Super 1 National Kart Championships
The Super One National Kart Championships, also known as S1 or Super One, is a karting championship based in the United Kingdom. It has been in operation since 1983 and is regarded as the premier karting championship in the UK, producing professional drivers including Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, David Coulthard, Alexander Albon, Dan Wheldon, Anthony Davidson and Jason Plato among others.
History
The first Super 1 meeting was held in 1983 at Snetterton where only four classes were run as part of the championship. At the time, the championship was not officially recognised as being the "British Championship" as the RAC national titles were decided over a one-weekend event. This continued up till 1990 when Super 1 secured the rights to decide the British champion over the course of the series.
Over the years, the Super 1 series has produced champions that have gone on to race in Formula 1 such as David Coulthard, Will Stevens, Allan McNish, Jenson Button, Anthony Davidson, Paul di Resta, Ralph Firman and Lewis Hamilton. Other drivers who have won a Super 1 championship and who have gone on to professional motor racing include Gary Paffett, Mike Conway, Dan Wheldon, Ben Hanley , Oliver Jarvis and Billy Monger.
Caleb McDuff became the first ever profoundly deaf driver to take a podium finish in 2019, finishing 2nd at Rowrah. He went on to finish the season in first place in the championship, winning the Honda Cadet class [1]
Classes
Originally, there were only four classes in the Super 1 series. In 2017, 11 different classes ran within the series over 11 different race weekends.
Bambino classes
For drivers from 6 years of age up to the year of their 8th birthday.
- Bambino (1 Round)
Cadet classes
For drivers from 8 years of age up to and including the year of their 13th birthday.
- IAME Cadet (7 Rounds)
- Honda Cadet (7 Rounds)
Junior classes
For drivers from 12 years of age up to and including the year of their 17th birthday.
Senior classes
For drivers over 16 years of age.
- Rotax 177 (3 Rounds)
- TKM Extreme (7 Rounds)
- Senior X30 (6 Rounds)
- Senior OK (6 Rounds)
- KZ (2 Rounds)
The OK classes, as well as the TKM classes, are recognised by the Motorsports Association as being British Championships. The remaining are recognised by the Association of British Kart Clubs (ABkC) as National Championships. Each class, apart from the shorter KZ and Bambino championships, also rewards drivers with seeded rankings for the top 10 finishers in the championship standings, these finishing positions may be exclusively used by that driver in that class for the following year at any ABkC recognised event.