Northamptonshire's Joel crowned national electric karting champion...at just 12 years old

A young racing driver from Northamptonshire has recently been crowned the National Total Karting Zero Cadet Champion, after a gruelling summer championship spanning the whole of the country.

Joel Dixon-Coen, 12 years old from Sutton Bassett, began racing go karts competitively when he was just nine years old, winning his first four indoor kart championships before moving onto outdoor racing in 2020.

But Joel is doing things differently than most as he chose to join Total Karting Zero, the first all-electric karting championship, set up and run by top Formula 1 engineer Rob Smedley.

Now Head of Data Analysis for Formula 1, Rob set up Total Karting Zero to bring a fairer, faster, cheaper and cleaner form of karting to the motorsport world.

In his words: “for the next generation of racer, the era of the petrolhead is coming to a close and it is time to experience the unique awe of the electric revolution”.

Total karting Zero (TKZ) began this electric revolution in 2020 and Joel was with them from the start, finishing in a very respectable 8th place in the first ever electric kart championship.

He then joined them for the National Summer Championship which got underway in Dorchester back in May.

There were six rounds in total for the summer championship, visiting circuits in Dorchester, Liverpool, Devon, Leicester, Andover and Cumbria. Each race weekend consisted of practice and qualifying on the Saturday and 3 races on the Sunday (2 heats and the final). Joel began the championship in a very strong position, winning all 3 of his races on the Sunday of round 1.

This put him straight to the top of the championship standings! Each race weekend Joel had to be at the very top of his game, but he continued to push each round and finished in the top 3 in all of the 18 races bar 1 in the whole championship, a massive achievement.

And in fact Joel took the top step of the podium in half of the races in total! No other driver with Total Karting Zero has achieved this consistency which in only his second season in outdoor karting is really quite remarkable.

This consistency resulted in Joel leading the summer championship from start to finish and finally, at round 6 in Cumbria, being crowned the TKZ National Cadet Champion.

F1’s Rob Smedley, who has followed Joel’s career since he started with TKZ said “Joel has shown incredible skill on track this season, it has been very impressive to watch and highlights the very reason that we started our series in the first place. Joel may not have embarked on competitive outdoor kart racing if it wasn’t for our series and what a loss of talent that would have been”.

Kevan Whitbread, Motorsport Development Management with the Smedley Group, was also extremely impressed with Joel, calling him a “phenomenal driver with a great future in motorsport”, high praise indeed from two people at the very pinnacle of motorsport.

Someone else who has followed Joel’s career with admiration is one of Joel’s sponsors Clare Elsby of Elsby & Co Accountants.

“This young man is nothing short of amazing, he has been impressive all season and is doing it all in an electric kart! Sustainability is something close to my heart and Total Karting Zero are leading the way in this new form of motorsport”.

In addition to winning the championship, Joel was also the first recipient of the Motorsport UK Race & Respect Award, as unanimously voted for by his peers. This award recognises the driver that strongly follows the racing code based on values such as respect, fair play, self-control, good manners and sincerity.

To win this award was extremely special and a testament to Joel’s conduct both on and off the track. So after a phenomenal summer season, Joel has now set his sights on defending his championship title in the TKZ Winter Championship that got underway at Bayford Meadows Kart circuit in Kent at the end of October.

And Joel started as he means to go on, by winning his cadet group final in horrendous conditions and gaining the bonus points for setting the fastest lap! He is now looking forward to Round 2 which will see him heading to Suffolk at the end of this month for hopefully more silverware for his cabinet!

Joel is extremely grateful to all of his sponsors, without whom his racing journey would be much harder. His sponsors include Elsby & Co, The Caravan Company, Xtreme Van, Talako Therapies, Travis Perkins, Towrite, Casa Nostra, and Pinewood Properties Newmarket Ltd. If you would like to further support Joel in his racing career and become a Joel Dixon Racing partner, you can contact hello@joeldixonracing.com, visit his Facebook page Joel Dixon Racing or offer support via his GoFundMe page (search Joel Dixon Racing).