Karting for all ages... Zane Maloney leads standings

Drivers waiting to be weighed on the scales with their karts

A sport for all ages.

That is how Go-Karting or just karting, can be summed up with drivers ranging from as young as seven years old to over 40 years of age.

One of the youngest in the form of Zane Maloney, moved his winning streak to four when he finished with a perfect record at the Barbados Karting Association’s 2011 Frutee Championship.

Zane Maloney on his way to victory

In the process he also took over the points lead in the 60cc Easy Kart standings. Since the start of the second season, Zane has been unstoppable and with his father Sean Maloney his pit manager, crew and teacher, he has continued to grow in the sport.

Events for karting are held at the Bushy Park Racing Circuit in St. Philip, and Karting is known as the grassroots of all or most of the other disciplines of motorsports.

One unique factor about karting at Bushy Park, is that there are no age limits and no driver’s licence required. Once a person can show control over the kart then they are eligible to participate.

Currently the majority of points scorers in the 2011 season are not of the legal age for a driver’s licence to operate a public or private motor vehicle on the public roads.

However many legal drivers would find it hard to keep up with these young speed racers.

When looking at an activity for your young son or daughter maybe karting can be an option.

Zane took over the points lead from Megan Gilkes who broke her wrist while competing in the Easy Kart World Championships in Italy. Megan was only ten years old at the time and was the lone Bajan representative during the Championships held on October 12-16, 2011.

However because of her injury she was forced to sit out the event and could do nothing to prevent Zane from taking over the overall lead as he has moved onto 809 points.

It is now almost assured that not only will Zane win the class but also the Driver’s Overall championship after a rule change has allowed all of the classes to be eligible for the title.

Before this year it was only the Premier 310 Yamaha class and the 125cc shifter class that were eligible for this title but a lack of competitors has forced the organisers to make the rule change.

However Megan has done enough to still place second in the class even if she does not score anymore points in the final event.

The defending champion driver is Christian Hinds and he currently leads the 310 Premier Class on a 749 points. 

Christian Hinds leading Sean Maloney

Hinds has been almost unstoppable on the track, but while the other drivers find it practically impossible to defeat him, mechanical gremlins are a sure way to sideline him. This was the case in the third round of the second season when a clutch failure ended his day at the midway point.

About 70 points adrift in the class is Temaine Forde Catwell , while the only driver over the age of 18 Owen Yarde is third in the standings on 589 points and it just going to show that age is not an advantage in this particular sport.

Raphael Russell who has only competed in four of the eight events is next in line with 339 points and is just happy to be able to overcome the countless mechanical problems during the year and get onto the track to drive.