The History Story of ZipKart

Martin Hines

Now in its 5th year the Karting UK Bambino Championship is the only Bambino Championship with Karting UK backing . The Championship is for 6-8 year olds who are looking to compete across the country at some of the best karting circuits .

Zip Kart’s 50 Plus years of heritage comes from the legacy left by the late Martin Hines known affectionately as Mr Karting. His passion and dedication has pushed karting into the limelight becoming the spring board for talented racing drivers.

To become an accomplished racing driver you have to start early, for the same reasons as any other top sports person enabling them to hone their skills. Karting allows the young driver to learn and develop their driving skills and start to understand the setting up and simple mechanics of the kart. Learning kart control while travelling at speed and anticipating racing situations ,will give drivers the edge to progress and succeed in other spheres of motorsport.

The formative years are crucial for anyone wanting to reach the top. Martin realised this fact and was instrumental in the creation of the Cadet class in the 1990s. This allowed 8 year olds to race for the first time in the UK now with the Karting UK Bambino class you can start competing as young as 6 years old.

The legendary Zip Young Guns Racing Team was created to allow talented young drivers to achieve their potential by providing them with the best equipment and support available and has been synonymous with many of today’s stars success; these include David Coulthard, Lewis Hamilton, Jason Plato, Anthony Davidson, Gary Paffett, Luke Hines, amongst many other top level international Racing drivers.

Martin became involved in The Racing Steps Foundation, a private, non-profit fund set up to provide and finance competition and personal performance development programmes for young British racing drivers who have the skill and determination to climb to the top of the international motorsports ladder but lacking the all important funds and mentoring to match. By 2008 a year after RSF came on the scene Martin and Zip Karts became part of the fabric in providing a foot hold for underfunded talented drivers.Today the following drivers Oliver Turvey, James Calado, Jack Harvey, Oliver Rowland, Jake Dennis, Ben Barnicoat, are realising their ambitions because of the funding and help provided through RSF.

Zip Kart have been chosen to promote the Karting UK Bambino championship in 2015 and we look forward to organising a championship that will see tomorrows future drivers perform at events all over the UK.