About BUKC

The British Universities Karting Championship (BUKC) is organised exclusively by Club100 Racing Ltd.

The British Universities Karting Championship is a motor racing championship for currently enrolled students in higher education establishments in the United Kingdom.

The BUKC uses a unique format that uses teams of 4 drivers, and takes place over a number of rounds during the academic year at many top class karting venues throughout the UK. The championship is open to teams from any UK institution of higher education. Each university may be represented by more than one team of four drivers.

The BUKC was founded in 2001 by Imperial College London students Will Tew and Tom Batho. Back then Imperial owned a fleet of 2-stroke TKMs and Rotax Max karts which they would take out for fun on weekends to circuits such as Tilbury, Rye House, Clay Pigeon, Whilton Mill and Lydd Raceway.

Will and Tom were obsessed by these immensely powerful karts and even though the Inter University Karting Championship (IUKC), as it was known back then, was run on lesser powered 4-strokes, Will & Tom thought it would amazing if they could race 2-strokes for their university. Alas, no one at Imperial wanted to race in the IUKC because it was all 4-stroke kart based (thunderkarts, pro-karts and indoor hire karts).

The IUKC was to be organised in 2002 by Nottingham University once again on 4-strokes.

However, Will had just found Club100 – a company that supplies a fleet of 2-stroke TKM-engined karts – having started to race in their national sprint championship. Will immediately got in touch with John Vigor from Club100 with a view to setting up a university karting championship on Club100’s 2-stroke TKM-engined karts.

The IUKC 2002 became the first ever university karting championship to be run on 2-stroke machinery and was contested by 32 teams, over 4 rounds. It was won by Loughborough University.

For the 2003 season, a 5th round and a new format was introduced, and the championship was renamed the British Universities Karting Championship (BUKC).

Since then the BUKC has grown to over 120 teams from 55+ higher education establishments across the United Kingdom and attracts some of the very best in UK Motorsport talent. Many BUKC graduates have gone on to fantastic jobs in Formula 1, financial services and engineering.

It is our mission to see that the BUKC is contested by every higher education establishment in the United Kingdom. Motor racing is one of the most exciting sports in the world. It is that excitement and fun that we want to make accessible to everyone.