Last weekend the BMKR held round 8 of their 2024 kart championships at the Sittingbourne circuit. A stiff breeze and intermittent rain arrived during the morning and persisted throughout the day for the penultimate round of the series, providing challenging conditions for the 80 drivers entering on Sunday.

Bambinos.

The Bambino drivers had their event on Saturday in between the general practice sessions prior to Sunday’s racing. The seven entries were split between 4 Electric and 3 Comer powered karts. Felix Tandy led all the karts over the finish line after pole starter Jenson James Williams hit trouble on the opening lap. Freddie Dye and Kai Erginsoy finished 2nd and 3rd, both electric powered karts as with winner Tandy. The Comer karts were led home by Jenson Drummond from Freddie Williams and Oli Spooner-Green. Jenson James Williams managed to finish 4th in the E karts and 7th overall, the fastest lap went to Felix Tandy with a 1:2.64s lap.

Honda 200 / Rotax Cadets.

The first of Sunday’s six finals was for the split grid Honda 200s and Rotax Cadets, with a healthy 13 of the former Hondas starting in front of the trio of Rotax Cadets. Project One drivers filled the first three places on the Honda grid, with Jack Wykes starting from pole position ahead of Ronnie Smart and Noah Clare. Riley Taylor, Mason Becker and Jack Cope held the next 3 positions from Olly Knox, George Pickett, William Spencer and Jerry Dufficy who completed the top 10.

 Dimitar Uzunov took the Heat and Pre Final wins to start from pole in the Rotax karts, Ellis Honey (who had outrageously topped qualifying with an InterMax engine fitted by mistake!) and Joseph Cox started 2nd & 3rd.

There had been nothing between Wykes and Smart in the qualifying races and the Final proved the same, with the pairing swapping places several times. The fight for the honours of being top P1 driver eventually went to Smart, who outwitted his teammate over the last lap, taking the win by a whisker at just 0.06s from Wykes!

Taylor had found some extra pace in the Final, even after a post-race inspection found that he had bent steering parts,as he went onto finish just under 2s behind in 3rd place. 10s behind the top 3 was an almighty ding dong battle between Clare, Cope and Becker, this was Honda racing at its best with no quarter given in a highly entertaining squabble.

Clare eventually came out on top to take 4th from Cope who had given his all-in 5th and Becker close behind in 6th. The Ambition pairing of Dufficy and Knox finished just off of the tail of Becker in 7th & 8th, with Georges Pickett & Quinlan completing the top 10 in 9th & 10th.

The Rotax Cadets ran close throughout with Uzunov holding the upper hand to win by less than a second from a challenging Cox, Honey managed to finish without his nose fairing right on Cox’s rear bumper in 3rd place.

Smart set the fastest lap in the Honda class with a 59.58s lap, Uzunov’s 1:00.70s lap proved fastest in the Rotax group.

Senior Club Max.

We jumped to the Senior Club Max class next, where the championship fight stole the headlines as Josh Pullen, Ciaron Edgson and Joseph Gethen put all on the line on an increasingly greasy track surface. Ollie Owen finished ahead of the championship hopefuls in the morning Heat before Edgson sneaked ahead of Pullen on the last lap in the Pre-Final with Owen 3rd and Gethen in 4th. Behind these four on the grid for the Final were Felix Stolkin and last month’s winner Joshua Pattrick. On row 4 sat two drivers who were away from the circuit for a while, Oliver Bullion & Connor Tubby. Sean Dabin and Jayden Miles completed row 5.

The front row got away well but behind there was chaos as Pattrick got turned around going into turn 1 running backwards in the pack, Tubby and Bullion were delayed in the melee as Dabin made the most of the chaos ahead. Edgson’s opening lap didn’t go to plan as Owen nipped ahead to run behind Pullen who had begun to open up a gap. Stolkin was 4th early on as Gethen also then had a spin at turn 1 at the start of the 2nd lap, which dropped him down the field, so Dabin was now 5th as Bullion ran 6th from Miles in 7th and Louie Aspel in 8th.

