Rugby School Student Tyla Celebrates Championship Karting Success

Tyla is a current student at Rugby School who is academically driven with a predicted 4 A stars, the leader of the Politics Society and part of the Learn to Lead programme. Outside school, he is a world-class karting athlete, recently winning the UAE championship in his division after securing victory in seven out of 12 finals. He has also earned a place at the World Finals in Portugal later this year.

We recently caught up with Tyla to hear about his experience in karting and his time at Rugby School.

Tyla joined Rugby School for sixth form from a grammar school. When asked where his passion for motorsport came from, Tyla commented: “I got into motorsport because my dad used to do rallying for many years … in 2019, we just decided to pick up karting and got straight on track.”

Tyla told us that he used to race in the Senior Rotax class, but recently stepped up to the DD2 class, which involves two-speed gear-shift karts. He explained: “They have a bit more power than the Senior karts and weigh about 175kg including me … they get good top speed and have strong acceleration because they have gears for both the top and bottom end. The lightweight nature of the karts means you pull about 3Gs around every corner, meaning you have to wear a rib protector to stop them breaking from the force.’

When asked how he initially entered the sport, Tyla explained that applying to compete is relatively straightforward, but racing for a team can be difficult because team fees are often very expensive.

Tyla mentioned that he was fortunate to race for several teams. After competing in the UAE in 2022 and performing strongly, he was picked up by Team GGM for a season before moving to Mumbai Falcons, who offered him “a really good deal!”

Tyla won the UAE Championship for the 2025/26 season with 1,123 points, well ahead of his competitors. When asked how it felt, he said that winning the opening rounds put him in a strong position for the rest of the season, making things smoother even when injury prevented him from competing as strongly, including a dislocated finger. He recalled: “That weekend I had to drive with two fingers strapped together and unable to move on the left-hand side of the wheel.”

Tyla explained that the karting format is quite unique: “You have qualifying, which is about five minutes, a heat of about 12 laps, a pre-final of roughly 16 laps, and a final, which is about 18 laps.” He added that they sometimes compete in a double-header weekend, meaning they complete the full format on both Saturday and Sunday. Big international events often do even more than this, and spread it out over the course of 5 days or so.

When asked about balancing schoolwork with racing, Tyla was honest and noted that he often slept on planes but also completed work in airports, especially while preparing for his Oxbridge application. When in the country, he said that he attends clinics at school and arranges time with teachers to catch up on missed work. Speaking about school life, Tyla noted that he was grateful for the support the School had given him in allowing him to attend races, while also helping him stay on top of his studies. He commented: “Teachers here are so ready to help you with missed work, as well as the quality of teaching being exceptionally high in general.”

What are the plans for next year? Tyla will travel to Portugal in November to compete in the World Finals in the DD2 class, representing Team UAE, while also heading off to UCL to study Economics. To prepare, Tyla says: “The simple fact is that the more you do, the better you get! I’ll do a lot of test days and races in the summer before I go to uni.”

When asked about highlights from his career so far, Tyla said he had been fortunate to have “a bunch”. From becoming Vice British Champion in Junior TKM in the UK to European events and podiums in Senior Rotax, Tyla had many achievements to share. This year’s highlights include winning 7 out of 12 finals.

His advice for others? “Find something you love and stick to it!”

Congratulations to Tyla on his excellent achievement, and we look forward to seeing how he gets on in the World Finals.