On the weekend following the John Surtees re-launch of the Buckmore Park kart circuit, 180 competitors descended on the Kent circuit and were greeted with perfect weather for Sunday’s finals.
The finals kicked off in earnest with the visiting Junior X30 drivers taking to the track and from the moment the lights went out it was Callum Bradshaw who dominated the race from pole position. He drove the perfect race winning by a cool 4.9 seconds and taking the fastest lap too.
Behind him his front row team mate Alfie Brown slipped down the field to finish 7th, in between him and Bradshaw were, Davey Shepherd, Samuel Cornwell, Anderson Chilcott, Joshua Thompson and Ben Wooldridge.
The second final for the Senior X30 drivers exploded into action at the first hairpin, when loading from the rear of the large field caused chaos to the front runners braking for the tight right hand turn.
Two of the favourites involved Oliver Hodgson and Lewis Brown had their chances of winning ended on the spot, with retirement for Sevenoaks’s Brown and a penalty for using the cut through for Hodgson.
Behind those that made it through the corner, was a sea of karts littering the track, pointing in all different directions! Somehow they managed to clear before the karts reappeared on their next lap.
In the lead through all of this was Gus Lawrence, driving superbly, he had Hodgson behind but was unaware of his impending penalty, Matt Davies had quietly worked his way into third on the road at this point.
On lap 12 of 15, disaster struck for the desperately unlucky Lawrence when he experienced a throttle problem ending his race, this left Hodgson to take the chequered flag, but then his penalty consequently dropped him to a lowly 25th. Matt Davies it was then who took the win, from a charging Mark Litchfield, Dannys – Keirle and Russell, Archie Tillett and Levi King.
This month Charlie Bennett took a comfortable win in the Junior Rotax class, the expected threat from last month’s victor Tyler Sullivan never occurred as he, Luke Wooder and Charlie Lamb fought over the runner up spot. Sullivan eventually came through to finish second 3.5 seconds behind Bennett, Wooder was third on the road but a subsequent penalty dropped him back 9th. Lamb took the last podium slot from Liam Carter, Nelson King and KPi’s Emily Rogers.
Sam Heading and Alfie Glenie romped away in the early stages of the Honda Cadet final until the Battenberg flag appeared, this represents a virtual safety car which was needed for an incident on track.
Heading who had recovered from a very nasty qualifying crash which saw him thrown from his kart, was leading from pre-final winner Glenie when the green flag announced the continuation of the race.
The whole field had now closed up and Nicholas Reeve who had a bad Pre-final, managed to jump past both Heading and Glenie into a lead that he would not surrender until the chequered flag.
It wasn’t made easy for him though as the previous leaders battled to pass him, at the finish line the top three were covered by just 0.2 sec, with novice driver Oliver Owen somehow staying within close contact along with early charger Dylan Cooper and Ruben Stanislaus in 6th.
The LGM series visitors arrived in their numbers which necessitated a B final before the A final, the driver that shone through the very colourful array of little karts in the A final was Harry Thompson, a circuit regular earlier in the year.
He was pushed sideways over the finishing line by a very eager Jonny Edgar, with early leader Dextor Patterson in third. Behind in fourth was Joseph Taylor, Klaas Kooiker in fifth and Lorcan Hanifan in sixth.
The Mini Max final was next up, the qualifying races saw Josh King (KPi) give Evolution’s Ronnie Foster a good run for his money, but in the final the yellow and blue kart of Foster romped away to victory.
Once King had dealt with his team mate Oliver Appleby he began a forlorn chase of Foster. Appleby finished third from Freddy Stacey-Simpson who overtook Patrick Kibble late on, Connor Garlick rounded off the top 6.
The Clubman cadets never disappoint and this was a very hard close fought next final. Alex Moody and Sebastian Bloch both took turns in leading until Moody found the knack of holding onto the top spot for the second month in succession; Herne Bay’s Callum Gunning was looking for a way past these two, as was Oliver Greenall but they had to settle for third and fourth, then came Frankie Elwell and Jack Matthews in a blanket finish. Untited Autosports Max Brown took was the top novice and Craig Morgan was delighted to win the IAME class.
The last race of a very full 36 race day was for the Rotax Max/177 class. The qualifying heats witnessed plenty of drama with favourite Elliot Rice, who was making his debut with a new kart, ending up in the barriers in one heat, Sam Baker fared worse when he was doused in petrol from his fuel tank, this requiring a rapid removal of his racing overalls as he stepped from his kart !
From the start of the final Rice and Baker (in a borrowed race suite) pulled away until Baker slipped back a little behind Kit Brough who was having a good competitive event. Rice eventually pulled 4.5 secs clear of Brough who was ahead of a busy group of karts featuring Lewis Brown, Shaun Hollingsworth, Richard Dean and Max Read, they finished in that order with Baker a despondent 7th.
Mark Figes once again took the 177 class from Karl Meopham and Jonathon Humba the top novice from Ryan Haines.
There is a break from racing at Buckmore Park next month although a lot of the drivers and teams will decamp at Bayford Meadows (Sittingbourne) this coming weekend.