Driven to Compete: Junior Wesley Doyle practices go-karting weekly to prepare for competitions

After saving up his wages from two years at Meat Mitch’s Barbeque and a summer of mowing neighborhood lawns, junior Wesley Doyle spent almost all his savings last summer on two big purchases. His first splurge was a $1,500 used Honda Accord Hybrid, 150k miles already on the odometer. And the second?

A $4,200 LO206 engine go-kart. 

Wesley and his uncle Matt Jahnke have spent every weekend of the past two months driving 70 miles out to Garnett Sprint Track to practice Wesley’s racing, with hopes for him to start competing next year in the KC Karting Association League.

“My goal is to win a championship,” Wesley said. “But in racing in general, I just want to keep moving up. I’m hoping I can go Formula 4 at some point in like, 10 years.”

Wesley didn’t grow up a “racing kid.” Sure, he played Forza when he was little, but he didn’t geek out over cars or watch F1 races — his parents were never really interested in that. It wasn’t until two years ago when he borrowed his aunt’s simulation racing set-up that he dove into the racing world, full throttle.

“I just completely forgot about sim racing,” Wesley said. “And then I really got into cars, and I borrowed the sim racing set-up from my aunt and realized just how in-depth and complicated racing was. It just took off from there.”

It was also two years ago when he started watching F1 with his uncle, Matt. Matt and his friends had a Sunday ritual — going over to his house at 8 a.m. to watch F1 and eat breakfast. When Wesley started coming over, he’d listen to Matt and his adult friends talk about “taxes and stuff,”  while they’d listen to Wesley “always talking about building his own go-kart.”

So Matt and Wesley went out to a race last June to learn more about karting and talk to some fans — and learned all about buying and maintaining a kart and entering in competitions.

“After that, we were like ‘Yeah, this is actually something you could do,’” Matt said. “Once he found out it was feasible, there was no stopping the kid. It may have actually been kind of an annoying week for me, because he was constantly talking about go-karts.”

Wesley made $6,000 over the summer mowing lawns, pulling weeds and babysitting for over 70 families to raise the funds for the $4,200 pre-built go-kart — plus extra for a helmet, a rib protector and high abrasion and impact resistant clothes.  

When they get out to Garnett, Wesley will drive around the track while Matt monitors the lap analytics from the kart sensors. Every 60 laps they’ll check all the tires and reloop the chain. 

“It’s really physical,” Wesley said. “I mean, you wouldn’t think that it is, but going through the corners, it can be 2 to 3gs every corner. It’s like doing sit ups with 100 pounds on your chest.”

Over two months of practicing, Wesley’s been able to cut his lap time at Garnett from 34 seconds down to 27.95 seconds, which is right up to competition level.

“We’ve talked with some guys that were like ‘Yeah, he’s with those times. He’s ready to race, if he wants to be in the next race he can,’” Matt said. “But I think it’s good to get a lot of time in before you enter a race.”

Countless afternoons spent decaling the kart at Matt’s place and months of five-hour weekend practices out in Garnett having the “weirdest conversations on the drive” have taught Matt and Wesley a lot about each other — Wesley about Matt’s job as a computer engineer and Matt about Wesley’s daily ins-and-outs as a high schooler.

“I don’t have any kids but I have a lot of nieces and nephews, and I try to be pretty active with them, but a lot of times it’s me pushing them to do something,” Matt said. “[Wesley’s] just got a drive for this. He’s calling me all the time. On the way back, he’s asking ‘When are we karting next?’”

Wesley’s hoping to get ready for the KC Karting Association racing season next April — a 15-race season where individuals compete locally. 

Now in his junior year, Wesley knows that when he goes to college, it’s not going to be easy to stick with racing, but he has no intention of selling the kart. 

“We’ve talking about buying this very expensive kart, like ‘What do I do in two years when I go to college?’” Matt said. “And I basically told him, ‘Yeah, we’ll keep racing. If you want to keep racing in college, it’s an hour away. You can drive back in the summer.’”

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Driven to Compete