The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

AS it continues the task of developing motorsport in the Bahamas at the grassroots level, the Edukarting Summer Kart Club commenced its latest edition on Monday.

The club is hosting two independent sessions - August 3-7 and August 10-14 - at the CI Gibson High School campus.

Edukarting features one week programmes taught by industry professionals to encourage a love of motorsport, team building and an introduction to associated disciplines with future marketable skills.

David McLaughlin, chairman of the Bahamas Speed Week Revival, was recently named a director of the FIA, world motorsport’s governing body. He is also the managing director for Karting Bahamas.

“We bring them along for a week’s training, we teach them how to drive them, we teach them how to maintain them, we teach them how to form teams so they have to work together. At the end of the programme they have to race karts, and it’s quite competitive. They have to form a virtual budget and they have to pitch to sponsors. They have to design logos and they have to do many things that will carry them over in life,” McLaughlin said.

“We are not looking for the NASCAR or Formula One champion, we are looking to develop a social programme that will give the kids the ammunition to move forward and be successful. We have seen the kids’ grades improve, we have seen above proportion expectation made prefects and some of the kids from the first year have come back to train the kids in the second year. They are taking on responsibility and authority to do that. When we build the circuit it will be sustainable, it’s an investment, it’s not a cost.”

McLaughlin has had a long and storied involvement with auto-racing, spanning more than three decades. Through his company FORCE he established the historic Formula One Series in 1986, which was later officially recognised by the FIA. He also created the FORCE Classic Grand Prix Series with rounds in nine European countries.

He said the programme aims to bring greater exposure for young Bahamians to a sport which presents new opportunities through “stealth education.”

“We have a young man who came to the programme three years ago and I recently wrote a reference for him and I think he’s almost certain to get a job with a local car dealership. Being in Edukarting, he saw the fun side and it inspired him for that. Generally speaking, a lot of females, not just drivers but technicians, especially in the modern computerised world are taking advantage of the opportunities they are really endless,” McLaughlin said.

“One of the things Minister Fitzgerald has been particularly keen on is that we track the kids, we track their progress in school. An above average number of them have gone on to be prefects because there are benefits in giving them something to aspire to. A lot of it is giving them something to be excited about, learning that they can do new things to really raise yourself and realise the potential they have.”

The camp is limited to 30 students per week, between 13-17 years of age and in grades 10-12, at a cost of $25 per student.

The Edukarting initiative was introduced as a summer camp into public schools in 2013 and four of the schools with automotive programmes continued as an after school kart club.

Maya Curry and Megan Curry have been members of the programme since its inception.

Maya said: “I used to be in auto mechanics and when my teacher suggested I join the programme I jumped at the opportunity. You not only learn in school but you get to learn in the field, something we have never done before. This programme helps you to work together as a team and learn different techniques.”

Megan said: “At first there were only a few students, but as the word got out there more and more joined. It’s empowering to females, but it shows we can do whatever a man can do so we can become involved in this sport.”

McLaughlin said one of the benefits of the programme will be to bring the return of international karting prestige to the Bahamas.

“It’s not a very well known fact but the first ever World Kart Championship race was held here in Nassau. I have an agreement in principle with the world governing body is that they would bring karting back here in 2019, 60 years removed from the first one. From there on, who knows,” he said.

“Most of the world champions came up in a grass system like the one we are trying to establish. Lewis Hamilton for example, twice world champion and Formula One champion, the first black world champion - his roots are in Grenada, his story is amazing. He came from very humble beginnings and now he just signed a contract with Mercedes Benz worth over $100 million. So you can see the opportunities this presents.”