Tom Williams, the only British driver in the 2019 FIA Junior World Rally Championship, successfully tested a 125cc racing kart for the first time as part on his on-going driving development programme.
The 20-year old Oxfordshire driver, who lies sixth in the JWRC points table after a strong start to the season, swapped the M-Sport developed Ford Fiesta R2 rally car he normally drives for a X30 racing kart for a day’s testing at the Whilton Mill Kart Circuit in Northamptonshire.
Tom hadn’t, like many of his rally rivals, raced karts as a young child, but instead started his motorsport career aged 16 in rallying. He’s waited four years for an opportunity to experience what he’d missed, and jumped at the chance to spend the day testing a proper racing kart from the Jack Dex Racing stables.
Fitted with a two-stroke water-cooled 125cc engine, the X30 kart weighs just 160kgs with Tom sat in it and has a top speed of 86mph. It’s a very physical machine to drive, especially on a track such as Whilton Mill’s twisty 1150 metre long international circuit. Yet despite no previous kart racing experience, Tom got his time down to within one second a lap of the best and most experienced X30 drivers.
Tom said: “Driving the Jack Dex Racing X30 at Whilton Mill was a completely new experience for me, as it was the first time that I had ever driven a proper racing kart. It’s completely different to rallying of course, but I’ve learnt a lot of different driving techniques that I can adapt and bring back to rallying. The aim of the test was all about intensity, fitness, consistency and focus, and there aren’t many other machines that can test your three hundred and sixty degree performance than driving an eighty-six mile per hour kart all day!
“The test was also good for me to focus on my racing lines. Everything is so much more sensitive and reactive in a kart, so when I was going ‘round I could immediately see where I was going wrong and where I could do better.
“The kart was also very physical to drive. By the end of the day I could feel that my neck and rib muscles had had a very good workout! It was really great fun and I can see how kart racing can become quite addictive.”
Jack Dex, Jack Dex Racing team owner, said: “In a short space of time, Tom got his lap time down to within one second of a front-running and experienced X30 kart racer. For a first timer in a kart, this was very impressive, although not entirely unexpected as professional drivers have the ability to quickly adapt to anything they drive. He demonstrated some great skills behind the wheel of a kart and certainly didn’t look out of place on the race track – far from it in fact.”
Tom’s next event will be Rally Italy in Sardinia (13-16 June), which is round three of the 2019 FIA Junior WRC Championship.