In the first of a new series, the Karting Kid takes a look into his crystal ball and tries his hand at predicting the future. Will karting still be as popular in years to come?

Karting has long been known amongst Karters to breed Formula 1 drivers, with the legendary greats like Nigel Mansell, former Junior National and 210 driver, Alain Prost, ex Junior World Kart Champion, Ayrton Senna, never a major Champion and a whole host of other greats like Keke Rosberg all coming through their own National Karting scene. Conversations in bars around the World have always had the theme of, "of course he started in Karting!"

The media and the general public have taken considerably longer to wise up to this fact, that most F1 drivers are ex Karters, most of whom were only adequate in Karting, but who's families shared the same aspiration that they should reach the heady heights of F1. Love him or hate him, the one media representative that has always recognized the breeding ground of Karting, is Murray Walker, who for many years has cross referenced a drivers earlier career to Karting and almost single handedly promoted Karting as the way to start.

The start of indoor and commercial Karting pioneered by Martin Howell and Bob Pope (now of Race Pro) of Playscape, who set up operation running around several abandoned bus garages around South London began to bring a public awareness to the sport, the success of these two likely lads has been emulated by many since, so that there are very few members of the public now, that don't realize either that Karting exists without having to call it Go-Karting. The media became extremely aware of the famous people having a go, with involvement from stars such as Danni Bear, Rick Paffitt (Status Quo), Bobby G (Bucks Fizz) and a whole host of others, culminating in the ultimate clients in the form of the 2 Royal Princess, William and Harry, alongside their late mother Princess Diana visiting Buckmore Park and Playscape's indoor circuits, once again all arranged by Martin Howells and Bill Sisley. Martin surpassed himself once again later by introducing Ron Dennis to Martin Hines, allowing for the MacLaren link to the then controversial re-introduction, by the RAC of the Cadet British Championships, which had been shelved several years earlier for the reasons of cost and the creation of too much pressure on young children, but the tie in to a F1 team and the right financial incentive being too much to resist, even for the fairly conservative RAC!

So how long will this fascination in paying your £30ish pounds and have a go around a bus garage upwards last and with nearly as many commercial operations popping up as double glazing companies, will we reach saturation point and will it all end in tears? The rumored multi-million pound sale of Daytona to Brands Hatch Leisure, would indicate that we're only just beginning the climb to the summit and have not actually peaked, but have the hobbyists moved on, like the Royal Princess and are they all trying hang gliding or bungy jumping instead or are they all going to come back out of the woodwork and try the newer generation of faster pay as you go Kart, started by Playscape's Club 100 and have a go on a TKM, Rotax Max, Eco Motor or any derivative of the big generator engines or have we lost these people for good?

The climb to the summit should be kept alive with the likes of Johny Herberts, David Coulthard and Dario Franchitti still being very high profile, with a whole host of ex Karting stars and more than ever before, ascending through the lower formulae, the future should be bright and Karting will still be remembered for some time to come, or will it???