At the age of 8, Jack Ensell of Wilton climbed into a go-kart and drove it for the first time.
Last spring, at age 11, he became the New Hampshire Karting Association champion.
“I love the adrenaline and I love the joy of racing,” Ensell said. “For me the best part is really going fast, and also spending time with my friends and my teammates.”
Also this year, Ensell earned third place in the Eastern Division of the Cup Cart of North America series and third in the K1 Speed Junior League Massachusetts State Championship.
Ensell, who is a straight-A student at Wilton-Lyndeborough Middle School, had tried several other sports, including soccer and basketball. While he enjoyed the experience, none of them became a passion. Jack’s dad, Jason Ensell, who loves to drive and has done some amateur racing, decided to take Jack to a go-kart track in Massachusetts, where he said Jack’s natural talent for driving took the family by surprise.
“The first time Jack got in a go-kart, he just kept going and he wouldn’t stop. He went around and around and around the track until his head was wobbling from side to side, and we had to make him stop,” Jason Ensell recalled. “It was like, whoa– this could be a thing for him.”
Jason says the passion and natural skill for driving are “all Jack’s.”
“We adopted Jack at birth, and with adoption, it’s funny–you don’t know what their passions will be, you don’t how it will shake out with nurture versus nature. It’s been so interesting to think about as Jack gets older what passions he might have picked up from us, and which ones are just who he is, but he is just a natural racer,” Jason Ensell said.
In his first season of racing, at the age of 9, Jack came in second place at the K1 Speed Junior Monthly League in Boston.
“The 2023 season was mostly trying to get Jack to slow down. He went straight off the end of the track at one race. He always went as fast as he could go. We really had to reign it in the first year,” Jason Ensell said. “If you ‘go out of your seat’, they pull you for safety. That happened a few times. That year was all about learning the limits.”
In his first season, Jack earned a spot on a competitive team, and in spring 2024, the family flew to Los Angeles so Jack could compete in his first race. He came in fifth out of about 20 drivers.
“He really did great, considering he was sick the whole time, because he got COVID somewhere on the trip out there, but that was not going to stop him,” Jason said.
In 2024, the Ensells began to focus on the NH Karting Association Cup Kart series, which Jason Ensell says are like “a mini Formula 1.” Jack took fifth place for the NH Cup Kart season, came in second at the K1 Speed Junior League Massachusetts State Championship in Boston, and came in 12th at the K1 Speed Junior League North American Championship in Ontario.
“Jack loves being on that curvy track,” Jason Ensell said. “He is really proud of what he’s accomplished, and he should be really proud, because he worked really hard for it.”
Along with the joy of winning, Jack Ensell says he loves the camaraderie of his team.
“I really love being with my friends on my team,” he said. “We all compete on the track but we are all friends and it is really fun.”
Jason Ensell said he and Jack’s mom, Christina, were immediately impressed by the family atmosphere at kart races.
“It was pretty confusing at first, but then we saw all the other families there, and people were positive, so supportive, so friendly–no one was yelling or getting mad, which we’ve seen at some other sports, ” Jason said. “We were just taken with it pretty quickly; it’s a great family atmosphere.”
Jason Ensell said his 11-year-old son can already out-race him.
“Jack is a really a natural. He has serious talent. He just smokes me,” Ensell said. “He is racing with a really great groups of kids. They are so competitive, but they’re all friends. They are actually working with the rules to slow them down. They have never seen a group of kids this fast.”
The elder Ensell says working on the karts and the racing is a bonding experience for father and son.
“We spend a lot of time out in the garage. Jack talks to me a lot about how he feels about being out there on the track. He talks to me a lot about his style. I tinker a bit with the go-kart, and it’s time I really love spending with him,” Jason Ensell said.
Jack enjoys documenting his racing on social media, and he has a following of several thousand people. Despite that, and despite the fact that Jack has a” very outgoing” personality, Jason Ensell says most of Jack’s classmates and school friends have no idea he is a racing champion.
“When people find out, everyone is so, so proud. His teachers, his principal, they are all so excited for Jack,” Jason Ensell said.
Ensell says the family may be looking at youth car racing for Jack’s next step.
“New Hampshire has a race series, the Granite State Legends, which has smaller scale cars, built at 3/4 or half size for young racers, which starts at age 12. It’s a whole process to qualify for that, which we are just starting to look at,” Jason Ensell said. “We’re just so thrilled that Jack has such a passion for it and that we can help make this happen. It’s a pretty cool thing and we could not be prouder.”