Kaleb being mentored for big future

Kaleb Ngatoa

Marton's motorsport prodigy Kaleb Ngatoa is coming under the guidance of some of the top minds in the New Zealand scene after securing a spot in the 2017 Elite Motorsport Academy.

In July the 16-year-old will be one of eight young drivers chosen nationwide who will head to the academy, which is managed by the MotorSport New Zealand Scholarship Trust and housed at the University of Otago.

They will learn skills and techniques to aid their mental and physical fitness for motor racing, as well as learning more about the business side of the sport when it comes to securing sponsorship, handling marketing and the media.

The programme also provides a 12 month follow-up package tailored for each participant to ensure they using what they learned.

Ngatoa has been on an upward trajectory since winning cadet and then junior karting national titles from 2012-14.

He then won three recognised national titles in Junior Rotax driving in the 2015-16 season.

That success saw him claim the National Junior Sportsperson prize at the 2016 Whanganui Sports Awards in November - which he collected before jumping in the car to head back to Taupo for a 7am practice session the next day.

The Rangitikei College student moved up to the entry-level racing division of Formula First for the 2016-17 season, and finished seventh overall in the points.

He already has designs on racing Formula Ford next season before moving into the premier single-seater class of the Toyota Racing Series.

"I'm going to be broke forever," joked his father Robbie Ngatoa, a former Whanganui motorcycle racer who saw his son bitten by the racing bug when he took him to the go-kart track aged six.

"He's done everything you can do in karting and then a guy gave him a $40,000 car and he won the winter series in that.

Ngatoa senior said his son has become self-reliant when it comes to organising future opportunities - of all the drivers who applied and interviewed for the academy, Kaleb was the only one who did a powerpoint presentation.

"To me, it sounds like it's a real mentor, boot camp, thing.

"I told him if he wants to succeed, 'you got to do it yourself', and he did."

Ngatoa has been getting valuable assistance from New Zealand motor racing great Ken Smith MBE, the former three-time NZ Grand Prix winner who has helped Greg Murphy, Daniel Gaunt and Shane van Gisbergen with their careers and was responsible for getting Scott Dixon his first international drive.