The prestigious FIA World Karting Championship comes to the UK for just the second time in more than 50 years this weekend with the top talents from right around the globe battling it out to win the sport’s ultimate titles at the PF International circuit in Lincolnshire.
No fewer than 262 drivers from 59 nations are on the packed entry lists with three prized World Championship titles on offer: OK; OK-Junior and the new OK-N category which makes its debut in 2024 at the World Championships for the first time where drivers will race in the OKN World Cup.
The premier OK class is for drivers aged 14 and over, all racing a CIK-FIA homologated chassis propelled by 125cc engines revving to a maximum of 16,000rpm. It represents the pinnacle of competition for direct-drive karts and features the best young hopefuls racing before many move to single-seaters with dreams of making it all the way to F1. Proving the point, Lando Norris is a past winner.
Among this year’s favourites are three former World Champions – Spanish driver Pedro Hiltbrand Aguilar, Brazilian front-runner Matheus Morgatto and Belgian rising star Dries Van Langendonck (Junior) – as well as the newly crowned European Champion, Joe Turney, one of 25 British racers targeting famous success on home ground.
Other locals to watch include youngster Lewis Wherrell, Zac Drummond from Scotland, former BKC and European Rotax champion Ethan Jeff-Hall plus Rotax GP Plate winner Matthew Higgins. Daniel Guinchard is one of the more familiar names on this weekend’s entry list – Daniel is a former British Kart Champion who briefly stepped up into the single-seater spotlight contesting the ROKiT British F4 Championship.
Aimed at 12-14-year-olds the OK-Junior category is packed with even younger talent in slightly detuned OK karts. Having finished second to Van Langendonck last year Spanish teenager Christian Costoya will be among the pacesetters.
Once again there is plenty of British interest, too. Though just 12-years-old, Noah Baglin is already making a name for himself as is Kenzo Craigie, a Mercedes Junior Driver.
Other young hopefuls for home fans to follow among the 112 entrants in this benchmark class are Henry Domain, Scott Marsh, Harrison Mackie, Jacob Ashcroft, Jesse Phillips, Jorge Edgar, Kian Bernard, Skye Parker, Alfie Slater and former British Honda Cadet Champion Cole Denholm.
Edgar is a Motorsport UK Junior OK entry at the FIA Motorsport Games and Bernard was a Motorsport UK FIA Academy Driver 2024, Parker represents the growing female participation in karting while Slater is the younger brother of Italian F4 Champion-elect Freddie Slater. Freddie won this title in 2020.
OK-N karts are a new concept, derived from the premier OK class, to develop the karting base via National Championships. World Championship places have been restricted to just 29 participants and favour countries that have already organised OK-N events, notably nations that are not usually represented such as Madagascar, Cyprus, South Korea, Uruguay and Uzbekistan. Providing local interest, invitations have been extended to a pair of frontrunners from the British Kart Championship: Harrison Whitikam and Thomas-Minh Spearing.
After Free Practice sessions on Thursday and Friday morning, Qualifying Heats commence on Friday afternoon and run throughout Saturday in the build-up to a trio of dramatic FIA World Karting Championship Finals on Sunday afternoon.
The event is organised by the Trent Valley Kart Club and, as is the case in all FIA karting competitions, the fuel being used by all those racing at PF International is a 100 per renewable product made from second-generation biological components and synthetic fuel produced by P1 Racing Fuels. So an epic weekend of cleanly fought kart racing is absolutely guaranteed!