Motorsport remains at the forefront of sporting activities on offer to serving personnel.

Most services have access to some spare tarmac or concrete so karting at base or station level has long been a favoured recreation for military personnel, being relatively inexpensive to acquire and set up as well as cheap to run. Events were often organised at these stations, even abroad at deployments in Cyprus and Germany.

In 2005, the RAF took the leap to travelling around the country with a five-round series, called the RAFMSA Championship, with 12 regular competitors and as many as twenty-four at some events. At the end of that year the original organiser was posted abroad and a short-term volunteer was sought while RAFMSA organised a new championship coordinator. He’s still in post which just goes to prove you should never volunteer for anything in the Services.

The championship increased to seven rounds in 2006 and 6 rounds were organised in 2008, with an endurance category added to the sprinters, enabling RAF stations to enter teams and get serving personnel out racing at a grass-roots level and keeping personal costs low.

The RAFMSA Endurance Championship launched in 2009, opening to other services in 2010 with karting recognised as an official Army sport. Arborfield Garrison joined as the first official Army entry and the year saw the introduction of the Station/Unit Trophy.

In 2011 this was increased to also include an Inter-Service Championship, with around 30 regular entries and eight station/units now competing. In the following years numbers steadily increased, and it became clear that the endurance category was taking over from the sprints as the mainstay of the Championship. In 2015 a Station/Unit Plate (for larger clubs with more than two teams) was added and by 2016 numbers had grown to the extent that they were hitting constraints with the maximum grid sizes.

By 2017, there were too many teams for a single grid, so it was obvious something would have to change. Joining in with club events was no longer an option. For 2018 RAFMSA appointed a full-time competition secretary and the idea of running an endurance championship looked to becoming a reality. Another event, the Centenary Cup, to celebrate 100 years of the RAF, was added to the calendar. For 2019 a heavyweight category was added but was called the ‘Super Category’ based on the callsign of a heavy aircraft.

The Armed Forces Karting Championship was born in 2020 and 2024 had 70 teams entered and 18 Stations/Units, with 81 teams set to compete in 2025. Karting is now the largest single entity in military motorsport.

It’s a full-on day, with three endurance races interspersed with three heats and a final sprint race in between. What has never changed is the spirit of comradeship and fun as these competitors enjoy grass-roots karting as it should be. Camping, catering and karting, a fine combination, and long may it continue.