By Stuart WatsonAnglia Indoor Karting director Keith Barton has hailed the influence of indoor racing after three of his former pupils secured a strong 1-2-3 in an outdoor championship.

Stuart Watson

By Stuart Watson

Anglia Indoor Karting director Keith Barton has hailed the influence of indoor racing after three of his former pupils secured a strong 1-2-3 in an outdoor championship.

Bradley Peck, 12, Harry Steward, nine, and Jack Partridge, 10, recently took the respective final top three spots at the Red Lodge Championship in Newmarket.

And the trio's ability to finish ahead of a competitive grid after 12 rounds can largely be attributed to the racing education they received at the Ipswich-based Anglia Indoor Karting track.

Barton said: “The indoor track enables them to start quite young in a more friendly and controlled atmosphere. Indoors they can focus on enjoying themselves rather than being really competitive.

“Also, because the indoor circuits are so much smaller and tighter they have to really learn the basics of driving early on. The opportunities to overtake indoors are fewer and the reactions required to do so have to be so much quicker.

“Our track has been here for 18 years now and we have focused on junior racing pretty much from the start. The Sunday morning junior club enables us to spend time actually training the youngsters rather than just putting them out and letting them race. We teach them their racing lines, how to set themselves up and where to overtake.

“We always encourage the best drivers to push on from indoors to outdoors because we can only provide them progression up to a certain level of competitiveness.

“All the top Formula One drivers started out in karts, Lewis Hamilton is the prime example of that. He has been a major boost to karting and motorsport in general.

“Indoor Karting brings motorsport to the locality, it's an ideal entry point who just wants to give it a relatively cheap try. It's great to see some of our old lads doing so well on the outdoor scene. Congratulations to all of them.”

Harry Steward and Jack Partridge are now looking to make the next step up to the British Super One Championship next season.

Anglia Indoor Karting track is situated on the Farthing Road Industrial Estate off of the A14 and runs a youth club on a Sunday morning. For more information visit: www.angliakarting.com or call: 01473 240087.