Why karting left with two winners from a race that ended in a painful loss

165

The karting fraternity now considers Joe Turney a modern-day ‘hero’ for the sport, but he’s still yet to become world champion after losing out on the last lap to Ethan Jeff-Hall in 2024. What’s next for the two Britons?

If a footballer maintained fitness levels and ability with a ball to have a career in the adult game that spanned 30 years but they never played in a top-tier national league, they probably would not tick the box of being considered a great footballer.

But career longevity enables competitors to go from protege to teacher, while also expanding their knowledge base throughout as the sport evolves around them. For their rivals, they become a reliable barometer of which to compare against.

In football, one year at the top flight is more valuable career currency than five in the second tier and it’s the same in motorsport as a GP2/Formula 2 career so long it encompasses three different cars means little reputationally against a former rival who managed to add Formula 1 starts to their CV.

And in almost all sports, the fundamentals of the equipment used at the very lowest level is the same as at the top. But in motorsport, there is a big contrast as many young talents start racing on karts then switch to totally different machinery.

Karting has that slightly frightening level of competitivity and passion from the sidelines that all youth sports do, and at the senior level it used to be common in the 20th century for drivers to stick about and try to master their craft. Now, most of the top karters in North America and Europe head over to cars as soon as they’re old enough to.

The sport of karting being a passing-through point is no bad thing, since new names get chances to shine each year. But gone are the bridges between eras that mean the lastest big talent can actually be compared to their title-winning predecessors. And of the adults who do stick about, they almost all switch from single-speed to shifter karting.

This is why the 23-year-old Joe Turney is one of the most popular faces in karting after eight years racing at the senior level.

Turney debuted on OK karts in 2017, and has since won basically everything bar the biggest prize: the world championship.

Rather than explain Turney’s popularity and status as the gold standard in karting through a long list of results, here’s a chat we had with the Briton – days before possibly the most agonising defeat of his career – that should illustrate it just as well:

So what’s your official role now with Kart Republic and the factory team?
“At the moment, I’m a driver for Kart Republic, and driving on OK Senior in Europe and a bit of X30 in America as well. Basically, all forms of the single-speed kart. Trying to win with the kart, promote the kart and help the team where I can.”

Is there any kind of chassis development work in that as well?
“Yeah, yeah, for sure. We’re always trying different things to try and improve the product to sell to people. And to win more races. So we’re testing lots of karts this week, lots of parts as well for the kart. And in general, we’re trying to use my experience and improve with the team to try and make the best product we can.”

In Formula 4, where you raced in 2019, there is a lot of team-determined setups which drivers are required to adapt to. From the start of the season to the end, can you map out how the KR setup and package has evolved?
“Yeah, possibly. We drive a lot of different tracks and surfaces. So it won’t always be perfect every time, and we have to bring different products to each race to try and be the best we can. But we’re trying to make a product to sell to everyone and to win races. So yeah, I think it’s a bit different to single-seaters, as in the lower formulas where everyone races the same car, and the parts all have to be from the manufacturer. But we have the luxury where we can make all our own stuff. And as long as we’re within the regulations, then we can use it and we can develop quite a lot.”

It must be a pretty cool role, having that responsibility for a successful product that then gets raced by your rivals and so many younger karters?

“Yeah, yeah. It’s super cool. The product was already massively successful way before I was here. So that was part of my reasoning for coming and racing for Dino [Chiesa, Kart Republic boss]. And the product, obviously, is in a really good place at the moment. We can see that with the results we’re having.”

If Dino hadn’t called in 2023, after your time as a factory Tony Kart driver ended, would your career still be ongoing?
“Yeah, I think I’d be racing somewhere for sure. Whether it would still be here in this paddock, I’m not 100% sure. I think probably it would’ve been. I’m definitely happy with where I am now, and the work that we’re doing.”

On chassis development, the fact that you’re going to have 14-year-olds driving these karts but you’ve got a larger physique, you’re taller, older etc., how do you dial your feedback into going ‘this kart will be easy to drive for someone who’s just coming in to the category’ when you’re developing it as a driver with a lot of experience.
“I think that’s the thing as well. We have to remember, and that why it helps to have a lot of our younger drivers here and racing too, because we can see that if the product’s working for everyone, then there’s obviously something right. I mean that we have to have a kart that works for inexperienced drivers and experienced drivers. So it’s not all about having the 100% fastest kart over a lap, but having a kart that’s fast over a race and driveable too.”

