Please introduce yourself. What do you do? Why? What do you want people to know about you?
My name is Carter Williams and I am a professional race car driver. I have been racing for the past 18 years, eleven years in go-karts and six years in formula cars. From 2018 to 2021, I represented the United States racing in Great Britain.
Two years racing National Formula Ford, one year in FIA British F4, where I took 3 wins and 6 podiums, and a partial season of British Formula 3. In 2023, I have come back to the United States, making my sports car racing debut, racing in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America championship with WorldSpeed Motorsport.
What qualities make you different and unique from everyone else in the industry?
I am a first generation race car driver in my family. This day and age, you really don’t see young drivers, that haven’t had their parents or relatives race before them.
When you have the knowledge what your family or others close to you, that can tell you what to do and what not to do, your career path becomes that much easier. For me, I have had many great mentors along the way, but have had to figure out how to become a professional by making those mistakes myself.
Another unique feature that I take pride in, is that I wasn’t a full time racing driver from the start. What I mean by this is that, I went to public school through 12th grade, I played sports (Swimming and Water Polo), and went to college for a little over a year before moving to England to pursue racing full time.
And even now, I still work full time with our family business five days a week. Most drivers now don’t go to public school and are not involved in anything other than racing itself with no worry financially. So paving my own path and name in the industry is difficult, but is incredibly rewarding.
Describe THAT moment when you realized you’re doing what you were born to do.
I remember “That” moment pretty vividly. My dad got me into racing when I was 5. He and his buddies went to the Go-Kart track on Saturdays just as a bit of fun. After a while, the only way he could go, is if he took me. So he bought me a little Go-Kart and we went to the track. He told me to follow behind his Kart out on track.
We didn’t make it two corners, and I passed him and drove around the track by myself. The next day he entered me in a race, and I won, lapping the field. That was went we knew, this was my talent.
What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve had to go through and how did you grow through it?
The biggest challenge I have faced in my career was in 2019. It was my second year in England and I was halfway through the FIA British Formula 4 season. I had only two podium finishes that year, with my last race being a really good one but I received a brutal penalty for a technical rule. I wasn’t doing very well in the championship and I was frustrated.
I wanted to quit and I even told my dad that. He encouraged me not to. We were going back to America for the summer break and he said to just reset and try and find the problem. When we came back I looked through my videos and did data analysis. I also reviewed the rule book and we found a two very important things.
One technical thing with the car, and the other was my personal driving style for that particular car was incorrect. I knew what to do immediately. We fixed those two things for the next race and I qualified 2nd and finished there. My best finish to date.
I continued to work on it, and by the next race weekend, I dominated and had two race wins. My first internationally. So ever since then, I’ve learned to just take a step back, simply everything and try and solve each problem one at a time.
Who are the TOP 3 people you’d want to meet that could elevate your career or business? Why these specific individuals?
The first person I want to meet is fellow race car driver and double Formula 1 world champion, Fernando Alonso. He has been my favorite driver since the beginning. He is in my opinion and many others, one of the best drivers to have ever lived. He has always taken bad cars and has done exceptional with them. He didn’t come from a racing back ground either and did not have much money. So I would love to hear more about his journey and how he continues to be successful as a driver today.
The second person I would love to meet is Bryson DeChambeau. He has, from my prospective, changed the game of golf. In my spare time, my hobby of choice of golf. It is a frustrating game that requires perfect and a calm mental state. These things can be applied to racing directly. So I love testing my ability to do those things while golfing. Bryson, always is challenging the game with his distance, physical ability, and technical analysis. He is also local to me which is another fantastic feature. I would love to meet him and talk to him about he analyzes his game and continues to push the limits of golf and how he takes criticism from those around the sport.
The last person I would love to meet is Elon Musk. He is great businessmen and entrepreneur and one of the most successful people in the world. So I would love to chat about his work ethic and this commitment it takes to become that successful.
Drop your social media links.
Instagram: https://instagram.com/carterwilliams_official?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carterwilliamsracing?mibextid=LQQJ4d
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@carterwilliamsracing