GAVIN Johnson is in a hurry.

His karting career may be in its infancy but he wants to start racing cars sooner rather than later.

He said: 'I've fancied karting for a long time but the budget was the problem, I couldn't afford it.

'But now I have a decent paid job, I decided to purchase myself a car and I am racing all over the North West.'

He started just a few months ago but as a rookie member of Manchester and Buxton Karting Club has already made his mark.

The 25-year-old resource manager has had three podium finishes in as many novice races so far at Three Sisters track in Wigan with the highlight being victory in the Gold Cup - his club's biggest event of the year.

He is hotwheeling it in the TKM Extreme class of a discipline in which F1 stars Jensen Button and David Coulthard launched their motorsport involvement.

The kart, which Johnson bought secondhand, cost less than £1,000 and can be run for about £300 a month.

It has a 115cc, two-stroke Tal-ko engine and reaches speeds of 80mph.

Johnson used to work at an indoor karting centre in Warrington and has found track racing completely different.

But, as can be seen from first, second and third places thus far, he has quickly adapted.

He said: 'I am genuinely convinced I have a lot of potential - I am about half a second off the quickest lads, although I have only been doing this three or four months.

'I believe I can get into single-seaters and make a career out of it.

'The main difficulty would be finance as it can run very expensive but it is my ambition to race in an international series, single seaters, touring cars, GTs etc.

'It's a realistic ambition and a ladder at present would be karting again in 2007, running in the North West Formula Ford in 2008 and National Formula Renault the following year.'

If he needs any advice, he can always turn to uncle, Stephen Johnson who raced in Formula Ford 20 or so years ago when Runcorn-based with his brother, Gareth - Gavin's dad - as a mechanic.

'I do a lot of the maintenance myself although I send the engine away, I'm not quite confident enough to do that,' added Johnson whose employers Morson Group in Manchester have joined Supply UK and Sterling in sponsoring him.

He also acknowledges fellow racer Dean Golba from the Manchester and Buxton club and Dean's dad Steve for their help and encouragement.

He said: 'My next official race is August 25-27 at Three Sisters but I can't wait that long.

'I'm getting a new chassis and I am hoping to build that up and go testing at the Glan-y-Gors circuit near Corwen in North Wales.'

Next year, Johnson also envisages competing with Cheshire Kart Club at Hooton Park, Ellesmere Port.

Therefore, he is calling time on playing Sunday League football with Sandymoor who he captained in the Warrington League in 2005-06.

'This season, I'll just help out with the team. From January, I'm going to be racing two weekends a month,' said Johnson, who had a pre-season trial with Runcorn FC Halton a couple of years ago.

'The football is going to take more of a back seat.'