In terms of working with younger drivers, at what point did you start doing that? And how formal is that role?
“I’ve raced from a young age. I grew up as a young driver [like them]. Now I’m 23 and, just as you get more experience, you start to give your advice a bit to the younger kids. And then it starts being a bit more like work when you’ll go as – your purpose to [entering] a race is to just go help some kids. In the end, it sort of naturally progresses into that as you get older.”

So on a race weekend where you’re on a factory kart, I presume your responsibility obviously is to win. But would the boss still be happy if you didn’t win, but you helped some of the other drivers get good results.

“Yeah. I mean, always my first priority here has been to come and do the best I can results-wise on the track. So I come to try and win every race and to do the best I can. So that’s obviously the first priority between the sessions. We need to make sure that everything is prepared and everything’s been analysed correctly. But any spare time that I have, I try to help some of the younger kids if they’re struggling. Or even if they’re not, just to help and give advice and watch races and do what I can.”

Do they look up to you? In terms of karting pedigree you’re one of the biggest names in the 21st century. But drivers look up to F1 primarily. Do you have a reputation within your team that young drivers do look up to you?
“I guess a little bit. I mean, I was just a young driver like them, and now I’m doing it for my job. But yeah, I guess naturally someone who’s winning a lot, the people will try and want to drive like them. And I think some of them can be a little bit nervous to talk [to me] and ask questions, but in the end I’m always happy to help whoever it is.”

Long-term for you now, are you looking to always have that kind of work on the side while trying to stay racing? Or are you more likely to head in one direction or the other?
“Possibly. I’m not 100% at the moment. We’ll see how the future goes, in the short-term with the driving. But I’m not getting any younger. And, yeah, I enjoy helping the young kids just as much as I do driving. So we’ll see what happens. I’m enjoying what I’m doing at the moment, but I’m not 100% sure what I’ll do [next].”

A bit of a personal question. In October 2023 you broke your ankle. With your foot recovery, how much did you notice once you were back on the kart if there was any difference in feedback and sensitivity with that foot and leg?
“The feedback was always fine, like my feeling and everything. I didn’t have any damage in that area. Maybe I came back a little bit early. I started in February, and I probably could’ve waited a month later. As I had quite a lot of pain when I first came back. But I think that maybe would’ve happened even if I started a month later. I think the muscles all needed to get back [to working strength via karting]. Now it’s all pretty fine. Especially when I drive, it’s 100% fine. I actually have more of a problem outside of the kart, when I’m just walking a lot in the day; I get a bit of fatigue. But apart from that, it’s alright. I can manage.”

That’s good. That’s encouraging. And if a car team suddenly offered you a drive, would you be willing to return to single-seaters to continue where you left off in British F4 back in 2019, or karting is the world you want to stay in?
“I don’t know. I quite like the karting world at the moment. I think it’s in a good place. And I like working with a lot of good people. So we’ll see what happens. I still look at the car stuff, for sure. And I’m definitely not saying no to anything, but I’m not like 100% sure on what my direction will be, my future over the next 10, 20, 30 years. So we’ll see.”

In terms of budgets since you came to the senior level of karting, how much have the numbers gone up?
“I first started senior karting in 2017, so we’re looking at seven, eight years ago now. The numbers are a lot more than they were then, but I think due to like, naturally, inflation. And I think the COVID-19 pandemic as well didn’t help because materials are a lot more expensive now. So for the teams to produce karts and stuff, it’s probably more expensive. It’s increased, but everything in general has. Compared to seven years ago, [karting costs] are probably 50% more now.”

And have you noticed similar inflation in terms of the size of entourages that drivers bring?
“Yeah, that’s grown massively. If you look at racing 10 years ago, people would just come and drive. Like it would be the kid and their parents. Either the parent’s [doing the] mechanicing, or a mechanic. And that was probably as far as it went.”

