Starting out at Daytona
William started as a Bambino at Daytona Milton Keynes. They were very supportive, with good facilities and a great team, and a staged approach to karting.
Bambinos don't race, but there's an introduction programme followed by practice sessions graded beginner, intermediate and advanced, plus race schools that let drivers progress. Bambinos use the small North circuit, which means lots of laps in a session.
Once their confidence grows, drivers can move to the larger track. You must be 8 and able to lap the North circuit within a set time. William still holds the record there! Moving to the International track meant attending race school and meeting another lap time. Then you can enter practice sessions, sprint races and, once competent, the InKart series.
William followed this path from April 2021 until we entered the InKart winter series in 2022, and the spring InKart series. Along the way we had private hire days for tuition and lots of practice sessions and sprint races. We were at Daytona 3 or 4 weekends a month.
Looking for the next step
There was little chance of progressing beyond corporate karting, so I looked at other options: Club100, kart ownership, and racing with a team. We went to Shenington for a Motorsport UK Introduction to Karting morning, where William tried a "proper" kart and got a few laps of the circuit. It showed us how you progress through licences and racing.
While there, we had a long chat with Jade Racing, who offered a full test day in a Birel ART Waterswift at one of Shenington's practice days. William had a brand-new kart and a full day of eight 7 to 9 minute sessions. It cost £250 for the hire plus VAT and fuel, and about £100 in track fees.
The team were very good, and we booked a second practice day including an ARKS test. The price was similar, plus the Go Karting starter pack from Motorsport UK. With William licensed, we carried on until he was ready for a race weekend. Expect to commit 2 days to club karting, and 3 or 4 as you progress.
What it costs with a team
Our costs at cadet level (2023)
- The kart: around £6,000
- Two days in the team awning: around £500, plus fuel and entry fees
- In total, around £800 per round for a place in the awning and manufacturer support
I look after the kart and do the maintenance at race weekends, but Jade prepare it for a fixed cost, so it's always ready when we arrive.
There are pros and cons to every kind of karting, depending on your skills, storage and transport. This works well for us. We turn up at Shenington or Whilton Mill, the kart is there and prepared, and I get it race-ready and look after it for the day. Having Jade on hand means I learn from the experts. They step in when there's a big problem and carry all the spares we might need. It costs more than going alone, but we're in a kart that allows progression, and it will take us into the junior class just by removing the restrictor.
One downside is we can't go testing whenever we like, because we can't transport the kart or all the equipment. It would be cheaper to go alone, but I doubt we'd have progressed as well.
The team always has a driver coach for the cadets. Marcus Littlewood coaches all the team's cadets while working towards the British Championship in Senior X30, so we get training from someone at the forefront of the sport.
Our advice
The best advice we had on karts and classes was to visit our local circuits, talk to people and see what's popular. We ended up choosing between Waterswift and Rotax, and I hope we chose the right path!
When Mike wrote this, William had completed 3 races as a novice, and they planned to finish the 2023 season with Jade.
Kind regards,
Mike Bennett