With Pullen pulling out a lead Edgson urgently needed to pass Owen and eventually achieved that on the 4th lap, with Owen retiring soon after having lost his chain guard. It was soon clear that Edgson had some serious pace, and he was keen to make up for last month’s disappointing outcome.

He set the fastest lap (55.02s) on the 7th tour and was on the leader’s bumper the following lap, soon passing Pullen and taking the lead. At the finish 1.15s separated the pair after 11 laps as Edgson kept his championship hopes alive with the win over his rival Pullen, who just couldn’t stop his determined rival.

Stolkin was next up on the road until a post-race – 5s front fairing penalty dropped him back to 5th, this promoted Dabin to 3rd his best Senior Rotax result so far. Gethen once again found himself fighting his way back up in the Final and he did well to take 4th in the results. Another with a 5s nose fairing penalty was Bullion, possibly caused during his earlier battling with Dabin and Tubby which eventually left him in 6th. Jayden Miles put in a solid drive to finish 7th after starting 10th, as did Jemima Woolley who took 8th from her grid 13 slot. 9th and 10th in a 15 kart grid were Louie Aspel and Emma Stoner.

Junior Club Max Rookies.

The 16 kart Junior Club Max Rookies were next to take on the challenge of the slippy wet conditions, although right from the off they were two down as both Oliver Turner and championship challenger – Ayda Sexton failed to make the start, a crushing blow for Sexton as she continued her recent poor run of results in the championship.

George Cole’s championship push was on target as he lined up on pole for the Final with Reuben Mamelok once again showing a great turn of speed sat alongside him. On the second row sat Alexander Campbell impressing in 3rd and Daniel Butcher looking to capitalise on last month’s win in 4th. Louis Bishop and William Aldis sat on the 3rd row from Kieron Hammond alone due to Sexton’s retirement on the warmup lap on the 4th. Che Marriott-Dixon and Freddie Wall sat next to each other on the 5th row.

At the start of the Final the front row got away well and left those behind in a ball of wet mist as they headed into turn 1. Campbell in 3rd sat on pole man Cole’s bumper into turn 1 and ended up turning Cole around, thankfully everybody behind managed to miss Cole as those watching held their breath. This gave Mamelok a clear lead as the pack threaded their way through the infield hairpins.

Campbell held 2nd over the opening laps from a battling Bishop, Hammond and Aldis who then all had a spell in 3rd before Butcher, who didn’t get away too well, usurped Hammond to settle into 3rd. Blueberry Motorsport’s Mamelok was driving well out in front and eventually pulled well clear of Campbell to take a well-deserved and long awaited win at Bayford Meadows by 4.67s. Runner up Campbell scored his best result of the year with 2nd as he finished clear of Butcher in 3rd and Cole, who after having dropping to dead last, fought his way back up to 4th, although the shine was taken off of his remarkable comeback by a 5s nose fairing penalty, dropping him to 6th in the final classification.

Hammond was pleased to inherit 4th after another solid drive. Aldis was next on the road but also had a 5s nose fairing penalty dropping him to 7th, which left Bishop in 5th. Marriott Dixon took 8th after a troubled race, Fletcher Growns finished 9th ahead of BM plate holder Freddie Wall in 10th. Cole was the only driver to break into the 55s bracket as he set the fastest lap at 55.98s on the very last lap of the race.

Rotax Inters.

12 drivers were entered for the burgeoning Rotax Inter class which had some great close racing in the earlier two qualification races. On the front row for the Final sat Akille Nane Giannone and Elijah Hazelwood, both looking for a clean race after last month’s clash spoiled their efforts in the Final. Nelson Tayor and Ryan White completed row 2 from Edin Salvidge and John Reynolds on row 3. Zac Jennings and Harrison Page were next up on row 4 and on row 5 sat Cordell Sinclair and Harry Wright.

