Lydd kart club located on the southern tip of Kent held the last meeting of their 6 round summer championships on Sunday 11^th September, joining them for the day at the friendly and efficiently run club were both the F4S and Modified Prokart series.

Damian dominates.

Under late warm summer skies all the classes had two heats preceding a final following the morning practice and qualifying sessions. The 7 diminutive Bambino karts buzzed their way around the circuit, in 3 timed runs throughout the afternoon. On top form once again was the yellow and red Clarke karts machine of Damian Barruss-Haggett, which took the fastest time in all three runs. In second spot after the 3 run merge was Mikey Walker, Freddie Duncan took 3^rd, from Eden Spanswick,  Oliver Jamieson, Jack Pullen in 4^th 5^th and 6^th, Ivo Thwaites was classified in 7^th after suffering a hefty looking shunt with the exit of turn 1 tyres early on.

Horsley wins duel in the sun.

The Honda Cadet and IAME classes ran together although with a split grid and both provided excellent races. In the Cadet final, Louis Horsley and Leon ‘Frosty’ Frost paired up and pulled away from the rest, running bumper to bumper for the full 15 lap distance. Frost did manage to head Horsley a couple of times near the end of the race, but when the flag fell, it was the delighted #38 kart of Horsley that was in front, only 0.179 of a second separated the two at the finish. In an almost mirror image the battle for third between Ethan Barford and Ronnie Mansfield raged throughout the race, with the Teambase kart of Barford just snatching the last podium spot over Mansfield. Visiting DNL driver Corbin Newbury briefly held third over the first half a lap, before being gobbled up by the squabbling Barford and Mansfield in one fell swoop along the fast back straight, eventually finishing 5^th with Jack Spickett not far behind in 6^th. CJ Moran held a close lead over Jacob Baldry until a spin at the chicane on lap 5 ended his chances of victory in the IAME class, Baldry winning by 6 seconds at the end of the race.

Marauding Mullan blasts the F4S field.

In the visiting F4S class for the bellowing four stroke 35bhp powered machines, the DART duo of Gary Mullan and Lee Shurey took first and second places in the final, Mullan winning by a convincing 4.6 seconds. Shurey was 2 seconds clear of the ‘young’ Steve Pallett, who rolled back the years with a fine drive to third place. Behind Pallett a good dice developed between Aran Caldwell and Jonathan Carberry until a clash on the 6^th lap put the former out. Phil Hetherington almost followed Pallett past the two ahead that had clashed but just missed out to finish in 5^th behind Carberry in 4th. Rounding out the top 6 was Kosta Kryritsis .

Harrison’s Ambition wins.

The Ambition kart of Harrison Crowther led every one of the 15 lap Clubman final, however his margin of victory was only 0.2 seconds from a charging Maks Solarski at the finish. Jack Badger had been involved in the race for runner up spot but slipped back to 5^th at the race’s end. Poppi Stevenson somehow jumped up to the remaining podium spot on the last lap of the race, impressing as she did so on her last outing in the class before moving up to Junior Subarus. Archie Walker had looked odds on favourite for the position but ended up in 4^th in front of Badger. 6^th and 7^th went to Daniel Hughes and Chris Doble.

Anthony clinches the championship with a win.

A competitive 6 runners took to the ultra-fast smooth asphalt for the Junior Max final. Circuit Junior Subaru champion – Riley Stephenson, made the step up into the class and stunned as he took a heat 2 victory and then overtook fast starter Jake Kolosowski on lap 2 to lead until lap  5 , by this time Rhys Anthony had had a reset and found the speed and composure that won him the first heat. He pressured the Clarke kart of Stephenson until he found a way through, then controlling the lead until the end of the race, sealing the summer championship as he did so. Sam Powell couldn’t match the pace of championship rival Anthony on the day but finished close behind Stephenson in third place. Kolosowski took 4th from Jayden Walker and Alex Hughes in 5th and 6th.

Red flag halts Junior Subaru fun.

A quartet of drivers broke clear in the Junior Subaru final with Ben Harper leading the opening laps over Joshua Pullen, Bradley Spickett and Ben Hoare. Pullen moved to the front on the 4th lap and we were set for a grandstand finish with the four karts nose to tail drafting each other around, that was until an incident at turn 1 brought out the red flag, prematurely ending the race on lap 8. The results given after the red flag, showed Pullen winning from Harper, Spickett 3^rd and Hoare 4^th, with less than a second covering the four. Lewis Berry was a little was back in 5^th from Lewie Weaver in 6^th.

King reigns on home circuit.

The second visiting class was next up, the Modified Prokarts. With tuning allowed and parts sourced from as far away as the USA, these karts can produce a very good turn of speed over the standard Prokart. The proclaimed ‘beer and cake racers’ share a unique camaraderie in any kart paddock and their racing is always fierce out on the track. Graham King put his local circuit knowledge to great effect by dominating all day in the class; his margin of victory was a huge 8.6 seconds after just 15 laps. Behind him, Nigel Cordrey started off his day badly with two starter cords pulling out of his engines; he turned his fortunes around though with a great drive through to 2^nd place. Lee Mitchell will be having nightmares about leaving the door open at the final corner on the last lap, as Graham King’s son – George, grabbed the final podium spot from the disappointed Mitchell, this was a fine effort from King junior as he too had suffered from gremlins earlier in the day. Ian Wells took 5^th behind Mitchell and Steven Potter finished 6^th and first of the heavyweight class.

Williams commands Prokart final.

Chris Williams and Reece Shephard were the men to beat after the heats in the 175-200 Prokart class. At the start Williams got away well but Shephard lost several places and slipped back to fourth behind Paula Partridge. Daniel Tidwell shadowed Williams for the full 15 lap duration, narrowly failing by just 0.2 seconds at the finish after a spirited effort to pass the invincible Williams. Likewise Shephard tried all he knew to pass the very well driven kart of Partridge only to fall short at the finish. Although the top four positions remained static throughout, the battle for 5^th was the opposite as Carl Kirwell, Grant Brigdale and Josh Becker enjoyed a race long scrap, finishing in these positions.

Clash hands the win to Walker.

The Rotax Max final featured a clash between Daniel Brett and Aaron Adams at the chicane on lap 4 which handed the lead and the win to Steve Walker. Walker hadn’t quite been able to live with these two all day so this was the chance that he needed and he made full use of it to take the win. Adams recovered to 2nd finished within a second of the winner. Karl Mepham finished 3^rd and claimed the 177 class win. Brett eventually finished 4^th from William Kember in 5^th and Bryan Kemsley in 6^th.

Heartbreak for Caldwell.

The final race of the day was for the F4S plate. Aaran Caldwell had looked very comfortable in the lead until lap 5 when a bolt in his steering column appeared to break, giving him no option to retire to the pits, leaving him totally disconsolate while the race continued. Jonathan Carberry inherited the lead for 3 laps until he developed what sounded like a misfire, this gave Nye Cortizo-Whiter the chance take the premier position on the podium and the all-important F4S plate at the conclusion of 15 laps. Carberry held onto 2^nd just from Phil Hetherington in 3^rd, Ray Hull finished 4^th from Tommy Caldwell and Jason Cooper in 6th.

The Lydd kart club holds it’s meetings on the 2^nd Sunday of each month, with the winter series commencing next month, full details can be found on the club’s website www.lyddkartcircuit.com