I Wanna Drive – The Making of a Motorsport Star
Earlier this week, we caught up with seven-year-old Adaline Tadd-Millard, one of the most enthusiastic young drivers to join our progression programme this season. In less than five months, she has advanced from her first Bambino practice to Cadet tuition, completing more than 25 sessions and recording consistent sub-60-second laps along the way. It is with great pleasure that we announce Adaline as our Driver of the Month for July 2026, the youngest racer to ever receive this accolade.
Adaline’s karting story began in March 2026, her seventh birthday. There was no carefully mapped route into motorsport or long-standing family racing plan behind it. Her mum simply asked whether she would like to go karting, and with Daytona only five minutes down the road, they decided to give it a try.
The first session was not without incident. Adaline remembers spinning a few times and feeling worried as she became accustomed to the kart, a universal experience between all drivers taking their first steps into the world of motorsport. But the most telling part of the day came once the session had finished. The nerves had already given way to excitement and she left wanting to know when she could come back.
She has returned with remarkable consistency ever since. Beginning in Bambino practice sessions, Adaline gradually moved into Bambino open sessions, where the busier and more competitive environment gave her an opportunity to develop her awareness and race craft. Tuition then added greater structure to that enthusiasm. She has now completed five tuition sessions and currently trains weekly. That willingness to learn soon earned her an early assessment to drive Cadet machinery. The step from Bambino to Cadet is a significant one for any young driver. The kart is larger, heavier and more physical to steer, while the full circuit brings a new set of racing lines to learn. Adaline is candid about the challenge: the kart takes more effort to handle because, as she puts it, she is ‘only little’.
Her response has been to work at it. During her first Cadet tuition session, Adaline set a fastest lap of 76.9 seconds. By the second, she had improved by 11 seconds, a remarkable improvement in a sport where we regularly see races won or lost by tenths of seconds. Her current best stands at 59.3 seconds, and she is now regularly circulating in under a minute. For a driver who only sat in a kart for the first time in March, the rate of improvement is striking.
The explanation, according to Adaline, is straightforward: good instructors and a willingness to listen. Learning the racing line has been central to finding her speed, while being allowed to practise overtaking her tutors has helped her begin translating technique into race craft. It seems she does not simply enjoy driving quickly; she is beginning to understand the work that makes quick driving possible.
That same quality has stood out to her tutor, Cameron McDonald:
“’Adaline is an absolute joy to teach. She always wants to go fast and brings such a positive attitude to every session, with a smile on her face from start to finish. She takes on new information extremely well for her age and is very receptive to feedback and instruction. It’s fantastic to see how quickly she puts what she’s taught into practice on track.”
For all the progress measured by the stopwatch, Adaline’s attitude is just as important. She describes Daytona as a place where everyone is kind and makes her feel welcome. In return, she arrives with the positivity, curiosity and enthusiasm that make her a pleasure to have at the circuit. At this stage of a young driver’s journey, those qualities provide a stronger foundation than any single lap time.
Away from the circuit, that curiosity takes a different form. Known as Addy at home, she is constantly crafting and engineering new creations. Her mum often finds her searching through the recycling for materials, turning discarded objects into whatever idea has captured her imagination. One recent invention was a homemade back scratcher of which she was particularly proud. In her mum’s words, she is “a little mad scientist at heart”.
There will be much more to learn before results and podiums enter the story. Adaline has not yet begun racing in a championship and with a year ahead before she is old enough to compete at this level, we expect so see her attitude to training pay dividends towards her race craft. What she has already demonstrated is the commitment and mindset required to take that next step. Once she turns eight, she hopes to move into the InKart or JCS championships, where she will have her first opportunity to put her developing race craft into genuine title racing in a Motorsport UK licenced championship format. Her current lap times would place her right in the pack for the Cadet class of both championships, but don’t forget, this journey begun only five months ago. With a further seven months of hard work ahead, we anticipate the 2027 paddock may see a new contender.
She is already looking forward to it. “I can’t wait to turn eight so I can try my best, overtake people and get on that podium”, she says. Her ambition extends considerably further too: “My goal for karting is to get into Formula 1 as a girl.” It is a huge dream as far as motorsport journey is concerned, but at seven years old there is no reason for the destination to be modest.
For now, the next step is another tuition session, another opportunity to learn the circuit and another chance to bring her lap time down. Driver of the Month recognises what Adaline has achieved so far, but more importantly, the way she has gone about achieving it: turning up, listening closely, putting advice into practice and enjoying every moment behind the wheel.
Adaline’s competitive story has barely begun. The trophies, races and results remain ahead of her. But from those first nervous spins in a Bambino kart to consistent sub-60-second laps in Cadet machinery, she has already shown just how much can change when enthusiasm is matched by effort. Her earliest explanation of what brought her to the circuit was only three words: “I wanna drive.” Since March, she has done everything she can to make every drive count.
