Formula Kart Stars was a British-based karting championship, which was supported by Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Management Ltd, 2008 Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton and Lewis’ father Anthony Hamilton.
The championship ceased operation in May 2016 shortly after the first round of the 2016 season.
Champions of the future
In 1995 McLaren Formula One team boss Ron Dennis, Mercedes Motorsport chief Norbert Haug and Zip Kart owner Martin Hines formed the McLaren Mercedes Champions of the Future Series with the aim of bringing karting to a wider audience and providing young British talent with a clear path towards the upper echelons of motorsport and in particular, Formula One.
Early days
In the series’ first season noted touring car specialists BHP produced the television coverage, which was screened on ITV in many of their UK regions with disc jockey and motorsport fan David ‘Kid’ Jensen presenting the programmes. The Championship ran classes for Cadet Comer, Junior Yamaha and Formula Intercontinental A. Champions in the inaugural season were Lewis Hamilton (Cadet), Andrew Delahunty (Yamaha) and Gary Paffett (Intercontinental).
With the class champions getting an invite to the prestigious Autosport Awards Show in London at the end of the year, a young Hamilton took the opportunity to introduce himself to McLaren boss Dennis, a meeting that was the catalyst for McLaren's subsequent signing of Hamilton in 1998 and their continuing relationship thereafter.
Thanks to the involvement of Dennis, Haug and Hines and the terrestrial television coverage the championship was able to attract sponsorship from Highland Spring, TAG Heuer and Mobil 1.
Buoyed by the success of the first season 1997 saw Champions of the Future visit Buckmore Park in Kent, Larkhall in Scotland, Nutts Corner in Northern Ireland, PF International in Lincolnshire and Warden Law in Sunderland. The Royal Automobile Club (RAC), then the governing body in British Karting, also awarded CoF the RAC British Cadet Championship title, a title it retains to the present day.
The links with Formula 1 remained with McLaren Mercedes sponsoring the Formula Yamaha class while computer games company Psygnosis and Mobil 1 sponsored the Cadet and Formula Intercontinental classes respectively.
After finishing third in the inaugural season, Scotsman Paul di Resta became the 1997 RAC British Cadet Champion, beating a field that included James Sutton, Martin Plowman, Oliver Oakes, Craig Dolby, Paul Fowles and Scott Mansell.
Delahunty returned to try to defend his Yamaha title but failed to crack the top ten as Hamilton claimed his second Champions of the Future crown in two years. Hamilton's class rivals included Christian Bakkerud, Joey Foster, Alex Lloyd, Nathan Freke, Ben Hanley and Susie Stoddart.
Stefan Hodgetts, son of former British Touring Car Champion Chris Hodgetts, won the Formula Intercontinental title, narrowly beating Jamie Green and Oliver Jarvis with Luke Hines, Tom Ferrier, Mike Conway, Adam Carroll and Ryan Dalziel all in the top ten in the final standings.
In 1998 Martyn Burridge joined the series as Championship Director with Pat Connolly acting as Championship co-ordinator. ITV continued to broadcast the races, which were now generating several million viewers with ‘Kid’ Jensen still presenting and the always excitable Keith Heuwen on commentary duties.
The coverage was also picked up internationally by NBC's Superchannel and Fox TV while British newspaper The Sun also covered the championship. All the 1997 circuits remained with Rowrah in Cumbria and Rye House in Hoddesdon being added to the calendar.
The RAC Cadet Championship was disputed by the likes of Oakes, Plowman, Dolby, Bradley Ellis, Will Bratt and Oliver Turvey but was won by Adam King. Di Resta moved up from Cadet to Junior Yamaha and came 3rd overall in the championship with Chaz Small 2nd. Despite stiff competition from Rodolfo González, Joey Foster, Alex Mortimer and Sam Bird, Adrian Estasy won the championship, leading the points throughout the whole series.
Formula Intercontinental had by now been re-christened as Junior Intercontinental A (JICA) and counted Hamilton, Bakkerud and Lloyd amongst its number. Fraser Sheader won the title.