Takuma Sato is keeping his racing spirit sharp and treating fans to a special event on a London pro kart track.

Choosing 230cc 70mph karts he challenged media and fans to a 40-minute fun GP. Fans from all over Europe were invited to apply for a chance to race their hero - the Japanese media, and close friends were challenged.

Takuma might be away from an F1 seat at the moment, but none of his racing edge has been lost. The race saw all levels of competence, ex-karters, ex-racers, and many enthusiastic amateurs. "No mercy" was the war cry from the fans everyone wanting to be able to brag that they overtook the F1 star and F3 Champion.

You don't need to be Murray Walker to guess the result (but in case Teddy K is reading this, Taku won). Lots of mobile blockades (fans) didn't seem to slow him down, neither did the bribe to the guy allotting the karts ...

They say karting has F1 similarities, Taku used them to treat us to a fun race. He obviously kept letting us catch up, so we could try racing him, but talent will out and he made it look so simple.

The fans and the media all share Sato's urge to win, but don't have the same talent. The sooner he gets a drive in F1, the sooner we can all get back to watching this exciting and gifted driver on the big track against real competition.

Credit:Mark Talbot