I’ve been racing for over 17 years, everything from Club100 and owner karting (Rotax & TKM) to racing with MS Kart in BPEC and the British Indoor Karting Championship (BIKC), where I won the national title in 2022. I’ve raced all kinds of machinery, on all kinds of tracks, against some incredible competition. But one thing’s become clear, the level of talent in rental karting is unbelievable, and yet it still doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.
That’s what planted the seed for Valor Racing.
I’d been talking for a while with Brad Philpot, someone I’ve known and respected for years, both as a racer and as a great friend. In 2025, he had other racing commitments on the go, and I hadn’t been racing as much myself, just the odd event here and there the last few years, but the drive to get back into it properly was strong. I wanted to take rental karting seriously, and actually put full focus on it, and more importantly, I wanted to do it alongside people I enjoyed spending time with, could learn from.
The turning point came on Sunday 6th July 2025, during the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone. Brad and I were at a local car enthusiast café near to Silverstone called Caffeine & Machine, the kind of place that buzzes with engines, conversation, and that unmistakable race-day energy. We started talking again about building a proper team, not a casual group of drivers, but something structured, with purpose and identity.
Over coffee, watching the F1, we decided, let’s actually do this.
Ramón Piñeiro was part of the conversation too, sending thoughts and ideas over WhatsApp. Straight away it clicked. Between us, we’d all been around racing long enough to know what works and what doesn’t, and this just felt right. The timing, the people, it was all coming together.
That morning was the start of Valor Racing. A clear passion project that allows us to focus on fun meaningful racing.
Rental karting has been around a long time. The Indoor Kart World Championship (IKWC) first ran in 2005, and since then, there have been established international teams competing at a high level for well over a decade. This is far from a new sport it’s just finally starting to get the attention it deserves.
Brad has been a big part of that story. Back in 2011, he founded the British Rental Kart Championship (BRKC), one of the first organised, professional-level rental karting championships in the UK. It brought structure, consistency, and serious competition long before most people realised how high the standard could be.
Since then, the UK scene has grown massively. The British Indoor Karting Championship (BIKC), spearheaded by TeamSport in conjunction with Motorsport UK, has given thousands of drivers a proper national platform to compete on. With TeamSport circuits now across most of the country, drivers can race regularly, improve their craft, and build the experience that leads to genuine development.
But compared to Europe, the UK is still catching up. Overseas, there are long-established, well-drilled rental karting teams that have been refining their craft for years. Here, that kind of team structure is still new, but that’s what makes it exciting.
That’s what Valor is about. We champion the sport here in the UK and want to bring that same level of professionalism, preparation, and teamwork that’s already well-established abroad. Our goal is to help drivers compete on equal footing with the best in the world, and to prove that the UK can stand alongside the top rental karting nations.
It’s a team built on shared experience and a genuine love of the sport.
Between us, we’ve got a huge mix of backgrounds, from grassroots karting to high-level car racing, but all with the same mindset: race hard, keep learning and enjoy your racing.
Brad’s experience as a former Peugeot factory driver, Nürburgring specialist, and race and championship winner in VLN, alongside Ramón Piñeiro’s background as a Formula 2 race winner and driver mentor through RP Driver Management, brings a depth of knowledge and professionalism that runs right through the team. Both have spent years helping other drivers grow and compete, and that’s exactly the kind of spirit we want Valor to represent.
For us, rental karting isn’t a stepping stone to something bigger. It is the sport.
We love going fast, who doesn’t? But beating your competition in some of the fairest and most equal machinery motorsport has to offer, on tight, technical circuits where you can’t afford a single mistake, that’s something else. We’ve all raced fast karts and cars even up to GP2 level. but rental karting’s mix of pure competition, close racing, and incredibly high-level driving for its cost is completely unrivalled. That’s what keeps us hooked.
Valor Racing exists to push that message forward to develop talent, help the UK reach the global standard, and showcase rental karting as a serious sport in its own right. Because the best drivers in the world aren’t always in the most expensive machinery.
They’re often right here, in rental karts, pushing to the limit, racing for the love of it.