Even at the OK level?
“Yeah. Maybe there would be the odd person who would have a bit more. But now there’s drivers who come with mental coaches and physical coaches and driver coaches, and it’s pretty intense. But that’s the way the sport’s going, and it’s growing and it’s getting more competitive. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but it does obviously increase the cost for everyone if they want to compete.”

In terms of doing rigorous exercise and being on track so much [as rich youngsters do], how many days per year were you on track at that kind of age? Would that not have been a fatiguing thing to be driving so frequently?

“Yeah, it is. I never drove as much as some of the kids that they drive [as much is possibly allowed]. I probably drove two or three weekends a month. Which is still quite a lot, but my weekends would have been Friday to Sunday. Whereas the weekends now are Wednesday or Thursday to Sunday, and they’ll probably drive three times a month, with a bit of stuff in between as well. That’s busy. And I had to do, I was quite busy with school as well, so it sort of like limited my driving. But to a healthy level where I was still driving enough, but not too much that I got burned out.”

Do you look at the balance now and wonder if it’s swung too far in the racing direction compared to education?
“Yeah, possibly. At a young age, a lot of the kids probably drive [as much as possible]. It’s not that they drive too much. It’s just that they don’t go to school enough. Yeah, that’s all. I think it’s important to have a school life and… not a ‘personal life’, but like, have your friends at school and have your friends in karting. Because they’re two completely different worlds.”

If you fall out with your friends here…
“Yeah, true, true. And I think it’s important for the kids to learn the life that they have at home, too, because it is two completely different worlds. You have your karting life, it’s intense, but in the end it’s fun and they go racing every week and they’re with their mates. And it’s not the real world, probably. So if they know the real world, and they realise that actually life’s about doing hard work and school and listening to your teachers or whatever, then they’ll probably have a better grasp of life and what real life’s like.”

Two days later, Formula Scout got to hear from Turney again after he lost the CIK-FIA World championship on the last lap as a mistake in treacherous conditions ended his run of literally showing the rest of the field how to drive through the wet at PF International in the fastest way possible.

“It might have looked like 22, 21 mistake-free laps. But it definitely wasn’t. The conditions were really difficult, really slippy. And difficult to hit your points and to get the kart stopped every lap. I made a big mistake on the last lap, so that’s obviously very hard to take after the weekend that we’ve had and the preparation and everything,” he dwelled.

“But I think as a whole we can still be happy for the work we’ve done and we’ve missed out just right at the last, it couldn’t really be any closer, but just at the end. Yeah, we can be happy as a team, as a group for the work that we’ve done here, this year and in the world championship. Because we had everyone at the front, and just missed out right at the end.”

When asked how many years he could keep on chasing world championship success, Turney was coy.

“Look, I don’t know. Second twice now, so that hurts. But I think in the end I’ve come second to a great driver, and Matthew [Higgins] in third as well. It’s been a really strong podium this year. Last year was difficult as well. But I have to remember what position I was in at this time last year [following his ankle-breaking hit]. So it’s definitely not bad, because last year I was staring at the roof of a hospital room. So no, we can be happy with the work we’ve done. We’ve won a lot of races this year. Just this one missed out on the last lap, but it can happen.”

He may ‘only’ be 23, but Turney is without doubt one of the most mature drivers competing internationally in his sport. That should be his biggest contribution to karting, more than being the on-track benchmark for every rising talent to go up against, particularly as the margins between manufacturers, teams and drivers are so small now courtesy of the spending race.

As for his time in British F4, Turney kicked it off by claiming pole for his debut car race, got his first podium and fastest lap at the next event but after ‘only’ claiming one more of each he dropped off the grid after five rounds to focus on karting.

Should Turney decide to return to car racing in some form and he doesn’t taste high levels of success, and if the CIK-FIA World championship continues to elude him, it would in no way diminish his status as an emerging motorsport icon with nothing left to prove in karting. For example, Kimi Raikkonen’s illustrious talent led to ‘only’ one F1 title, and his switch to the World Rally Championship was a challenging chapter in his career but didn’t make him look less talented.

For now, ‘what’s next?’ for Turney is more karting, and more winning. Inevitably.

