How I Got Into Karting at 22 (and How You Can Too)
Let’s be honest, karting is expensive, confusing, and almost impossible to get into unless you have fallen into a large pit of money. And yet, I got into it at 22, with no clue, no money, and a secondhand Prokart. Here's how, and how you can too.
It’s no secret that money is one of the biggest indicators of success in motorsport. You can’t get started without a significant investment, let alone enjoy a sustainable career in the sport.
Karting is often the first step for racing drivers. It’s the cheapest way to get out on track, build speed, race craft, and experience behind the wheel.
I started karting at the age of 22. It was an unconventional route into motorsport. I grew up playing football but had a few tastes of karting and motorsport along the way. It never appealed to me because I had easy access to a far cheaper and safer sport. This was until 2021 when I decided to buy a Prokart. I had no idea what I was doing and didn’t know if I was fast enough to be competitive, but I did it anyway. Since that first race, I’ve been hooked on the thrill of motorsport. I find any way I can to get involved in racing, and I want you to experience that too!
My path into motorsport wasn’t traditional (we’ll explore better, financially sensible ways of doing this in a few paragraphs), but it gives me the freedom to build my racing skills. I’m racing as much as possible, and seeing where my racing career takes me.
So if you’re looking to get started in karting, this is the best place to start. Keep reading and I’ll break it down into actionable steps to help you build a sustainable karting hobby, or pursue a career in motorsport even further. Here’s how to get started in karting.
The Elephant in the Room: Why Do We Do This To Ourselves?!
The biggest problem to overcome with motorsport is the finances it takes to get started. Even a 30-minute session of hire karts can cost more than an entire football season! The costs of motorsport are the barrier that stops most people from getting involved in this beautiful sport, but there are other drawbacks of karting that you might want to consider. Let’s take a closer look at some of them now.
What Karting Really Costs
In 2024, I spent £1,746.46 on karting. This included:
9 race entries to the Clay Pigeon EPS (£585)
1 practice day at Clay Pigeon (£32.50)
2 rounds of BUKC (British Universities Karting Championship)/ Club100 (£286.50)
1 BUKC test day (£85)
1 TeamSport indoor karting session (£39.96)
Monthly payments for my Prokart (£735)
And in 2025 (I’m writing this at the end of May), I’ve already spent £724.86 on a combination of owner-kart racing, BUKC, and indoor rental karts.
There’s no avoiding the financial cost of karting.
Karting is Inaccessible
You can’t practice racing at any time like other sports, that’s how karting and motorsport can be inaccessible for most people. We can’t go to our local park and practice, we have to spend a large sum of money to get a taste of track time.
But there are alternatives to sharpen your racing skills, which we’ll explore more later.
Why Karting Will Mentally Wreck You
It’s very easy to become disheartened in motorsport. You can spend thousands on the right kart, the right setup, and the race entry, but it can all be over in turn 1 if someone “forgets” to brake. This is the high-risk high-reward nature of racing.
It’s boring but the best way to build your racing skills—as with anything, for that matter—is to intentionally practice consistently. You shouldn’t expect to be up to speed the first time in the kart, nor should you expect it 1 year into racing. It is a long road when the margins between winning and losing can be less than the blink of an eye. But if you stick with it, and enjoy the journey along the way, you’ll reap the rewards.
Despite these strong reasons not to get into karting, we still do it. There’s just something about it that keeps millions of people coming back. Despite the costs, inaccessibility, travel, dangers, and everything else, motorsport is a sport like no other. It forces you to be more present than most people can ever achieve as you search for the perfect lap.
How To Get Started in Karting
There are many paths you can take to get into karting. You can enter any stage of karting progression, but I’ve identified the safest, cheapest, most sensible pathway into karting.
Step 1: Try Rental Karting Karting First
Rental karting is the best starting point. It offers a way to test your skills, commitment, and love for motorsport in a relatively affordable and accessible way.
In the UK, the first step could be indoor karting at your local TeamSport Karting track. There are over 40 tracks around the UK, so you’re probably not far away from getting started. These sessions usually cost ~£40 for 30 minutes of karting. It’s not cheap, but it is the cheapest point of entry into the world of motorsport.
