newfangled horseless carriages against another, and as a result motorsport has generally been regarded as a proper form of competition for more than a century.

It's about time motorsport finally featured in the Games and I've got just the thing lined up; karting. Because it's the stepping stone to almost every other form of automotive competition, it's the fairest and purest form of motorsport, giving everyone from the ballsy beginner to the hardened Le Mans veteran a fair crack at the whip.

All sorts of Olympic sports involve some sort of technology by their very nature, from Bradley Wiggins' bike to Rebecca Adlington's swimsuit, both of which I'm sure are more sophisticated and scientifically developed for speed than their supermarket equivalents. Karting, I know from personal experience, puts everyone on a level playing field and sorts out the wannabes from the truly quick - and there's no room for racing driver excuses.

It'd also finally answer one of motorsport's trickiest questions - who, truly, is the fastest? It's hard to argue Michael Schumacher is undisputably the best driver of modern times if his string of championship wins were backed up by the might of Ferrari married to the technical genius of Ross Brawn (we'll gloss over Michael's ‘difficult third album' drives for Mercedes). But if he beat Ken Block, Sebastian Loeb, Lewis Hamilton (pictured) and The Stig in identical karts to take the Olympic Karting gold medal, we'd know for sure. Providing there's no doping involved, of course.

I know you're probably thinking it's a sport that involves more machine than man but if you gave the cream of the world's drivers identical karts and set them off on an identical London 2012 track, it'd be fair game. And - to me at least - even more watchable than the beach volleyball.

The elusive karting prize I didn't get

THE BLISTERS on both my thumbs proved I’d been giving it everything. Sweaty, light-headed and sore in places I usually wouldn’t be, I was a shadow of my former self.

Apt given that the name I’d chosen for going go-karting was Black Shadow – the name of a very cool motorcycle which, I hoped, was like me in that it’s getting old but is still fast. My rivals, in case you’re interested, had also plucked a selection of odd pseudonyms from obscurity; during the 40 minute sprint I’d arranged as 26th birthday treat I’d be up against The Physicist, Senna Jr, Captain Slow, “Steve”, Lightning, The Mechanic and – best of all – a not-at-all-cocky competitor called simply Dave’s Destoyer.

The track – Elite Karting, which has been carefully crafted over two floors of an old cotton mill a stone’s throw from Wigan Pier – was one of the best I’ve ever raced on. Tricky, narrow and difficult to overtake on, the use of ramps and plenty of tight corners meant you had to use every trick in the book (and a few that probably weren’t) to squeeze through the gaps.

Considering I’ve never chucked a kart through an old cotton mill before I reckon I’d surprisingly well in qualifying; third out of eighth in a grid packed with diehard and very competitive car nuts. A quick lap, we got told, was 50 seconds, so my best of 54.632 was still a way off. The question was all over whether I could shave those crucial seconds off as I got more acquainted during the race itself.

Psyched up, parked up on the main straight behind The Mechanic in first and Dave’s Destroyer in second, the green flag dropped and the 40 minute sprinter race fired into action. I got very into it, looking for every opportunity to eake a little extra speed out of the kart, squeezing past slower racers and – on more than one occasion – getting a warning flag for taking the ramps a little too aggressively. Sure enough, the seconds I’d been looking to shave off the lap times fell away.

I was quick, but not quick enough to win – of the 40 laps my quickest was a 52.468, which for a first race is by no means a bad result but way off the consistent 49 second laps Dave’s Destroyer, the jammy so-and-so, was getting. And while you might not think 2.5 seconds is a big gap, over a 40 minute race it meant he was easily quick enough to lap me. Twice.

In fact, as the chequered flag dropped this is how the race looked:

1) Dave’s Destroyer (best lap 49.036)
2) The Mechanic (best lap 50.928, one lap behind the race leader)
3) Black Shadow (best lap 52.468, two laps behind the race leader)
4) “Steve” (best lap 52.591, three laps behind the race leader)
5) Senna Jr (best lap 52.699, three laps and eight seconds behind the race leader)
6) Lightning ((best lap 54.133, three laps and 17 seconds behind the race leader)
7) Captain Slow (best lap 53.001, three laps and 22 seconds behind the race leader)
8) The Physicist (best lap 55.496, five laps behind the race leader)

So I was fast, but frustratingly not fast enough to defeat to take the overall victory and put Dave’s Destroyer in his place. Still, a podium place first time is no bad result for the birthday boy!

And anyway, I’m sure given how much everyone enjoyed it there’ll be plenty of opportunity to get a few more blistering lap times in time. The Black Shadow will ride again...

For more information about Elite Karting in Wigan check out their website or give them a call on 01942 829697.

The north west's motorsport stars of the future

A LITTLE Lewis Hamilton from Westhead is proving so successful he's now taking part in a tougher series of races designed to help his talent go full-throttle.

Ben Deeming (pictured above, front left) might be just seven years old but he's already tipped to be a motorsport star of the future after grabbing the lap record in the Formula Bambino at the Daytona kart track in Manchester - and to keep up with him and his racing rivals the track's managers have revised the race series to ensure it keeps up to speed with their talent.

“The quality and continual improvement they have shown has surpassed any of our expectations. It is rare to see children this young posses such drive, ambition and dedication,” said Nick Hughes, general manager.

“They are qualities we want to continue to nurture, not put on hold, hence the changes to the Formula Bambino structure.”

Ben Deeming became one of the stars of the Formula Bambino series, which was instigated in 2009 and is aimed at youngsters aged between five and seven years old, after he took a lap record at the circuit and impressed much older and more experienced racers with his pace behind the wheel.

In a series of changes aimed at nurturing the youngsters' talent further still Daytona has introduced a brand new points-scoring championship with leaderboard and podium presentations included, with racing is conducted solely against each other’s lap times and any overtaking is controlled by track marshalls ensuring optimum safety for the Bambinos on the 450m adult track. Only Bambino drivers who have advanced through all the introductory levels are eligible to take part.

“Daytona has given kids like Ben the opportunity to take part in something that’s exciting and that allows healthy and safe competition at this age,” said Jeff Deeming, Ben's father.

“Ben has grown as an individual as he takes lessons learned on the track into his everyday life. It’s fantastic to see and something we will continue support him and Daytona.”

For more information on Daytona Manchester’s Bambino Karting visit www.daytona.co.uk/venues/manchester/juniors or call 0161 876 0876.