The Lee Wood memorial meeting was held on Sunday May 27th, the annual event held in honour of a good friend of the Bayford Meadows circuit team and the Karting community, who died in a car crash in 2006.
With points going towards the Kent championship a bumper entry was present, along with some lovely late spring sunshine.
Bambinos.
The Bambino class kicked of proceedings and completed their third run just ahead of the first of the Grand Finals in the afternoon. The battle for the top points scored in the merged results was fierce, with the final run producing a shootout between the top two, Charlie Warren and Oscar O’Sullivan. The former Warren, took the honours with the fastest lap of the day during his final run, just heading home O’Sullivan on the track and in the points. Jack Pullen finished in third place in each of the runs, cementing third in the overall merge, a great result for the Clarke karts run driver.
Harry Freeman was equally as consistent with 4th in each of the runs and 4th overall, Freddie Duncan took 5th in the points, after finishing in that position in the last two runs. Henry Carter and Alfie Howland tied on points in 6th and 7th, Fletcher Jamieson, was 8th, Kristian Stefanov 9th, Oscar Askell-Tucker 10th, Jesse Phillips 11th, Rio Licata 12th and Romy Jungling 13th.
Junior Club Max.
Project One racing had Declan Lee and Jack Steadman back at Bayford Meadows for this month’s event, both experienced race winners at the Sittingbourne circuit. After the Pre Final it looked like a team lockout with Lee, Steadman and Zac Spence heading the Grand Final grid. Riley Stephenson was next up in his Clarke karts machine, hampered earlier by a cruel 10 second dropped bumper penalty.
His teammate Josh Pullen was next on the grid from Privateer James Black. Lee led away from Steadman and Spence, fast starting Pullen initially held 4th until his team mate Stephenson passed him and set off after the red and white karts ahead. Behind Black in 6th was a lively scrap being fought for 7th place, featuring Oliver Bullion, Ross Hastings, Jack Richards and Will Egby. Back up at the front Lee looked to have things well in control with Steadman unable to mount a challenge, as he slipped behind his teammate Spence on the 9th of 14 laps.
Stephenson by this stage was absolutely flying as he closed in on the Project One karts ahead of him, he too had managed to pass Steadman on the 9th lap. Going into the final lap nothing was going to stop Lee capping his return to the circuit with a win and he crossed the line comfortably ahead. The battle for the runner up spot went down to the wire, as the 87 kart of Stephenson made a move on Spence down at the bottom hairpin, he pulled it off, but Spence wasn’t going to give in easily and fought hard to take the place back, Steadman was there waiting to pick the pieces up as the three ran as one over the final half lap.
At the finish it was the Clarke kart of Stephenson who took 2nd, 1.98 seconds behind the winner, Spence had his head tucked down as he crossed the line in 3rd, with Steadman breathing down his neck in 4th. Pullen held off an earlier challenge of Black to take 5th, behind a down on power Black in 7th was Will Egby, who had pulled clear of Jack Richards (8th), Ross Hastings (9th) and Oliver Bullion(10th). Harvey Colyerwallis retired after 5 laps after running 11th.The fastest lap went to Stephenson during his climb up to 2nd place.
Honda Clubman Elite.
Fourteen karts were entered for the Honda Clubman Elite class, this unfortunately fell to 13 after a nasty crash involving George Oxford and Leon Frost in the morning’s heat took out the former Ambition driver. The two had tangled around the horseshoe section of the circuit, causing Frost’s kart to ride up over the unfortunate Oxford injuring his arm. Frost ended up trapped under his inverted kart, but was soon asking after his fellow competitor such was his concern. George sat out the rest of the day’s proceedings and we hope that he can return asap.
The winner of the red flagged heat was Declan Russell from Nathan Marques. The Pre final also went the way of Russell, this time Jamie Perilly finishing 2nd from Ian Marginean in 3rd with Marques in 4th, Rylee Brown was 5th and Frost who had started last, up to 6th. Once the 12 lap final was underway, Russell and Perilly ran together with Marginean going with them. Marques dropped away from this trio, as Frost passed him and gave chase. Perilly took his turn in the lead and at this point it looked as though both he and Russell were working together well with Marginean staying close by.
‘Frosty’ eventually closed down the trio ahead and picked off Marginean on lap 7, he then had the leaders in sight. The last three laps were fraught as Russell took the lead back and Perilly slipped behind the hard charging Clarke kart of Frost. Going into the final lap the three were nose to tail and as they approached the first turn both Frost and Perilly picked up a big tow from the yellow and white kart of Russell, it looked for one moment that the Project One kart of Perilly would go from 3rd to 1st as he jinked to the inside of Frost, but Frost had him covered as he made his move on Russell, taking Perilly through with him.
The comeback kid Frost then held off his pursuers to the flag in what was an outstanding victory, by just 0.21 seconds from Perilly, Russell and Marginean. The four young drivers had put on a wonderful show to all watching and should be commended for it. 5th place went to Olly Stevens, 6th Vinnie Lloyd, Marques was 7th, class debutant Brown was 8th, Jack Williamson, another who had recovered from a hefty practice crash on Saturday, 9th and Tighe Wratten 10th. Declan Russell took the races’ fastest lap during the cracking battle for victory.
Junior Subaru UK.
