Sarah, Ami and Mia Gualtieri
Cover Feature
CASE STUDY
Sarah, Ami and Mia Gualtieri
SARAH GUALTIERI WAS looking for something fun for her 12-year-old daughter Mia to do during a school inset day when she discovered the local TeamSport karting venue. After joining a family session, Mia was invited back to join the Girls Karting Academy( GKA) that evening and now she and her 15-year-old sister Ami are regular competitors, plus their mum is now racing too.
“ Karting is one of the last things I would’ ve thought about for my girls,” admits Gualtieri.“ The instructors helped them quickly learn the fundamentals – racing lines, apexes, defending and qualifying – and when we were told about three options to continue the karting pathway in outdoor arrive-and-drive sessions, we went and tried them all.”
After joining weekly TeamSport Academy and Race League sessions and competing in the British Indoor Karting Championships( BIKC) in their first year, they moved to outdoor karting in the monthly Club100 Southern and, when possible, Northern Championships. Mia also now competes in the Daniel Riccardo series.
“ Mia definitely gets excited and I don’ t ever recall her being nervous,” continues Sarah.“ Ami was nervous the first time but that didn’ t last long. They both learned to handle the kart very quickly and for me,
Sarah helps get Mia ready for her race
The Gualtieri family have discovered the joys of racing together
there’ s nothing better than seeing the buzz they get from being on track and improving their times and every time they race, they get better and better.”
Having not been involved in motorsport before, the whole process was very new to all of them – but it proved an easy one to navigate and Sarah concludes:“ It’ s great to be outside all together and away from the screens! I help the girls set up their kart before they race and there is such camaraderie among the other racers and parents, it’ s like one big family.
“ I like to have a go myself with the girls at the local track when I can – and they encouraged me to do BIKC myself. I’ ve also done a few rounds in the Jamie Chadwick Series, which is run at Daytona and is an all-female series, so watching them has given me the confidence to do it myself and nowadays it feels odd when we aren’ t at a track!”
12 Revolution Magazine