Bas Lammers

Bas Lammers has never heard an engine note in his life — he is deaf — and it has made precisely no difference to how fast he is. The Dutchman read a two-stroke through his backside and his fingertips, and used that feel to become one of the defining shifter drivers of the modern era: twice the world's number one in KZ1, a SuperNationals winner in Las Vegas, and a factory spearhead for the best part of two decades.

The karting years

Born in 1985, Lammers did his apprenticeship in the direct-drive classes, finishing eighth in the 2003 Formula A World Championship at Sarno as a teenager. But gearbox karting was where he belonged. As Intrepid's lead man he took the CIK-FIA KZ1 World Cup — the top gearbox prize of its day, chronicled in our KZ history — at Braga in 2010, beating a field that included Jonathan Thonon, Marco Ardigò and Davide Foré. Two years later he did it again at Sarno in 2012, this time handing the newly launched Praga factory its first world title barely a year after the brand's arrival. Two crowns, two different chassis: the driver was the constant.

The second half of his career was built around Sodikart, where he spent six seasons as the French manufacturer's benchmark alongside Anthony Abbasse. The world championship final at Lonato brought him podiums in both 2019 and 2020, and he won the WSK Super Master Series in 2017 and 2019 — the deepest week-in, week-out KZ competition there is. He was also part of the European factory wave that conquered the SKUSA SuperNationals, joining Ardigò and Thonon on the list of the Vegas race's international-era headline-class winners. After leaving Sodi in 2021 he jumped straight onto a Kart Republic-IAME package under Dino Chiesa's banner for the Kristianstad World Championship, and he has kept racing at the top level since.

What made him different

Aggression, showmanship and an almost eerie mechanical feel. Lammers has always maintained that being deaf sharpened everything else — vibration, chassis flex, grip through the seat — into a single high-resolution signal. On track he was one of the great overtakers of the KZ generation, a driver who treated a five-kart scrap in a heat like a title decider and made highlight reels wherever he raced, from Genk to Las Vegas. Team managers loved him for another reason: he made chassis brands. Intrepid, Praga, Sodi — each got its results spike when Lammers arrived.

Legacy

Lammers proved, alongside rivals like Marco Ardigò and Paolo De Conto, that shifter karting could be a full professional career rather than a waiting room for cars. He is also one of the most visible disabled athletes in world motorsport — a two-time world number one who happens to be deaf, and rarely bothers to mention it. And the story is not finished: deep into his thirties he was still entering the SuperNationals and hunting KZ silverware, an evergreen presence today's KZ2 graduates keep finding in their mirrors. Check the calendar: odds are there is still a Lammers entry on it somewhere.