Club 100 Cadet & Junior Academy Days for newcomers
Our first ever Academy day on March 26, 2022 for the new Cadet category along with new Junior drivers went extremely well with 80 Cadets (8 to 12 years) and 104 Juniors (13 to 18 years). They were divided into groups to run half in the morning and half in the afternoon.
Prior to the event we sent all the drivers and parents a video to watch which explained how the day will work, about the kart adjustments, ballast and seat inserts. This I'm sure helped.
We started with a track walk in groups of around 20 drivers together with our instructors, to help them better understand the circuit. This was followed by a drivers briefing.
The programme included each driver completing four sessions of 12 minutes. Our instructors were on hand to offer drivers tips and advice, including support from one of our long-time competitors Steve (Super GT) Brown, a YouTube celebrity. In the background we were busy gathering data on each driver and evaluating their performance and discipline. After the Academy day, we emailed everyone to congratulate them on passing their evaluation. There were of course a small number that we have advised to come back and test more prior to racing. No one fails. It's a negative word!
So overall, we as a team are delighted on how the day ran and looking forward to Academy 2 at the end of April before we start the season at Round 1 of the Junior Championships.
We do our very best to warmly welcome our young drivers and their parents, with the goal being to make them feel comfortable and wanting to be at a Club100 event. Track walks and instruction I think is key for young drivers. They need guidance. A strict set of rules and regulations that are adhered to by both officials and drivers also instils good discipline and understanding. We have had a lot of very positive feedback following our Academy day!
"Thank you so much this is wonderful news! James is over the moon, he had such a great day today. Can I just say how well organised and how friendly everyone was. James has only been karting for a very short time and was a bit nervous about today as has only had a small amount of indoor karting experience, however all the instructors were amazing and gave James some advice on his driving, so he went home feeling more confident and feeling that he had learnt a great deal. We both look forward to seeing everyone at the next event.”
"Thanks for running such a great event at Shenington on Saturday. It was Jack’s first time with Club 100 and he has been buzzing about his experience all weekend. I appreciate that most, if not all, of the super-lightweight events are full for this season, but hopefully if spaces become available there will be a chance for him to join you again. Thanks to you and all of your team for a great afternoon, especially for the help, advice and support you gave to Jack.”
"Thanks John! Great news. We thought today was brilliant. We’ve done a bit of arrive and drive… and, while great, they definitely had their limitations, which led us to dabble in owner driver [class] (very expensive to be competitive!). This feels like a real sweet spot. Well done and thanks very much. See you at R1. Cheers!”
