I Race a Honda: Carter Williams

I started racing karts eight years ago and won my first race on the second day of racing. Since then, I’ve won four state championships and last year won the TaG Junior class in the SKUSA California ProKart Challenge, which I backed up by winning again in 2012. I also won a pair of IKF Grand National titles this summer.

This year, I added SKUSA Junior Stock Moto, or S5, to my schedule. My S5 Tony Kart is powered by a restricted 125cc Honda engine. It’s essentially the same engine the older drivers use, but with restrictors on the intake and exhaust to reduce power. I have done well in that class, winning the California ProKart Challenge for 2012. Now, I’m looking forward to attempting to win a national championship in both S5 and TaG Junior at the SKUSA Supernats in Las Vegas in November.

I think we’ve got a really good shot at winning. We’re third in both championships, and we keep learning more and more every race. I race with the Phil Giebler Racing team, and they’ve been a big help. Not only is Phil an excellent kart racer, but he has a lot of open-wheel car experience as well, and that’s what I’m aiming for. Formula 1 is my ultimate goal.

I’m happy we added the S5 class this year, although my father made me promise that my performance in TaG Junior wouldn’t suffer if we did. My first Honda-powered kart was an 80cc shifter. I loved it and it was a really fun class. When they shut it down, I was disappointed.

When we moved to SKUSA and saw the S5 class, we worked for about a year to try and get an effort together and it’s been really fun. And the competition is only getting better. The drivers in S5 are really good. That’s pushing me to up my game and improve.

While I can’t let my effort in one class of karting take away from another, I also can’t let karting take away from the rest of my life. It’s been tough to be a good racer, play water polo and maintain a 4.0 GPA but, at 14, school has to be my main focus. That’s meant a lot of late nights and a lot of hard work. I’ve been studying on the road and doing homework in whatever time I can find.

Fortunately, we don’t have to do much with the S5 kart. The Honda engine has been so reliable that we haven’t even been able to take advantage of everything that HPD and the Honda Racing Line have to offer.

Perhaps we’ll make use of it more in the off-season. But I hope my biggest improvement will be attaching a No. 1 plate to my karts for the National races!

Look for Carter Williams and the rest of the Honda-powered racers at the SKUSA Supernats in Las Vegas November 14 - 18, 2012 and at California and national SKUSA events in 2013.