Hot and humid weather welcomed the competitors for round 4 of the BPKC’s summer championships, also incorporating a round of the Kent championship, Rotax regional series and MSA Junior Subaru championship.

Four Bambino drivers enjoyed driving around the revamped and recently nicknamed the ‘Silverstone of Karting’ by the Motors TV Superone crew, fastest of the youngsters was Damian Baruss-Haggett, winning a £50 Zip kart voucher on his way to winning the final. Leo Robinson had taken the fastest time in two of the three timed runs but couldn’t match the flying Damian in the final run. Lewis Stannard enjoyed himself on his way to third and Joseph Kastantonis improved his times during the runs to take fourth.

The Honda Clubman and IAME final was next on the program and proved to be a dominant win for Frankie Taylor driving for the Virtus team. His comfortable win, which he celebrated in style, was made easier by a race long and highly entertaining fight for second place. Just 1.6 seconds covered the next 9 karts following Taylor over the line, at the head of these after 12 laps, was the LICA kart of Zach Walters, Jack Matthews (KPi) was less than 0.1 seconds behind in third, Jamie Perilly, Mitchell Gibbons and Joseph Knight took 4th, 5th and 6th. Top novice was Declan Russell and the solo IAME runner was Jacob Baldry. Gibbons took the final’s fastest lap.

The MSA Junior Subarus provided us with a thrilling final over the 12 lap race distance. Troy Beswick had looked to be continuing his recent stellar form by the taking pre final win and therefore pole for the final. He led the hungry field of rumbling Subarus away only this time didn’t have the pace to pull away from the snarling pack. Ross Connelly and James Black were hard on his tail early in the race until Black slipped back to 5th, on his way up was Charlie Nash who had started from 7th on the grid after a disastrous qualifying left him back in 14th for the first race of the day. Connelly and Nash put pressure on Beswick and it told on lap 8 when Connelly grabbed the lead from Nash, Beswick now in third was soon to drop behind the immaculately prepared kart of Black, who was supporting new sponsors for the event. The closeness of the frantic race was shown in the results, with the top 10 karts covered by just two seconds.

At the line Connelly took a delighted win, especially after cruelly losing a previous Buckmore Park victory when his airbox fell off while comfortably in the lead. Nash fought hard to secure 2^nd and Black fought back to complete the podium with 3^rd, Beswick was a disappointed 4^th, in 5^thand 6^th were Owen Hizzy and Zac Spence, who’s earlier qualifying pace had slipped in the final. A mention must go to Riley Stephenson who had qualified well but had a starter cord snap before the first heat; he worked his way up to 7^th in the final setting the fastest lap on the way.

In the Junior Rotax class KPi’s Oliver Appleby was on fine form during the day, he had taken the pre final win from Sean Berry (GMS) and Charlie Bennett (Project One) who was suffering from engine maladies. From the start of the final the blue kart of Appleby led away and looked comfortable in the lead too, that was until mid-race when the red kart of Bennett switched on taking the fastest lap and pulled up onto the leader – an engine change before the final had paid off for the Project One driver, as he passed Appleby on lap 8 and then broke the tow by pulling a gap of 0.8 seconds that he maintained to the flag. Sean Berry had kept the battling duo in sight and took a good 3^rd place from Harry Gent, Conrad Collinson in 5^th and William Newnham in 6^th.

The Honda Cadet final featured another duel in the sun between two equally matched drivers. Oliver Bearman has been something of a revelation this year and his form continued at Buckmore Park. He led away from pole taking Oliver Greenall and Oliver Marsh with him, the triple Oliver’s soon became a duo when Marsh lost a bit of pace and slipped into the battle behind . Back at the front Bearman was effectively throwing his body weight around in his kart, leaning into corners as if he was on a Moto GP bike! Behind Evolution driver Greenall was glued coolly to his bumper and managed to find a way past the Virtus kart on laps 9 & 10, only for his namesake to snatch it back and hold onto the flag. Another well-earned 1^st place for Bearman and a good tonic for Greenall after being at the brunt of too many Superone loading incidents this year, which had left him feeling a little disillusioned.

The battle for third was settled when Callum Gunning managed to pull away from a battling bunch, showing his delight at claiming the final podium spot over some regular Superone competitors with his DNL run kart, by punching the air on the run up to the finish line. Frankie Elwell made up two grid slots to finish just off the podium in 4^th; Marsh was eventually 5^th from Kristian Brookes up 7 grid slots in 6^th. The fastest lap also went to Oliver Bearman on lap 4.

Ben Fayers made the jump up from Honda Cadet into the Mini Max class for this event, being run by the Project One team and he certainly made the sometimes difficult transition look easy! Although his margin of victory was only 0.7 seconds over his team mate James Wharrier in the final, he had looked completely at home at the front all day long. Wharrier looked equally as comfortable in 2^nd, Harrison Collings was a little way behind in 3^rd ahead of the squabbling Thomas’s, Rotherham and Lawson in 4^th and 5^{th after} Declan Lee was bumped down to 9th post race, Peter Knight rounded out the top 6.

The Senior grid for this month was bolstered by the Rotax regional championship, but it was the usual suspects who dominated the headlines. Elliot Rice and Sam Baker had a coming together in one of the heats which led to Rice returning to the pits and Baker dropping back, coupled with a retirement for the latter in a later heat, this left them both starting from lower down than we have come to expect.

Project One’s Jonathan Wilkes made the most of the problems for the two favourites by leading away from welcome returnee Kit Brough in the 12 lap final with Rice in 3^rd. By the third lap however Rice had moved past a disgruntled Brough into 2^nd and a lap later took over the lead from young Wilkes, he then romped away to a comfortable 2.46 second win. Wilkes had his work cut out to hold onto 2^nd from the experienced Brough, but did so perfectly to secure the runner up spot with Brough very close behind in 3^rd. Sam Baker had worked his way stealth fully through the field to annex fourth at the finish, some reward after his earlier problems. Lewis Brown finished 5^th from Michael Finch in 6^th. Zephan Richfield avoided any nasty incidents to take the top novice award in 9^th place overall.

The 177 class was won by Alexander Luck and the novice award went to Terry Smith.

The final race of the day was for the Junior X30 class. Ronnie Foster had qualified the fastest and led the first heat comfortably until disaster struck on the last lap when his chain broke; this left him starting from the back in the pre final. Nelson King it was who took the first heat and Freddy Simpson-Stacey the pre final just from King.

At the start of the final the yellow and white Evolution karts of Simpson-Stacey and Alfie Glenie shot away from the line, King found himself bumped back to 7^th at the end of a disastrous 1^st lap. Larbi Belkhit started well to run 3^rd initially and Bobby Grove 4^th, until he was turned around at the 2^nd hairpin on the 2^nd lap, demoting him to the back of the field. By lap 6 Foster had moved into third and began a charge after his teammates ahead, he caught Glenie but could not find a way past at the finish of the race. Simpson-Stacey beat his duelling teammates by 2.6 seconds to take a fine win, with Glenie and Foster a tenth of a second apart in 2^nd and 3^rd, King had closed back in to take 4^th, with Ambition racing’s Anthony Amato 5^th and Belkhit eventually 6^th. Finley Cross and the delayed Grove were the final finishers.