Up North the availability to pursue this as a career or even just for fun as a hobby comes with a few more difficulties than down south. There are over a hundred and fifty tracks across the UK and most of these are located in the South of England. Only fourteen of those karting circuits are found in the North of England in areas like Sheffield, Birmingham and Manchester.
A new karting track called “BattleKart” is arriving in Sheffield, Brightside in early April after being approved by Sheffield City Council. This venue will be among two other tracks within Sheffield, TeamSport Go Karting and Parkwood Karting. The multitude of tracks is creating space for karting as a hobby and potential career to be considered.
It will include electric karts that will be located near the city centre which will allow environmental friendliness with reduced noise pollution and zero emissions. These developments make tracks more accessible within busy cities. The goal of the track is to allow racers to compete in high speed karting safely.
Another track that has achieved this is PFI Karting. PFI is the UK’s largest outdoor karting circuit which is based within Lincolnshire’s lovely countryside in Grantham. It is the UK’s Premier Circuit which provides track time for budding karters from the age of seven to seniors. In the past they have catered for numerous events, race meetings and now British, European and World Championships.
Paul Fletcher built the track and opened it in 1994. In 2011 the track underwent a transformation which included a track extension with a bridge flyover. Which made the track the only short circuit to achieve this level and increased the track length to over a thousand metres. This showcased the track being safe and more than suitable to host higher level motorsport events.
Born and bred from Lincolnshire Dan Ashton, International Clerk works at Trent Valley Kart and has recently become the director of the club.
Dan described PFI and said, “This track is a breeding ground for the future stars of potentially Formula One, but the future stars of your touring cars, you find a lot of the drivers from here do move on to the higher level.”
His role as a Motorsport Clerk is to be responsible for safety and overseeing the event is running fairly. The special part about Dan’s role is he is one of only three in the country. The reason for this is the complexity of the role and fewer experienced clerks in the sport.
Being a clerk Dan recognises that there are limited officials but spotlights there are ways to try and make that better to keep young people keen. His role has invited exciting opportunities and has meant he has been able to travel across the world in places like Malaysia and parts of Europe.
Dan talked about travelling, “I’m now going around the world as a race director, a passion of mine, which I’ve wanted since I was a young child. It is always an honour to work for a lot of these people.”
His passion for karting sparked from a young age at ten years old and until he was sixteen, he raced in karts moving onto cars. From this it started his career in marshalling on gates, checking wristbands and moving him onto clerking.
Dan described his love for karting, “It is the atmosphere in the paddocks. We’re all one big team on the track, and we all work together. I love motorsport and I’m doing it with my mates. You always dream about working with your mates.”
As a clerk Dan understands the importance of keeping the sport alive up north and within his role, he has the power to do this.
Dan said, “It is very important to have karting, not just for everybody but for other sports. A lot of other sports drivers have come from PFI.”
Being involved in motorsport for a large part of his life has allowed him to learn and be able to advise people along the way.
Dan’s advice to anyone keen to get into karting is, “Find your local club, wherever they are. Go and ask the question and get involved. To get into the sport, my advice is do it. If you’re keen and you love the sport, just do it.”
In her homeland, Sheffield, Amelia Charlesworth, 21, is a keen karter who is currently trying to make her way up in the ranks. Amelia’s hobby now turned into a career aspiration has come with its battles. With not only worries of starting too late into motorsports after starting in July 2022, travelling to tracks has been a struggle.
Amelia said, “There are not many opportunities for drivers up north. There are tracks in the North, but they are few and far between.”
With her skills developing she created more seat time and shifted from indoor to outdoor karting. Her local tracks are in Sheffield or Milton Keynes. Her longest journey being three or more hours. Being a younger driver, accessibility to travel has been a blockade to get to more races and enhance progression.
Amelia explained her situation more, “My closest track is one of the biggest in England being PFI, other than that most tracks are about a two hour drive.
It would help to have more tracks as it is harder for most people to start out especially when they don’t have a track near them. Luckily for myself my friends were willing to drive to go to the tracks but for others that would be a lot harder.”
Karting may be increasing in popularity but so should accessibility to carry this passion onwards. With this being recognised, karting has the potential to grow up North.
