3 minute read
The need for speed The need for speed
John Martin Henslee — at just 10 years old — becoming a superstar in world of gokart racing
THERE’S NO DENYING John Martin Henslee knows a thing or two about driving. He’s routinely doing laps at the nearest dirt track at speeds up to 60 miles an hour.
Advertisement
But there are a couple of interesting things about that. He’s doing those laps in a gokart — at 10 years of age.
Henslee, a fifth grader at Bankhead Middle School in Cordova, has become somewhat of a celebrity on the gokart racing circuit and races all across the Southeast.
And Henslee doesn’t just race on the circuit. He wins — a lot.
Henslee, who’s been racing since he was about 6 years old, has more than 75 wins on his resume.
“It’s been 75, easily,” said John Martin’s dad, Brandon. “Probably closer to 90.”
“It’s fun,” John Martin said in his softspoken voice. “It feels good to win. It’s an exciting feeling.”
In most races, John Martin is competing with up to 40 other racers from across the southeast. They compete on dirt tracks that are a fifth of a mile in length. Some races are on eighthmile tracks.
He mostly competes in his age bracket but has moved up and competed against older drivers. Most races are anywhere from 15 to 20 laps.
Later this year, he’ll compete in a race that’s 75 laps.
During races, there are no pit stops, and drivers have no way to communicate with their crews during a race.
“No radios, no earpieces, nothing,” Brandon Henslee said.
That makes what John Martin has accomplished in his career even more impressive.
“When you’re racing like that, you have no idea how close your competitors are,” John Martin’s mom, Lora, said. “Of course, the more experience you have the more you’re able to sense how close they are.”
“It comes with experience,” John Martin said.
There are concerns from both Brandon and Lora about their son’s safety during a race.
“Definitely,” Lora said.
There are no seat belts in the gokarts used in the races, but there’s a reason for that.
“They’re designed without seat belts because if they do flip or get in a bad wreck, it will throw them from the kart,” Lora said. “They’re more likely to not be injured by being thrown from the kart than being stuck in it.”
John Martin has been involved in a few crashes in his time as a racer. The most serious of those came in North Carolina recently when John Martin’s kart was spun out and became sideways on the track and was Tboned by another kart.
He suffered a broken arm and had to be taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital. Surgery followed to take care of the injury.
Lora was not there, but instead was watching a live stream of the race and saw the crash.
“She saw the accident, and, of course, was losing her mind,” Brandon said.
“That was terrifying,” she said. “John Martin is tough, and it didn’t phase him as much as it did me.”
Thankfully, he quickly recovered and resumed racing.
John Martin is planning to continue racing for as long as he can.
And why not? He can make money by winning.
Most races for John Martin’s age classification pay less than $500 for a win. The older the racers are, the more they can make when they win a race.
John Martin has won a significant amount of money, but his dad said most all that goes right back into the sport. “It’s not cheap doing this,” he said. “You never really make a profit.”
A typical gokart designed for racing can run upwards of $7,000. A set of four tires is about $365, and each car requires lots of tires.
“These races are super competitive,” Brandon said. “And it takes a lot to be competitive.”
“I do some work,” he said. “I put the lugs on, the axles on, the chains, the gears. Not a lot.”
“He’s selling himself a little short,” Brandon said. “He does a lot more than he says. Honestly, he does most of the maintenance. He can handle it all.”
“He does most of the work himself,” Lora added.
John Martin said his friends at school think what he does “is pretty cool.” A lot of his friends have gone to races to watch him compete.
‘They’re amazed, they’re shocked,” Lora said.
Regardless of whether he’s winning or not, both Brandon and Lora say they couldn’t be more proud of what John Martin has accomplished.
“We are so proud of him,” Lora said. “He just has it in himself to be a winner. He has that competitiveness, and I think that’s why I’m so proud of him.”
“He’s just a little kid from Cordova,” Brandon said, tearing up as he speaks. “I’m super proud of him.”
Here’s just a small sampling of John Martin’s wins:
• Blues City Nationals in Mississippi in 2019
• Memorial Day Shootout in Tennessee in 2022
• Burris Nationals in Kentucky in 2020
• 2X winner at the O’Reilly Auto Parts National Indoor Championship in Batesville, Mississippi, in 2020
• 3X winner of the Maximillion Gold Bar Championship in Alabama
• Chili Bowl in North Carolina in 2022
• Big 3 Series Championship in South Carolina in 2022
• Peach State Championship in Georgia in 2022
• Rumble in Paradise in South Carolina in 2022
• Talladega Frostbuster in Alabama in 2023
• Triple Crown Championship in 2023
And, by the way, John Martin was recently inducted into the Go Kart Hall of Fame at just 10 years of age.
