Lily Sugden from Mudgee is not old enough to legally drive a car on the road, but she knows her way around a go-kart track.
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13-year-old Lily is a rising star in the karting world. To date, Lily has earned a spot in the top five of almost every race meeting she's competed in after beginning her racing career in 2021.
"I enjoy karting because of the challenges and emotions you face in racing. I also love the social side of racing, and the great mates you make along the way," Lily told the Mudgee Guardian.
Lily races a Kart Republic go kart with a 100cc two-stroke engine, which revs to 15,000rpm. "The fastest I have gone in my kart so far is 112 kmh," she said.
Racing runs in the family. Her grandfather Peter Sugden raced in the 80s and her father Daniel Sugden raced in the same vehicle in the 90s, a custom-made EH Holden that Daniel hopes one day Lily can race in too.
Borne out of COVID restrictions, Daniel said racing was one of the few allowed activities that could get them out of the house. "[It was] one of those typical COVID type times... One of the things you were allowed to do was go to the go-kart track and practice," Lily's father Daniel Sugden said of her early career.
"So we bought a go-kart and started off just practicing over at Dubbo and then got in a bit of racing and we started going to Lithgow, then Orange then Newcastle, Lismore and now Melbourne next week."
Local readers might have asked themselves where the go-kart track is in Mudgee, but there isn't one. All of Lily's practice and racing has taken place outside of her hometown of Mudgee. Soon the team will travel to Melbourne for three days of racing before heading right back home in time for school. The time and financial cost is not lost on Daniel.
"We travel virtually all across New South Wales. We've been to Albury this year already," Daniel said. "I think we do about 20,000 kilometres a year."
"Sometimes we'll go to Dubbo for a day and just do probably 200 laps. Just to get her [Lily] ready and me ready and just make sure everything's good.
"So it's a fair commitment. Like anything at a higher level, you just got to just throw everything you can at it, you know?"
Lily and her crew are associated with Tom Williamson Motorsport who runs the Australia Karting Championship. "Tom himself started helping with driver coaching and helping me because I didn't understand go-karts or didn't understand much about karts back then... he's just helped enormously," Daniel said.
This pairing has allowed Lily and her crew to take karting beyond a simple hobby and into a potential career for the diminutive female racer.
"Karting is a very male-dominated sport, but I enjoy competing against everyone on an even playing field," Lily said.
This year Lily is competing in more state and national level events to improve her driving skills and racecraft, in preparation for competing in the Australian Karting Championships in 2025.
"My dad and I prepare the karts ourselves at home and travel to these events most weekends. I am thankful to have local companies: Mudgee Travel And Cruise, Stripes Industrial, and Formula Trailers supporting me this year, along with my ongoing sponsors for the 2024 season."
Lily, who has to add weight to her kart just to make the minimum weight has weathered the ups and downs of karting with aplomb. An accident in 2023 where Lily rolled her kart going nearly 80 kilometres an hour didn't stop her - though according to dad it took six months for Lily to regain her confidence. Daniel said he hopes Lily can continue rising through the ranks.
"Realistically, we'd like to race karts at the highest level in Australia," Daniel said.
"From there, you kind of decide whether you go the European path or come back to Australia with the experience but we don't intend on moving to Europe and racing but if a one-off event came or something like that, we'd put a hand up."