The next step up from indoor rental karts is an outdoor series like Club100. This is more expensive, and a bit step up from the tight tracks and slower engines of indoor karting. It’s also a step up in price, but it is the perfect way to build your racing experience and skills without committing to the financial burden of owning a kart.
Step 2: Buy The Equipment To Go Racing
You don’t need to worry about buying equipment for rental karting. These facilities and organisations usually provide helmets, race suits, and gloves. However, to take the next step in your karting career, you’ll need to invest in the right equipment.
You’ll need Motorsport UK-compliant safety items, which can take another chunk out of your bank balance. I wouldn’t recommend jumping straight in at this step. You want to be sure that you’re committed to karting and that you enjoy it before spending ~£500+ on all the safety equipment.
An optional extra is a rib protector. This isn’t mandatory to go racing, but it will save—you guessed it—your ribs from the physical racing that is synonymous with karting.
Step 3: Hire a Kart
Many race teams offer their karts for hire. These are more expensive than arrive-and-drive rental karts because they are often owned and maintained by professional race teams/ mechanics.
This is the next logical step in line with buying a kart of your own. Expect much higher costs here, but it will give you everything you need to progress in karting.
Step 4: Buy a Kart
You’ve already seen how expensive it is to own a kart, but it gives you the most freedom and time to grow as a racing driver. Once you get the cost of the kart out of the way (~£2,500+), it becomes a lot cheaper to go racing. For example, the cost for race entry into the Clay Pigeon Endurance Prokart Series is £120 per team. This includes a 90-minute practice, 20-minute qualifying, and 2x90-minute races. It’s the most cost-effective way to go racing…if you ignore the cost of running the kart.
If you don’t have a clue about karting mechanics, you’re going to find yourself up a rather muddy creek without a paddle. You’re better off getting started in karting by hiring a kart. If you do know about kart mechanics—or you know someone who does—that’s great, but the costs of maintaining your kart keep growing, especially if you want to be competitive in your chosen race series. And that’s not even considering that you’ll have to start from nothing if you have an abrupt meeting with a tyre barrier.
Step 5: Join a Team/ Get an ARKS License
If you want to compete in the big Motorsport UK karting championships, you’re going to need:
A lot of money
An ARKS License
Don’t jump straight into this step, unless you grow money trees in your garden, though. You should only consider joining a team and obtaining an ARKS (Association of Racing Kart Schools) license once you’ve built up experience and racing skills (and a lot of money).
The Application
If you’re reading this and thinking, “Why would anyone commit themselves to the financial burden of kart racing?”, my answer is this:
Motorsport is more than driving in circles. The adrenaline, thrill, and excitement you can experience from racing is unlike anything you can do as a human, let alone any other sport. It’s truly magic.
You can get started in karting cheaply, and still enjoy a lifelong hobby in the sport. The key is to start small and build from there. Don’t expect greatness in your first race. You’re going to spin. You’re going to crash. You’re going to be lapped. And you’re going to be seconds off the pace. But that’s okay!
Get as much race experience as possible, whether that’s in real life or virtually. Sim racing is a great alternative to real-life racing. It’s the closest you can get to the real thing, without all the barriers to entry I mentioned earlier.
Your focus should be on enjoyment. If you approach karting with a logical financial brain, you will never do it.
This is a sport of passion.
What Now?
Motorsport doesn’t make sense on paper.
It’s expensive, unpredictable, and emotionally volatile. You’ll question yourself constantly, and the progress will be slower than you want.
But once your helmet is on, once you feel the kart come alive beneath you, it’s game over. It becomes more than a sport. It becomes a pursuit of presence, precision, and progress.
You don’t need to buy a kart tomorrow. You don’t need a race team or a sponsor or a perfect setup. You just need a session.
Book a rental kart. Show up. Spin out. Laugh at yourself. Come back. That’s how it starts. That’s how it started for me.
And if you ever need a push, or someone to ask the dumb questions to, I’m a DM away.
So, when are you going karting?
