Catch him if you can

Karting is a key development step for world-class drivers, and Blenheim’s Taylor Costello wants to follow in their footsteps.

The seven-year-old, who has raced karts since he was allowed to at age six, recently won the Cadet class at the annual Orr/Barrett Memorial day/night race meet in Nelson representing Tasman Karts and Kartsport Marlborough – despite still having two full seasons remaining in as a Cadet.

Taylor came out on top after the series of four heats and the final, with three heats run during daylight hours then the fourth heat and final after dusk bringing a very different set of racing circumstances. Fellow Marlborough racers Kayla Flood came third in the VMR class and Anton Rasmussen finished second in the Briggs Heavy class.

“I really love karting because you go so fast, and doing the starts of races when everyone is really close is lots of fun – the first time I got in a kart I was spinning a lot but started to do better pretty quickly,” Taylor says.

“I really wanted to win in Nelson, the track was really fun to drive on, and I improved my times by a second over the day.”

Taylor, who also loves playing football and is learning to play the drums, is a big fan of Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen and was encouraged this year seeing Liam Lawson break through this year. If everything goes well however, Taylor wants to race V8 Supercars due to his love of Ford Mustang’s.

Taylor’s father Peter Costello says that the family is new to motorsport, so are learning together as they go.

“I got brought along originally by some mates two years ago, caught the motorsport bug and passed it on to the kids but Taylor has picked it up so fast that my driving has taken a back seat to help him out,” he says.

“He went to his first race meet after two months, and now we’re targeting how we can cut tenths of seconds off his time and work on his racing line – so we use a GoPro on his kart to see what he sees and where he can work on.

“Taylor prepared well for the Orr/Barrett Memorial, he went and raced fantastically and you could see how his reactions, timing and confidence grew throughout the day – especially under the lights in the night session.”

The next step for Taylor is travelling to compete in larger fields around the country with January racing in Auckland, as well as defending his home track at Nationals over Easter 2024 alongside the 2024 National Schools Championship in Nelson.

Kartsport Marlborough has a busy season ahead, hosting two major events on the New Zealand karting calendar - the 2023 Kartsport NZ National Briggs Endurance Championships in November where teams of three compete for four hours straight, and the 2024 Kartsport NZ Sprint Nationals over Easter 2024 that attract 150+ of New Zealand’s top drivers across all classes for the best kart racing in New Zealand.