Sports recruiting keeps starting at younger and younger ages. While professional-league scouts used to hit the college games, these days they’re scoping out the high school fields. And not just for graduating seniors, either. That’s certainly the case (minus the school teams) in professional motorsports, where the drivers are getting younger and younger, too.
These days, major teams are securing future talents at earlier stages than ever, with many F1 constructors – like Renault, Red Bull and Ferrari – operating their own (often extensive) young driver development programs. But while most look to feeder series like Formula BMW or GP2, Lotus has just staked its claim at an even earlier stage with its new karting program.
In partnership with Jefra Racing of Treviso, Italy, the Lotus Racing Karts program is the first factory-backed team in the CIK-FIA World Karting Championship – a common starting point for aspiring young racers. For the 2012 season it will field two karts – a Colin C30 and a Jimmy C32 – in the KF and KZ categories, and will come complete (as pictured above) with the trademark JPS-inspired black and gold livery as featured on the Lotus Renault GP cars and the latest special edition Evora.
The karting program is just the latest – and earliest – step in the rapidly expanding Lotus motorsport division that has already taken Hethel into such series as Formula One, GP2, GP3, IndyCar and various classes of GT racing.
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