Lincolnshire schoolboy Lewis Wherrell has been crowned a world champion kart racer.
Lewis Wherrell, 11, won the 2021 X30 Mini Championship on October 23 in Adria, a town located just an hour’s journey form Bologna, Italy.
Lewis, who drives for Oliver Rowland Racing, qualified for the event which featured 65 drivers from all over Europe, after finishing second in this year’s British Championship, also making him British cadets vice champion.
When asked about the experience, Lewis said: “It just felt incredible, I was speechless, and I didn’t know how to feel. It didn’t quite sink in till an hour after the race was over.”
The young kart driver won the championship on the last corner, overtaking rival Daniel Kelleher to clinch his team’s first world title.
He spoke about what was going through his mind during the final few corners. “I knew that there was a big gap behind so I thought I’d try go the outside line and I thought it’s the last few corners of the race so they might crash. So, I went wide to try and overtake them, and I went side by side with Daniel and I didn’t back off until the last corner.”
Lewis’ racing journey began at age five, when he began racing at his local track ELK, just outside of Newark-on-Trent, and spoke about his intense interest of the sport at such a young age. “I used to love watching Formula 1 when I was younger, and it really persuaded me to get into karting. So, my Dad bought me an electric kart and we started going round our local track.”
Looking ahead to the future, Lewis hopes to drive for a karting team in Italy next season and one day would love to get involved in motorsport further when he gets older. Remember the name because who knows, Lincoln may have a future Formula 1 World Champion on its hands
To see Lewis in action, you can watch the full race on the video below.