Ethan Jeff-Hall first caught Formula Scout’s attention in 2022, as he won European competitions on Rotax Junior karts. He then won the Rotax Max Challenge International Trophy for Rotax Senior karts in 2023, and repeated that success in 2024. By starting on pole for the final, he also earned himself a spot in the FEED Racing France shootout. While that didn’t lead to a French F4 seat for 2025, there was plenty else that happened to Jeff-Hall last year to kickstart his car racing career.

First of all he dovetailed his karting commitments with Britain’s entry-level Ginetta Junior sportscar series, and took the title there with six wins and eight other podiums. In summer he sought even more names to prove himself against, and swapped his Sam Pollitt Racing-run Exprit Rotax kart to join the factory CRG team in the alternative OK class.

His debut was the CIK-FIA European championship finale, and after a slow start he progressively became more competitive. Then came the World championship, and he topped his qualifying group. Although he finished off the podium in his first two heats, stronger starts later on meant he won his last two and only Turney was ahead in the intermediate classification.

In his superheat he lost to Fionn McLaughlin by 0.181 seconds on the final lap, but then in the final the reverse happened against Turney as he was second until a last-lap pass after Turney slid off made him world champion. A month later he contested the Ferrari Driver Academy’s scouting world final, but was not signed by Ferrari and will instead step up to British F4 with Argenti Motorsport as a Mercedes-AMG F1 junior as was revealed last week.

With career momentum behind him there is as much anticipation behind what’s next for Jeff-Hall, and if he can turn his F4 chance into a single-seater career in the way Turney previously couldn’t. But let’s rewind to moments after he took his helmet off on September 15 last year, when he ran over to hug team members through a parc ferme fence, and also faced Formula Scout’s microphone:

How difficult were the conditions today?
“It was very difficult. Obviously it was wet, so there was lots of spray, but I think I managed it quite well.”

With that final lap move, were you expecting to get ahead? Expecting that to come?
“Not really, I think Joe made a slight mistake and I just managed to capitalise from it. But Joe did a great job, and was just a little bit unfortunate.”

At that point the congratulations from everyone around him became too loud for Formula Scout to get another word in, but as the only written media in attendance there was another opportunity to hear from Jeff-Hall in the podium press conference.

“[Kristianstad] wasn’t the best weekend, but I think we learned everything we needed to be able to come here and do the best we could,” he said of how his OK kart debut set up his world championship success, hailing CRG’s preperatory work.

“The conditions were really tricky. It was very wet, so there was a lot of spray. I managed to get up behind Joe, but every time I sort of got close, the spray was really bad. So I ended up making a mistake and falling back again. So it was sort of always trying to play catch-up a little bit. And then on the last lap, Joe made a big enough mistake, so I could capitalise on it and take the lead.”

Brandon Nilsson, one of CRG’s team bosses, admitted “we took kind of a gamble” calling up Jeff-Hall to race its kart: “We flipped a coin in it. It went heads for us [in chosing Ethan].”

Jeff-Hall brought a different approach to the kart, and that became visible in the rain. There was naturally variation in racing lines in conditions where the karters had to look everywhere for grip, but that decreased over the course of the event as team’s leading drivers found the fastest way around and in races a drier line was naturally formed by trains of karts.

But Jeff-Hall really had a different approach to PFI compared to Turney, which the long-time leader did not get to see while he was ahead. Formula Scout asked if it was disadvantageous not being able to see the lines that drivers behind were taking, and to Jeff-Hall what was learned by spending many laps following – in his own way – the man they all wanted to beat.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a disadvantage at all. I think we knew what more or less the optimum wet line was from the testing that we’ve done,” replied Turney. “I think actually, to be second was harder with the spray that he had to go through all the race.

“You could see on the last lap as soon as he had got past, I mean, after three or four corners, he was gone. I mean I’m not sure if I’ll watch the race back, but if I do, then we’ll see and we’ll learn what line was better. But it was a close race, and it is what it is.”

Jeff-Hall added: “Obviously, like Joe said, tricky conditions. A lot of spray and it was just about managing the gap and trying to stay as close as possible to be there by the end. This spray was really, really bad, and I was going into turn one sometimes with little vision. But I think I did a good job to stay as close as I did. An amazing weekend and I can’t thank anybody enough.”