With no sport currently taking place in the UK, today at Kent Sports News we look at the rising starts in motorsport.
Today we look at the rise of Mikey Porter who is not only a talented kart racer, but he has also a young Judo star at national level.
12-year-old Mikey Porter entered the karting scene fairly late compared to some. He started off at club level regularly seeing him on the podium, but took the leap at the age of 10 to dip his toes into the world of owner driver racing.
With little knowledge of the karts, engines etc. he went out there spending most of the first year finding his feet and learning some much needed race craft.
In late 2018 Mikey joined CHDD with Callum Hardgrave and the Evolution racing team, running in the Honda Cadet class. He did okay picking up a podium in the Kent cup championship but, it wasn’t until he moved up to the Mini Max class where his skills and strength began to shine through.
Mikey is fully immersed into sports and he medals regularly at a national level in Judo. He was selected for the Judo England development squad, recently receiving a gold for national independent schools and bronze for British schools, losing only one fight.
Mikey also plays both school and league football, his team won the league last year and are currently top of their league this year.
There isn’t a day that passes that Mikey isn’t competing or training and it’s this determination in him that is now starting to shine through in his Karting.
The first round of the Bayford Meadows championship took place on Sunday 15th March and Mikey had to compete in the British schools Judo on the Saturday in Sheffield, which left him no time to practice prior to race day.
Bruised and battered and tired from a long day competing Sheffield, he jumped into the seat on Sunday morning and put himself fourth on the grid after having to retire from qualifying due to an engine fault.
Heat one came and Mikey fired through the field to take the win. In the pre-final Mikey was battling for the lead with a Project One driver – Jai Lawrence and a small mistake meant he finally finished in second place.
Then the final came – Mikey had a great early battle with Lawrence again eventually making it into the lead. It took a couple of laps for him to find his feet whilst out in front but, after that his times improved and he started to pull away to win, snatching the fastest lap too.
It is a great start to the season for Mikey, with a top step of podium finish and championship leader while we wait for the racing to resume hopefully in the summer.
Mikey has also been dipping his toes into Junior Fiesta racing with a few test days and with his ARDS test booked for July – it looks like he’s going to be even busier. It’s this strength and determination in sport which will hopefully manifest itself into his future working life and bolster his ability in his chosen career.
Mikey would like to give a big thank you to all of the team at CHDD that have been part of his motorsport growth and is looking forward to picking up many more podiums with them.