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Last month, the UK’s Jenson Button emerged as the new Formula 1 world champion in a career that began with the far more accessible sport of go-karting – now drawing a rising following among Kenyans searching for a sport at speed.
Jenson had been chasing victory of the F1 Championship for nine years. But his hopes and dreams all began with a go-kart given to him by his father, when he was just 8 years old. Now, with a total of 89 championship points – a lead of 15 points over closest rival Sebastian Vettel - he has been crowned King of Speed before the season has even ended.
The new world champion is not the first to have begun on go-karts. Invented in the US in the 1950s as a passtime for American airmen, they have since been the startiung ground for many top professional race car drivers, including Michael Schumacher. Perhaps because karting is a relatively cheap way to get into the racing and rallying world: providing drivers with experience in handling vehicles with both smoothness and aggression at high speeds.
Says British Junior Karting Champ, Matt Bell, of the similarities between Karting and F1, “as in an F1 car you have to become part of the kart...What karting does is help one to improve control over a vehicle. The more control you have the faster you go!”
Once a driver shows talent on the go-kart circuit, he or she will often then move up to the more expensive divisions of racing: including rally driving. 23 year old Quentin Mitchell is a go-karting enthusiast who used his experience on the ‘GP Karting’ track in Nairobi to enter the rallying scene; winning a ‘most meritorious’ award in the 2008 Kenya National Rally Championships. Quentin believes Karting taught him his racing lines – how to achieve the fastest lines through corners. From Karting he moved on to Auto Cross, “karting on gravel”, and then into rallying.
Other young Nairobi karting enthusiasts include those from the Kenya Motocross fraternity: such as teenagers Masalule Kituyi and Cruze Muigai, 12 year old Davide Bernardi and 7 year old Ryan Bailey. Says ‘GP Karting’ Track Manager, Sammy, “they show great promise, and are among the many 5 to 16 year olds – both girls and boys - who make up the bulk of our racers”.
According to Jenson Button, karters can easily become addicted to the adrenaline rush of this popular and accessible version of the professional open wheel car, racing on similar, although smaller, racing tracks. Once one has experienced the excitement it's hard to let it go: and apparently he himself became totally obsessed as a child.
It’s not only children and teenagers who are using Nairobi’s ‘GP Karting’ track, owned by Flight 540’s Don Smith. According to the Track Manager the sport is very popular with corporates hoping to do a little team building. “We have an average of one corporate event a week,” says Sammy. “Because of the traffic problem our busiest times are at the weekends and on public holidays, when we have between 200 and 300 children and adults coming to race”.
With 427 metres of track open from 8am to 6pm every day except Mondays – and the option of flood-lit night racing by arrangement - there’s plenty of space to put one’s foot down and experience the thrill of this simple suspension-free vehicle at 60km an hour.
While many enthusiasts make up their own groups and take over the track for private races, there is an adult group called the ‘GP Karting Primates’ who meet on a couple of Friday evenings a month and are happy for anyone to join their ‘Shut Up And Drive’ events.
‘GP Karting’ has recently re-surfaced it’s track, making for a much smoother ride. It has also renovated it’s spectator area and sports bar, and there is a certain international feel about the track, although describing it as ‘glamorous’ would definitely be taking it too far. Together, long haired dudes lounge and grandparents proudly shout encouragement from the stands, to the sound and smell of hot engines and rubber on asphalt.
Karting as a sport in Kenya lies under the auspices of the Kenya Motor Sports Federation, which organises the annual National Cummins Karting Championships. The championship races are generally held at the Solai track in Nakuru and the Mombasa Go-Kart track on the North Coast, both of which are longer than‘GP Karting’.
For more information:
GP Karting: http://www.gpkarting.co.ke
Mombasa Go-Kart: http://www.mombasa-gokart.com/
Kenya Motor Sports Federation: http://www.motorsportkenya.com/index.php/karting
GP Karting Primates: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nairobi-Kenya/GP-Karting-Primates-Kenyan-Chapter/60023746552
Racing Tip: Jenson has credited the foot massages given by his girlfriend Jessica with helping his performance on the track.
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