How to start karting

The short version

1. Drive a rental kart. Arrive-and-drive at an indoor or outdoor circuit. No licence, no kit and no experience needed.
2. Race in an arrive-and-drive league. Series like TeamSport's BIKC and CLUB100 give you real racing on equal karts without owning one.
3. Pass the ARKS test. A written paper and an assessed drive at an accredited kart school gets you your first Motorsport UK race licence.
4. Join a club and race. Enter a club meeting in a class the club runs. Five races later, your novice plates come off.

Step 1: Drive a rental kart

Almost everyone starts at an arrive-and-drive circuit: you turn up, you're given a helmet and a kart, and you go. Published 2026 prices at outdoor circuits run from about £25 to £75 a session. Whilton Mill charges £42 for 20 minutes on its National circuit, and Three Sisters £25.99 for a 20-minute junior session. Indoor chains like TeamSport price by day and time.

You can practise at many circuits without a licence. You only need one to race.

Find a bookable track on go karting near you, every UK circuit by town on karting near you, or by region:

Step 2: Race without owning a kart

Arrive-and-drive championships are the cheapest way to race properly. You hire an equalised kart for each round, so the result comes down to you, and results count across a season.

These series use lower-grade licences that Motorsport UK issues for arrive-and-drive racing (K-I for BIKC, a free K-X licence for outdoor arrive-and-drive classes), so you don't need the ARKS test yet.

Step 3: Pass the ARKS test

To race owner-driver karts at Motorsport UK club meetings you need a Kart Interclub licence. First-timers get one by passing the ARKS test at a school accredited by the Association of Racing Kart Schools.

1. Buy the Motorsport UK karting starter pack. It's £78 in the Motorsport UK shop in September 2026 (other Motorsport UK pages still show £75 or £59, so check). It includes your first year's licence and the application form.
2. Book the test with one of 12 ARKS schools, from Larkhall in Scotland to Clay Pigeon in Dorset, or with a club examiner.
3. Take it: a 20-question multiple-choice paper and an assessed drive. The test costs up to £100 plus kart hire.

Pass marks, the flags you need to know and what happens after: the ARKS test explained.

Step 4: Join a club and enter your first race

A licence isn't enough on its own: you also have to be a member of a Motorsport UK affiliated kart club. Clubs race at their home circuit through the season, and there's usually a practice day the day before each meeting.

As a new driver you race as a novice on black number plates, usually starting at the back of heats. You need six race signatures from the officials to lose novice status. The ARKS test counts as one, so it's five races in practice.

Choose a class the club actually races (see kart classes explained), then find your local club and a race weekend:

What it costs, roughly

A rental session costs £25–£75, and an arrive-and-drive league round £40–£285. Club racing adds a kart (a new senior kart is around £6,000 complete; used ones cost far less), entry fees of £65–£195 a meeting, then tyres and a transponder. The full breakdown is in what karting really costs.