Twelve-year-old William Sparrow has picked up his first win since joining a new electric karting championship.

Sparrow, who lives in Marden and goes to Maidstone Grammar School, started racing at Buckmore Park aged six.

But this year he switched from traditional petrol-powered karts to the Total Karting Zero Championship which is run by ex-Ferrari Formula 1 engineer Rob Smedley.

After finishing fourth, second and third in the opening three rounds, he secured his maiden win at Stretton in Leicestershire.

It’s a different experience for spectators, with the karts virtually silent, but they’re just as much fun to drive, averaging 40mph.

“William’s always been interested in racing - I think his first word was car,” said mum Sally.

“He starting racing at Buckmore, aged six, and won the junior rookie of the year in 2019 but then it closed and has only just reopened.

“We were looking for alternative opportunities and thought we’d try Rob Smedley’s series.

“We said we’d do the six races to start with and he’s doing really well.

“He was just delighted to get that first win - he finished six seconds clear of the runner-up, which is quite a lot.

“He felt it was coming because he’d had a third and a second.”

The summer series finishes with meetings at Thruxton and Rowrah in the Lake District and Sparrow is delighted to be under the stewardship of Smedley as he plots his motor racing future.

Sally said: “Rob’s usually there, he’s very hands on, he likes to know what’s going on and he interacts with the families.

“William has aspirations to be a professional racing driver, be that with a team, endurance racing, single-seater.

“He’s only 12 so he’s keeping his options open.

“He’s interested in the electric route, which is something that’s important to everybody.

“Petrol is perhaps not the way to go any more in motorsport because electric is cleaner and it’s proven you can still get brilliant speeds. It’s also a lot fairer.”

Sparrow has his own website - sparrowracing.uk - and is on Instagram under the handle sparrowracinguk.

He’s looking for sponsorship for the 2022 season and beyond. Interested parties can make contact via the website or by emailing Sally on collaborate@sparrowracing.uk.

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