Thursday 5th July 2007

A racing driver in nappies

Hamilton media frenzy spreads to toddlers

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It was Matchbox cars for us at four...

A four year old boy has been signed by a karting team as a ‘works’ driver.

Ben Kasperczak was only three years old when the contract was signed; cannot ride a bike without stabilisers and is still in night nappies.

The contract with Motorsport World karting lasts until he is nine, and includes the karts, technical support and all track time. Ben is not allowed to be paid a salary because of his age.

The youngster from Potters Bar, Herts, was discovered at the same kart track (Rye House)where Lewis Hamilton was first noticed.

His father, Paul Kasperczak, said: "I put timber blocks on the kart so that he could reach the pedals and within 15 minutes he was spinning it around, doing turns. He was absolutely fearless, but in control. It was staggering."

No, we can’t quite believe it either…

[SS HSV]

This is how racing drivers are born. Fairplay to the dad for giving the support to his son at such an early age.

Wonder what the wife makes of it

[smele]

Probably help his power to weight ratio if he is only 4, presuming his nappy is empty.

Edited by smele on Thursday 5th July 14:08

[mchammer89]

smele said:

Probably help his power to weight ratio if he is only 4, presuming his nappy is empty.

Edited by smele on Thursday 5th July 14:08

Hopefully he'll learn from Kimi and empty it before each race

[chris_w]

just had a brainwave, baby sized helmets and racewear! Dragon's Den here I come...

[flattotheboards]

starting young thats the way forward alright.

[northeee]

Signed at 3 years old. Thats just wrong
next we will have Hamiltons unborn 1st child signed.

[redevil]

You've got to be pretty irresponsible to put a petrol go-kart in the hands of a 3 year old! Madness.

[MotorUniverse]

A pretty sensible comment from someone called redevil.

[clonmult]

I started Karting on holiday when i was a little older than that, maybe 5 years old? Shame no-one in Llandudno took notice of my scary ability in those kiddy karts!

Gotta love karting though. Raced against my step children a few years back on a circuit in Croatia (Pula), and even though they were massively lighter, they just didn't seem to "get" car control, so it was little competition. On the other hand, they came off the circuit with huge grins.

More kids should try karting when younger, teaches them a lot more respect for the road. Well, it did for me.

[vojx]

northeee said:

Signed at 3 years old. Thats just wrong
next we will have Hamiltons unborn 1st child signed.

My son's 6, brilliant on the PS2 driving games, but i fear over-the-hill to start kart racing

[MartinMGBGTSV8]

I worked briefly for a karting company and dreaded when the kids birthday parties turned up. Parents would insist their five year old kids were competent drivers and even in severly restricted childrens karts they still managed to stack them at about 15-20mph.

The screams of one kid who panicked and floored the throttle when it became apparrent to him that he was going to crash went straight through me. His chest hit the steering wheel and it winded him but at the time it sounded much worse. I left the company soon after as I wasn't willing to be around if I couldn't stop it from happening again.

[PulsatingStar]

MartinMGBGTSV8 said:

I worked briefly for a karting company and dreaded when the kids birthday parties turned up. Parents would insist their five year old kids were competent drivers and even in severly restricted childrens karts they still managed to stack them at about 15-20mph.

The screams of one kid who panicked and floored the throttle when it became apparrent to him that he was going to crash went straight through me. His chest hit the steering wheel and it winded him but at the time it sounded much worse. I left the company soon after as I wasn't willing to be around if I couldn't stop it from happening again.

Heh might be the same company I used to work for. Id try to avoid weekends just to miss the kids parties! Its worse when you can see them panic to and they just leave the throttle nailed open.

That said, there were the odd one or two that were really interested in it and they were quite fun to teach and go on track with.

[bencollins]

• tut* racing at forwer? me? 'ad just a stick n hoop, n 'ad to share it wi me six brothers, still, we were 'appy in them days.

[silv]

redevil said:

You've got to be pretty irresponsible to put a petrol go-kart in the hands of a 3 year old! Madness.

Yep bl--dy madness. I find this story hard to believe!! If it's true IMO it could lead to some serious problems. (push'y parents and all that) Karting is dangerous even at grass rootes level. Can you buy a properly fitting helmet for a 3 year old ? Kids as young as 3 should not be aloud anywhere near anything other than a toy car.

[bigbadbikercats]

redevil said:

You've got to be pretty irresponsible to put a petrol go-kart in the hands of a 3 year old! Madness.

According to a fuller version of the story (http://itn.co.uk/news/a2be71e265f49b7224b80c810b5658ff.html) he actually started in an electric powered Kart....

...at the age of 2!

--
JG

[bigbadbikercats]

clonmult said:

Raced against my step children a few years back on a circuit in Croatia (Pula), and even though they were massively lighter, they just didn't seem to "get" car control, so it was little competition.

I went on track with my two children (age 9 and 11 at the time) on our local indoor circuit a couplle of years back and it was really rather worrying how quickly they got the hang of it - I quite soon found myself having to use all of my (limited!) experience to stay ahead of them as they started sliding their Karts around in what I thought was actually quite an impressive (if overly flambouyant and slightly scary) display of instantly aquired car control. We haven't been back for a while but I have a feeling that if we did I'd be dead meat within a few sessions...

--
JG

[V8 Vette]

Soon we will have the spectacle of the F1 Pit Crews of Ferrari and MacLaren fuelling, changing all four wheels, tyres and a friggin nappy all in 9 seconds . A full 2 seconds faster than my Mum.

[gtr-gaz]

Did you know that some bloke was so taken with the skill of Hamilton at a karting event in Stevenage (aged 9), that he went straight down the bookies and bet that LH would win an F1 race before he was 23?

He walked away with £40K a few weeks ago.

[iqy_86]

That some bloke who went down the bookies was his DAD. Just shows how much confidence he had in his sons ability!

[Heebeegeetee]

I thought this was a wind up, but it was in the Sun today.

I can't see how any proper msa licenced track (which Rye House is) can let an under 8 year old on the track. I'm certain this would break all the rules in the book and would void their insurance.

The only way I can see how it happened is that the Dad lied or acted illegally.