Round Two of the Bayford Meadows Kart Racing club championships, took place last Sunday at the Sittingbourne circuit, the May date being an annual memorial to Lee Wood, who will always be remembered by the staff and those who are associated with the circuit.

Perfect racing weather greeted the healthy entry on Sunday morning as practice/qualifying got underway before the racing began with the first round of Heats for all of the classes.

Senior Club Max.

The Senior Club Max class were the first up for the afternoon’s finals, with the grid set from the result of their earlier pre final. After taking the morning heat win Oliver Johnson wasn’t so fortunate in the pre final after coming off worse in an incident on lap 8, forcing him out of the race.

Josh Pullen and Sam Chappell raced hard with the latter eventually taking the win from Pullen and most importantly the front row inside grid slot for the final.

Declan Russell failed to set a time in qualifying, so had his work cut out in the morning’s heat and then the pre final, he took this in his capable stride by making up 10 places in the pre final to line up 3^rd on the grid. Joe Gethen and James Otto were next up in 4^th and 5^th, Ella Haines driving well was 6^th, Simon Parfett making the jump up from juniors lined up 7^th, with Dan Hughes alongside him on the 4^th row. James Tomsett and Ciaron Edgson had some work to do from the 5^th row of the grid.

The 21 kart grid took the start and poured en masse into the first turn, with the pole man Chappell in his MPK kart leading the field through to the run down to the first hairpin. Pullen lost out to Russell over the opening lap, his outside grid slot not helping at all. Gethen was next up, Otto lost a couple of places as did Haines, the big gains came from Parfett and Edgson who were up and into the top 6. Behind these a snarl up at the 2^nd hairpin delayed the midfield pack with Tomsett and Mollie Griffiths suffering the most.

Back at the front the visiting Chappell was holding off Russell, Pullen and soon a long train of bumper to bumper karts, which made for a very exciting but tense race, as each driver had to think hard before making a move and risk losing positions. Chappell’s stoic defence lasted 9 laps before Russell eventually managed to squeeze past on one of the infield hairpins, Pullen was quick to also seize the opportunity as he followed Russell through into 2^nd place.

These two then pulled clear, setting their own pace as they went on to cross the finish line 1^st & 2^nd.Despite losing the lead late in the race, Chappell had enjoyed his trip over from France with a good 3^rd place in the bag, as Gethen who had slipped behind Parfett early on, reclaimed the place to finish 4^th.

Edgson also passed Parfett to take good points in 5^th. Hughes took 7^th behind Parfett, Johnson recovered from his pre final disappointment by making up 11 places to take 8^th, Oliver Hutchings was 9^th from Otto in 10^th. Winner Russell recorded the fastest lap at 46.83s on the 12^th and final lap.

Bambinos.

We only had 3 Bambinos entered once again for this month and any chance of a decent race was over after a few seconds as Freddie Williams lost his chain after hefty contact with Benjamin Sljivar on the opening lap, forcing him to retire and watch the race from a cool vantage point up on the grassy mound in the middle of the circuit.

Ahead of this incident Albi-Jay Stubbs continued his excellent run of form by taking a very comfortable 22s win over Sljivar, recording the fastest lap on his way to victory.

Honda Cadet 200/160s.

Twelve Honda Cadets came out next for their split grid final, with the 200s setting off ahead of the 160s. Ronnie Smart had the edge over the other six 200 runners and came away with a clean sweep in all three races, his margin of victory being 2.8s over runner up Freddie Wall, who had Arthur Way not too far behind in 3^rd.

Jack Cope starting 6^th was expecting more from the day although he eventually finished 4^th ahead of Ethan Okoro in 5^th. Riley Taylor ran in third for three laps before eventually slipping down to 6^th, Harvey Turner was 7^th in class. Daniel Butcher controlled the 160 class all day and drove to a comfortable victory in the final.

Ricky Junior Mackintosh finished runner up ahead of Seth Jones, Jack Wykes and John Reynolds in 3^rd, 4^th & 5^th. Fastest laps went to the two class winners Smart and Butcher.

Senior Club Max 177s. 

The Senior Club Max 177 class continues to thrive at the circuit as 18 karts were entered on the day. Tom Lawson made a welcome return to the grid this month and even after some time away, proved to be the man to beat. Adam Clark set the fastest lap in the pre final and wasn’t too far away from Lawson who had taken the victory.

Behind these two on the 2^nd row of the grid was Daniel Wright supporting Jenner Motorsport colours and Jason Page, who was taking a break from mentoring his sons and having a go at racing himself. Mike Ashby and Ben Pawsey filled the third row, Steve Thompson and Tyler Cox the 4^th.

At the start of the final Lawson and Clark ran side by side into turn 1 with the rest of the field tightly bunched behind. Over the course of the opening tour Clark squeezed his way into the lead and set about controlling the pace of the race. Lawson initially seemed content to follow the leader as he did so for the next 7 laps, however going into the 8^th lap he had a lunge on the inside of Clark into turn 1.

