Scarborough's Joseph Yau, 12, aims to build on national karting success

Twelve-year-old Joseph finished his first season on a high with a first place finish in the national Electric Go Kart Championship run by former Formula 1 automotive engineer, Rob Smedley.

Joseph then followed it up with winning the inaugural 2022 season ‘O’ plate in the Teesside karting cadet series, that would have allowed him to carry the ‘O’ for the rest of this coming season had he not been moving up to the mini max Rotax series.

The Scarborough karter won a round in the Winter Championship of Total Karting Zero where he was a guest.

He has just finished the very competitive Honda cadet winter championship at Teesside Karting where there is always a grid of around 30 drivers, in second place.

Joseph took up karting after his dad Kong bought him a second hand kart from a friend and he hasn’t looked back. “He absolutely fell in love with it,” Kong said.

“He is very passionate about his racing. He enjoys the thrill of the speed it offers, but also the challenge of racing and the fun we have as a family at weekends away and making new friends.

“Motor racing become a part of Joseph’s life from a young age when he followed me to watch motor racing all around the UK and loves watching F1 on on television.”

Joseph’s first race was at Teesside Karting where he worked his way up the grid and learnt some hard lessons with a variety of finishes.

As the year has progressed in the eight rounds his confidence grew and he started to climb up the grid and work his way towards a podium.

In his first season he won the Teesside cadet clubman championship in November and followed that up with a finish on the top of the podium for the first round of the winter series.

He is now looking to earn more podiums at the summer championship before hopefully moving up to compete in the UK series.