A very healthy grid of 25 karts hit the 1000 km circuit for the Junior Subaru UK class, topping the qualifying times was SAIT motorsports’ James Tomsett, making a stunning comeback after his finger breaking crash last month. Red Beswick continued his excellent 2018 form with 2nd, from Harvey Roffe, Charlie Hand, Silver class driver Joseph Knight, and championship pretenders – Leon Clark and Katherine White. Tomsett took the Heat 1 win from Beswick, Roffe, White, Knight and Clark, with Hand dropping to 9th. the Pre Final was interrupted by a red flag was shown for a crash to Louis Barker, who had hit the tyres backwards very hard on the exit of the chicane, thankfully Barker was fine.
The restart in single file under the green flag was a bit of a mess, with several confused drivers not picking up enough speed, which caused a concertina effect down the line, leading to a list of dropped front bumper penalties. Tomsett again took the win, Beswick was second on the road but was put back to 11th once his bumper penalty was added, so that left Hand in 2nd, Oliver Martynski a fine 3rd, Jonathan Dalton 4th, Joe Wood 5th and Catlin May 6th. Bumper penalties for Beswick, Clark, Knight, Roffe, Brendan Sathees, Poppi Stephenson and Robin Jandu, would see them starting further back for the Grand final.
Tomsett led away the 13 lap final, his SAIT kart looking perfectly set up and suited to the warm conditions, Hand didn’t have an answer to the leader’s pace and gradually slipped back with Martynski shadowing him in 3rd and Dalton in 4th, these four having broken clear of Wood, May, Kieran Ives, Lewie Weaver, and the charging pair of Beswick/Clark. Tomsett continued to gap the chasing pack and eventually took an emphatic victory 6.7 seconds clear of Hand who celebrated 2nd with a double arm pump, just as Dalton drew up alongside him over the line, a great result for both.
Clark had battled back from his penalty superbly by taking 4th and fastest lap, with Weaver and Beswick in 5th and 6th. Roffe fought his way up to 7th, Wood, Martynski and Knight finished 8th, 9th and 10th, Ives ended up 11th. A notable retirement was White who had suffered damage to her kart after earlier contact.
Senior Clubmax.
It was great to see 21 Senior Clubmax karts turning out for this latest round of the championships, with several past circuit regulars returning to the class. Joe Hunt and Project One karts have gelled incredibly well together this year, this was clear to see on Sunday as Joe took both the Heat and Pre final victories, although GMS driver Alex Holgate made him work hard for the latter win.
Troy Beswick (GMS) and Bobby Grove (Privateer) both qualified well but had eventful days, Beswick suffering engine problems and Grove on track incidents. Beswick took 2nd in the Heat, with Alex and sam Holgate next up, Drew Holmes was 5th after qualifying down in 10th. Behind winner Hunt in the Pre final were A Holgate, Holmes, Jack Wall who had fought his way up, S Holgate and Tom Richards in 6th.
Hunt had the inside line off of the rolling start for the Grand final and took the lead into turn 1 from A Holgate, Holmes, Wall, S Holgate, Richards and 177 leader Mark Figes. As they reached half distance Hunt looked very comfortable out in front, controlling his lead with a searing pace, that was until his revs dropped in-between the two infield hairpins, quite unbelievably his throttle cable had snapped, robbing him of the win. Inheriting the lead was Alex Holgate, he had pulled clear of Holmes, who had overtaken Wall into turn 1 early into the final.
Holgate A held on to take the win just over 2 seconds clear of a delighted Holmes in 2nd, Sam Holgate took 3rd from Wall and Richards in 4th and 5th. Grove had fought his way up to 6th from 11th on the grid, Figes top 177 driver in 7th, Beswick managed to salvage 8th after his problems, Stephen Bouffe took top Classic driver in 9th, with Lee McCrumlish 10th and Mike Ashby in 11th. Hunt took little consolation with the fastest lap after the win had looked in the bag for him, he will be looking forward to the next round to make up for his misfortune.
Honda Clubman Standard.
The final race of the day was for the Honda Clubman Standard class and last month’s winner Rylan Echberg was keen to repeat his performance but had some stiff competition amongst the 22 entries. Ambition racing’s Timo Jungling took the heat wins and looked favourite to topple Echberg this month. Jungling led Echberg away at the start of the Grand final and held the lead for 4 laps until the DG kart of Echberg usurped him through one of the infield turns.
His lead didn’t last long though as Jungling took the lead back again and Echberg slipped back into the pack. At this point in the race Clarke kart’s Reg Heywood was the man on the move, as he closed in on the leader Jungling looking menacing and hungry for the win. Groans from the crowd however showed that Heywood had slipped up just as he was making his move, dropping him back from the leaders.
This promoted Heywood’s teammate Jessica White up into 2nd place, a position she would hold just 0.6 seconds behind the eventual winner Jungling at the finish. Zain Khan was close by in 3rd having run at the front all race, Echberg took 4th, Ethan Bentley had been as high as 3rd before ending up 5th, Will Hickman and Beau Sullivan were 6th and 7th, Matthew Copsey 8th Henry Ng-Zeederberg 9th and Mikey Porter in 10th. Heywood ended up a disappointed 11th and the fastest lap went to Silverstone F1GP grid boy Zain Khan.
A great day’s racing was completed when Lee Wood’s father Steve proudly presented the trophies to the deserving winners.