This turned into disaster as the gap closed and he had to back out causing him to spin and drop back into the pack. Daniel Wright had been following the two leaders whilst running third and was happy to accept the chance to move into 2^nd.

Page had been going well in 4^th which was soon to become 3^rd but as the race entered its final segment, he appeared to tire as he let both the keen Ashby and Cox pass him. Thompson making a return to karting after a few years away was next up ahead of Andy Locke in 6^th & 7^th. As the race reached its climax, Clark took a 2.8s win over Wright, Ashby took 3^rd ahead of Cox in 4^th.

Page held onto 5^th, with Ben Pawsey taking 6^th. Lawson recovered to 7^th in front of Thompson, Locke and Aaron Deacon who coaxed his battered kart over the line in 10^th. The fastest lap fell on the 9^th tour to Lawson with a 47.4s time recorded.

Rotax Inter.

Last month the two Rotax Inter karts gave us some great racing all day, this time Ayda Sexton had a clear edge over Lucas Knibbs as she drove to a clean sweep also taking the fastest lap (49.65s) in the final which she won by 9s.

Junior Club Max.

Following on from the two Inter drivers was the Junior Club Max class which had 17 entries this month. Fletcher Jamieson and Oscar O’Sullivan topped the pre final, with the former looking very assertive as he wrestled the lead away from pole man’s O’Sullivan after 3 laps in the morning’s heat, before taking the pre final win.

Antony Parfett was following on from his brother’s strong showing in the Senior class to line up 3^rd on the grid, he had Kristian Stefanov going well alongside him in 4^th.  Jack Theobald and Felix Stolkin completed the 3^rd row of the grid, Alfy Hemingway and William Murphy the 4^th.

Right from the start of the final Jamieson looked determined to win as he led Parfett who had jumped ahead of O’Sullivan with Stefanov, Theoblad and Stolkin next up. Hemingway was out on the first lap after he and several others were caught up on the exit of the first hairpin. O’Sullivan moved ahead of Parfett on the 5^th lap and set off after Jamieson’s Jenner Motorsport kart, which was a replacement for his kart that was heavily damaged at Buckmore Park the previous week.

Stefanov briefly passed Parfett for 3^rd before the latter took the place back. O’Sullivan’s Project One kart managed to get within 0.2s of Jamieson by the finish of the race and also took the fastest lap at 46.67s. Parfett took the last podium spot in what was a very competitive debut, from Stefanov who was happy with 4^th.

Callum Simms made up for a pretty disastrous day by his standards with 5^th, Murphy took 6^th from Finlay Underwood in 7^th. The top 10 was rounded off by Theobald, Ryan Welsh and a penalised Stolkin.

Rotax Cadet.

The Rotax Cadet class continues to blossom at the circuit providing some good racing as an alternative to the Honda classes. Matthew Lilley has recently been the one to beat in the class taking victories here at Bayford Meadows.

Sunday wasn’t to be his day this time around however as Harrison Page took over the mantle, by taking wins in every race in his CHDD run kart. Lilley struggled to keep up the pace in the final due to an ailing engine problem, which Henry King wasted no time in taking advantage of, as he put his GMS kart into a personal best 2^nd place. Daniel Butcher too moved ahead of Lilley by the finish but couldn’t do anything about King and Page ahead of him as he finished in 3^rd place.

Lilley hung on for 4^th at the finish, Ted Deeprose came out on top of a great battle with Ellis Honey to take 5^th, Dimitar Uzunov was 7th, Rory Pizzey, Joseph Cox and Ayrton Ardley finished 8^th, 9^th & 10^th.

Junior Club Max Rookie & Libre.

The last race of the day was for the Junior Rookie and Libre drivers. Their earlier races were full of incidents, the scariest of which involved the Clark Motorsport kart of Connor Tubby which was launched heavily into the turn 1 tyres. After some medical attention, Connor was able to climb out of his kart and later even managed to take part in the final.

Joel Bullen was the class act on the day taking wins in the heat, pre final and then the main final comfortably in his Roalf racing machine by 1.6s. The fragmented final just about summed up the class on the day, as the race was shortened after an incident on the infield.

Before the premature race finish was called, Harry Russell managed to overcome Jack Robinson’s well driven Project One kart on the last lap to take 2^nd place. Robinson was 3^rd, just from Ollie Oretu on his bumper in 4^th. Freddie Leppenwell finished 5^th from the battered and bruised Tubby in 6^th, who had put in a great shift by moving up 10 places!

Reece Stevens was next up in 7^th, Kosti Dzharov 8^th, Kajus Zygmanta 9^th and Max Osbourne in 10^th. It was some surprise to see that Tubby had taken the fastest lap of the race during his recovery drive, probably whilst high on adrenalin after his earlier crash! Dexter Collins finished 5s ahead of Riley Mason-Lewis to take the Mini Max class win.

Full results from the day’s racing can be seen here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/e/127018

Round 3 of the championship will be held next month on June 18^th.