The BUKC and 3T Racing Ltd
The British Universities Karting Championship (BUKC) is organised by 3T Racing Ltd in association with Club100 Racing Ltd.
3T Racing Ltd is a small privately owned company run by Will Tew.
Will's Karting History
Will Tew started karting in 2000 aged 19 whilst at Imperial College, London.
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 was 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 was desperate to race for his 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 2002
The IUKC was to be organised in 2002 by Nottingham university once again on 4-strokes.
However Will had just found Club 100 - a company that supplies a fleet of 2-stroke TKM-engined karts - and started racing in their national sprint championships. 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.
Will teamed up with Tom Batho, also from Imperial College's Karting Society, to successfully launch the 2-stroke, Club100, version of the IUKC for 2002.
The 4-stroke based IUKC was dropped by Nottingham as everyone jumped on board the new championship run by Will, Tom and Club100 through Imperial College Union.
The IUKC 2002 became the first ever uni karting championship to be run on 2-stroke machinery and was contested by 32 teams, over 4 rounds. It was won by Loughborough A.
The BUKC 2003
For the 2003 championship, Will and Tom introduced a 5th round and a new format and renamed the championship to the British Universities Karting Championship (BUKC).
Most importantly they realised that the best thing for the championship was not for it to passed on to different universities each year, but to keep consistency in the management of the championships and the relationship with Club100 strong.
The Birth of 3T Racing Ltd
For this reason Will and Tom setup 3T Racing Ltd in November 2003 to continue organising the BUKC and to implement other ideas such as the British Schools Karting Championship (BSKC).
After graduation, Will worked for the Swiss investment bank UBS in their IT department. Along with being responsible for the development and managent of a billion-dollar-a-week trading platform, Will continued to run the BUKC successfully in his spare time.
Since then the BUKC has grown to 62 teams from 38 universities and attracts some of the very best in UK Karting talent. Many BUKC graduates have gone on to fantastic jobs in Formula 1, financial services and engineering.
The relationship with Club100 is as strong as ever and is indicated strongly by the fact that the price per round is only 4% higher than it was in 2003 more than 8 years later.
3T Racing Ltd in the future
In mid 2006 Will took a little leap of faith by resigning from UBS to concentrate fully on his plans for the BUKC and BSKC.
It is now Will's mission now to see that karting is considered a national sport within all secondary schools across the country through the BSKC and to see that BUKC is contested by every university too.
Motor racing is one of the most exciting sports in the world. It is that excitement and fun that Will wishes to make accessible to everyone.
