The sixth round of the BMKR 2023 championships took place last weekend at the popular Sittingbourne circuit.

Unpredictable weather was forecast for the afternoon’s finals, so the circuit’s team were keen to press on with the day’s busy timetable. With no Bambinos racing on the schedule the Junior Club Max Rookies kicked off the Finals.

Junior Club Max Rookies.

An early afternoon rain shower during the Pre finals left the circuit very greasy for the 20 kart Junior rookie drivers, with wet tyres being the only option for the conditions.

Joel Bullen headed the grid after dominating the earlier Heat and Pre Final in his Roalf racing kart. Ollie Orteu lined up alongside on the front row, with Kajus Zygmanta and Conor Tubby next up on the 2^nd row. Freddie Theobald and Aiden Large were next up on the 3^rd row, Archie Beard and Ethan Page completed the 4^th, Max Osbourne and Freddie Leppenwell the 5^th.

At the start Bullen immediately leapt clear of the rest, using full wet lines to his advantage; Orteu had a sluggish start and fell behind Zygmanta and then a very impressive JJ Hind who had jumped up from a lowly 13^th on the grid to run third after 2 laps! His CKR Kart coming alive in the wet conditions.

Tubby had slipped down to 10^th as Beard ran 5^th early on from Large and Leppenwell. As the race settled down there was stalemate at the front of the field,  Bullen was controlling the pace comfortably from the Clark motorsport kart of Zygmanta , who had the GMS run Hind pressuring and then eventually passing him on the penultimate lap.

Bullen completed the 11 laps 5.8s ahead of the impressive novice Hind in 2^nd to take a comprehensive win, which included the fastest lap at 56.8s. Behind Hind, Zygmanta picked up a dropped nose penalty on his way to 3^rd from a lonely Orteu in 4^th. Tubby recovered from his slow start to take a clear 5^th from Large in 6^th. Jasmine Keepax made up 7 places to take a stellar 7^th from Leppenwell in 8^th. In  9^th & 10^th were Byron Scott Simmons and Page.

Senior Club Max.

The Senior Club Max class has recently seen Ciaron Edgson hit fine form with back to back wins in July & August; Sunday proved once again that he was the man to beat, as he cruised to Heat and Pre Final wins, giving him the prime pole position slot for the run into turn 1 for the Final. Josh Pullen sat alongside the inform Edgson on the front row, ahead of Joe Gethen and Oliver Hutchings on the 2^nd row. Sam Chappell & Jonathan Dalton were next up on the 3^rd row from Luke Winter & Felix Dymant on the 4^th, Luke Brigden & Oliver Sutton on the 5^th.

As the grid set off on a still wet track Edgson led into the first turn with Gethen glued to his rear bumper leaving Pullen stuck out wide. By the time they hit the infield hairpins Edgson’s LN kart had  already pulled a gap over Pullen, who had found some grip and a way past a robust Gethen down at the bottom of the circuit.

Chappell initially jumped Hutchings for third although it wasn’t long before their roles were reversed. Dalton ran 6^th ahead of Oliver Sutton, Ella Haines and Louie Aspel in 7^th, 8^th & 9^th as Winter slipped to 10^th.  After several laps Edgson was stretching out his lead driving beautifully, eventually going onto take a comfortable 6.1s win and fastest lap at 55.62s, also earning him a points gain on current championship leader Pullen, who had pulled clear of his nemesis Gethen to take 2^nd, only then to receive a dropped nose penalty post-race which handed the position back to Gethen.

Finishing 4th – Hutchings couldn’t quite fight for the overall win, but should be pleased with collecting good championship points. Dalton later found out that he had a slow puncture which had been restricting pace as he finished 5^th, he held off a charging Haines who found some real pace in the Final in her Jenner motorsport kart, only to suffer a dropped nose penalty leaving her 9^thoverall, behind Sutton 6^th, Chappell 7^th and Aspel in 8^th. Mollie Griffiths rounded out the top 10 of the 15 karts that started.

Honda Cadet 200/160.

The two Honda Cadet grids were on next with the 200s starting in front of the 160cc powered karts. In the 200s – Ronnie Smart donned his plain white wet weather crash helmet for the Final and went on to take the win over Freddie Wall, who gave it his all all to stay with the Project 1 kart of Smart, but fell short by 7.3s at the finish. 0.4s separated their respective fastest laps showing how much advantage Smart had over Wall, who later said that his kart just wasn’t turning in well in the damp conditions.

Connor J Winfield ran in a clear third throughout after Riley Taylor’s early efforts to overtake him ended with Taylor running wide and slipping back to 6^th, although he did eventually recover to 5^th, running close to 4^th place finisher Arthur Way. Jago Reed Hardy finished 6^th ahead of Ethan Okoro in 7^th.

In the 160 class Daniel Butcher and Ricky Junior Mackintosh continued their day long battle for class honours with the win eventually going to the former CHDD driver Butcher by 2.5s.

Jack Wykes pipped Alfie Clark to 3^rd place, with Fletcher Growns in 5^th ahead of Zac Jennings 6^th, John Reynolds 7^th and Jacob Gosset in 8^th. Poor Riley Brown did not start and had to watch the race from the trackside, only to have his kart fire up straight away after the race had finished. Butcher recorded the fastest lap of 1:00.39s on his way to his victory.

Rotax Inter.

The 5 karts in the Rotax Inter class were headed by Harry Freeman throughout the day and he streaked around to a near 21s win in the Final with a fastest lap of 55.23s, which showed everyone that the circuit was starting to dry.