The start of the Final took several attempts to be underway until the very keen young chargers lined up in an orderly manner, once started however it wasn’t long before both of the front row drivers were in trouble with pole man Giannone dropping to last and Hazelwood to 7th. This left a somewhat surprised White in the lead from Taylor in 2nd with Salvidge next up in 3rd. Page held 4th early on from Jennings and a recovering Hazelwood who passed Sinclair on the 2nd lap.

White’s lead looked secure as he pulled a gap over Taylor and Salvidge who both fought hard over the runner up spot. Jennings moved up to 4th with Hazelwood recovering to 5th, dropping Page down the order. As time ran out the leader White completed his 10 laps 2.20s ahead of Salvidge who got ahead of Taylor on the very last lap, only to have a post-race nose fairing penalty drop him down to 4th and give Taylor the runner up position. Jennings crossed the line in 4th until he too was hit with a 5s penalty leaving him 7th.

Through all of this Hazelwood took the last podium spot with 3rd and Harry Wright finished 5th behind the penalised Salvidge. Page was next up in 6th ahead of Jennings, Sinclair and Reynolds in 7th, 8th & 9th. Giannone ended another disappointing day with 10th place and will hopefully bounce back stronger next month. Hazelwood’s recovery drive netted him the fastest lap at 1:00.15s.

Senior Club Max 177s.

The Senior Club Max morning Heat and Pre-Final had produced two different winners, with Ben Avery, who had topped qualifying, taking the former and Michael Gibbons the latter. They filled the front row for the Final and had Oliver Hutchings and Matt Wardale on the 2nd. Adam Clark and Dan Wright were next up on the 3rd row ahead of Vito Dacres and David Ives on the 4th. With just 11 karts featured this month, Dennis Trzeciak and John Nye lined up 9th & 10th ahead of Gerry Poore in 11th.

Gibbons led Avery away at the start and looked to be continuing his fine form that netted him a comfortable Pre-Final win, however this time the threat from Hutchings looked more ominous, as he easily cleared Avery, who had a tardy start by coming under threat by Clark early on. Gibbons managed to hold off Hutchings for 3 laps before the inevitable happened with Hutchings slipping ahead to lead, which he then held until the end of the race, taking the win by 5.18s.

Avery had recovered from his earlier lack of pace and also passed Gibbons, holding 2nd place for 4 laps until an uncharacteristic mistake dropped him down 4th. Gibbons finished 2nd with Wright closing in on him at the finish in 3rd, only then to be given a 5s nose fairing penalty post-race dropping him back behind Avery in the results.

Clark’s early pace didn’t last long, and he soon fell behind Wardale who took 5th with Clark then in 6th. Dacres was next up in 7th ahead of a very close race for 8th and top Masters finisher, this eventually went to a delighted Ives after a very entertaining scrap with Poore, who had spun his way out of contention ending up in 10th behind Trzeciak in 9th. Hutching’s rapid pace also rewarded him with the race’s fastest lap at 55.63s.

Junior Club Max.

The last race of the day was for the Junior Club Max class, with the entries sadly into single figures this month with just 9 karts on the grid. Aiden Large leads the class championship this year and continued his winning form by taking the Heat and Pre Final wins from current championship runner up Jack Pullen, who had recovered from a tardy qualifying to take 2nd in the Pre-Final. These two would start on the front row for the Final from Callum Sims and Freddie Leppenwell on the 2nd row, Dexter Collins & Ethan Page on the 3rd row and Kajus Zygmanta & Alex Shepherd on the 4th. Max Osbourne would sit alone on the 5th.

The Final played out the same as the Pre-Final with Large establishing a lead over Pullen that he was never going to lose, going on to win by 2.42s after 11 laps. Pullen was comfortably clear of some good hard racing over the remaining positions, with Zygmanta finishing 3rd on the road, but then dropped to 4th behind Sims in 3rd in the results, after a 5s nose fairing penalty post-race.

Collins took 5th behind the penalised Zygmanta, 6th place went to Leppenwell ahead of Page in 7th, Shepherd who had run in 3rd early on 8th and Osbourne in 9th. Large’s 5th lap proved to be the fastest of the race at 55.34s .

The final championship race of the year will be held over the 16th/17th November weekend.