Ayda Sexton had looked favourite to finish 2^nd; however an early race mishap left her enduring a recovery race from the back of the field. Lucas Knibbs was then left clear to take a well-earned 2^nd place from Sophia Caldwell in 3^rd who had shadowed Knibbs all race long. Sexton recovered to 4^th heading Harrison McNealy home in 5^th.

Senior Club Max 177.

With the circuit clearly drying would anyone take a gamble on slicks in the 177 final? Well the first 3 rows of the grid didn’t, as Adam Clark was starting from pole with Thomas Lawson alongside him on wets.

Daniel Wright and Tyler Cox were on the 2^nd row, with Mike Ashby & Ben Pawsey on the 3^rd. The 4^th row had Ben Avery was taking a gamble on slicks, he had Michael Gibbons alongside him.

An initial false start went some way to helping the two drivers on slicks, as they tried to work some temperature into their tyres. This didn’t help Dennis Trzeciak however as he spun at turn 1, as Clark led the rest away over the opening lap, his lead didn’t last for long though as Lawson showed his intent by passing him at the bottom end of the circuit.

Pawsey had leapt up to 3^rd before Wright grabbed the place back from him, Cox ran 5^th as Ashby slipped back a couple of spots at the start letting Gibbons move ahead. Avery on slicks at this point was struggling – dropping as low as 14^th at one point before his tyres eventually gained some grip. Back at the head of the field Lawson was looking in control and stretching out his lead over Clark who was coming under increasing pressure and eventually succumbing to Wright now up to 2^nd.

Clark was now in trouble as he also lost out to Cox and Gibbons on the same lap. All eyes however were now on Avery, as the ASM works driver/boss was flying on his slicks, pulling off some spectacular passes along the way, as he eventually fought his way up to the back of Clark’s kart on the last lap, just falling shy of putting in an overtake. Lawson cruised to victory, his GMS kart managing its wet tyres well to win by 6.23s from Wright in 2^nd, driving well in his Jenner motorsport run kart.

Tyler Cox was charging along in 3^rd keeping well in touch with Wright ahead to take the last spot on the podium. Gibbons will have been pleased with 4^th as he continues his karting comeback, finishing ahead of the last lap battle for 5^th between Clark and Avery. Pawsey took 7^th from Geoff Cox in 8^th, Jason Bear in 9^th and Ashby in 10^th.

I’m sure that Ben Avery will have been very happy to have recorded the fastest lap, proving that his slick tyre gamble paid off and also keeping all those watching entertained!

Rotax Cadet.

The 8 kart grid for the Rotax cadets was led by Matthew Lilley who used his wet tyres to full effect in the Pre final, when the rain intensified leaving those on slicks struggling badly. Rory Pizzey shared the front row after finishing 2^nd in the aforementioned Pre Final. Row 2 was filled by Harrison Page and Honda 160 winner Daniel Butcher. Ted Deeprose and Ellis Honey were on row 3, Dimitar Uzunov and Joseph Cox row 4.

GMS driver Lilley only managed to lead one lap before Page’s CHDD kart came storming through to snatch a lead that he would never lose, eventually winning by 5.61s from Lilley in 2^nd. Butcher was one second behind in 3^rd, Deeprose next up in 4^th who ran clear of a good race between Honey and Uzinoz who swapped places before finishing with Honey 5^th and Uzinov 6^th. Cox was next up 7^th as Pizzey retired from the race after a promising start. A fastest lap of 53.01 fell to the winner Page.

Junior Rotax/Libre Club Max.

The last race of the day for the Junior Club Max/Libre drivers and promised to be a mouth-watering affair, as Flethcher Jamieson and Callum Sims had taken a win a piece in the Heat and Pre Final, Jamieson in the former dry race and Sims in the latter wet race. As they set off from the front row pole man Sims took the early advantage over Jamieson. Starting 4^th – Alfy Hemingway ran 3^rd from 3^rd starting Ryan Welsh in 4^th.Felix Stolkin was next up in 5^th ahead of Jacob Hobbs in 6^th.

Luke Broadbent and Jack Pullen squabbled over 7^th with the latter Pullen coming out on top. Back to the front of the race; Jenner motorsport’s driver- Jamieson was now putting pressure on the leader Sims and over the next few laps the pair put on the some of the best racing of the day, as they both pressed hard for the win.

On lap 9 disaster struck for the Evolution kart of Sims as he pulled to the side of the track just past the start/finish line – his chain had come off/broken. As he got out of his kart he was understandably totally distraught, after seeing a possible win vanish in an instant. Before this Hemingway had latched onto the jostling pair ahead and finished not far from the winner Jamieson celebrating his win over the finish line, with just 0.82s separating the two.

Behind the GMS kart of Hemingway was the Project 1 kart of Stolkin in 3^rd, Welsh 4^th and Hobbs in 5^th, however post-race drop nose penalties dropped Stolkin to 6^th and Hobbs to 7^th, promoting Welsh to 3^rd & Pullen to 4^th. Jack Theobald finished 8^th from Broadbent in 9^th & Kartheek Kummeta 10^th. A fastest lap of 46.69s fell to Stolkin on the 10^th tour.

In the Libre Mini Max class, George Cole managed to head Dexter Collins over the finish line until a dropped nose penalty reversed the positions handing the victory to Collins, who also took the fastest class lap at 49.92s.

The full results from the event can be found here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/e/148301

The 7^th round of the Championships will be held on October 15^th.