A chilly wind kept the drivers, teams and parents on their toes at Bayford Meadows on Sunday, for the third round of the circuit’s BMKR championships.

Seven classes of karts had their Finals held during the afternoon after qualifying, Heats and a Pre Finals held earlier in the day. The Bambino class had their races held on Saturday in-between the general practice sessions.

Bambinos.

An encouraging nine karts were entered for this month’s event, with three of those being electric powered. Ernie Wade qualified comfortably overall on pole position, 1.16s ahead of the first electric kart of Jenson James Williams. Wade then impressively won the Heat, Pre Final and the main Final by 14.46s from J Williams who had made up 5 places to finish 2nd and first of the electric karts.

The Comer powered versions of Jenson Drummond, who had started 4th, finished 3rd after passing Theo Azzopardi on the penultimate lap, the latter having held 2nd place right up to the midpoint of the race. Freddie Williams was next up in 5th overall (4th in Comers)  after starting on the front row but suffering a poor first lap, which dropped him to the back.

Ollie Spooner-Green and George Algar were next up in 6th & 7th, both Comer engines. 8th & 9th finished the remaining two electric karts of Etienne Gardner and Kai Erginsoy.

Honda Cadet.

The first Final on Sunday afternoon was for the Honda Cadet class, which had just 6 karts entered for this month. Riley Taylor and Jack Cope continued their friendly rivalry throughout the day, with Cope taking the Heat win and then Taylor the Pre Final after an error by Cope lost him the lead on the 4th lap leaving him 3rd behind the ever improving William Spencer, who would start the Final from the front row alongside Taylor. George Pickett, Ibrahim Hussain and Lola Holt-Brown completed the grid for the Final.

At the start of the Final Taylor got away well, as did Spencer, Cope was fully lit though and jinked to the outside at turn 1 which gave him a great run on the exit of the corner allowing him to pass Spencer before the bottom hairpin.

Behind these 3 Pickett ran 4th from Hussain and Holt-Brown. Leader Taylor endeavoured to control the pace of the race with Cope breathing down his neck in 2nd, this pair gradually pulling clear of Spencer in 3rd. By midrace Cope had decided that it was his turn to lead as he crossed the line 1st after 6 laps, Taylor didn’t drop away though and shadowed Cope over the remaining laps.

Spencer was running alone in 3rd, a position he would hold throughout, Hussain managed to pass Pickett on the 7th lap to be 1.5s ahead as they crossed the finish line in 4th & 5th, with Holt-Brown taking 6th. The winner wasn’t decided until the last lap however, as Taylor took Cope by surprise on the infield left hand corner, switching to the inside to sneak past, the pair then running side by side down the length of the following straight.

Now leading – Taylor just about held on over the remainder of the lap, as the dueling pair crossed the finish line side by side just 0.04s apart. Riley Taylor also took the fastest lap at 52.15s on lap 8.

Senior Club Max 177s.

It was good to see all 12 drivers in the 177 class make it out for their Final, after a crash in the morning’s Heat nearly caused disaster for at least two drivers, as Adam Clark and Ben Avery collided down at the bottom hairpin, leaving the rest of the drivers having to thread their way through the carnage caused.

Unfortunately for David Ives, mechanical gremlins then struck on the warming up lap, putting him out before the start. Oliver Hutchings led away from pole with Adam Clark slotting in behind, Avery starting third in his rebuilt kart  was soon ahead of Clark and into 2nd over the opening lap. Daniel Wright ran 4th, Dennis Trzeciak 5th and Lewis Deacon 6th.

Michael Gibbons surrendered his 4th place grid slot with a spin to the back on the opening tour. Hutchings soon pulled a gap over Avery who held off Clark until the 7th lap before succumbing to his pressure. By this stage Deacon had jumped up to 4th, although he had picked up a nose fairing penalty along the way.

Wright was 5th with Trezciak in 6th clear of Geoff Cox in 7th and Gibbons who was up to 8th. The positions stagnated over the remaining laps leaving Hutchings to take a comfortable 2.25s win over last year’s champion Clark, Avery took third even with a 5s nose fairing penalty applied. Round 2 winner Deacon finished 4th on the road before a 5s penalty dropped him to 6th behind Wright and Masters winner Trzeciak in 4th & 5th.

The top 10 were completed by Cox in 7th, Gibbons 8th, Matt Wardale 9th and Gerry Poore who was having a trouble free event for once in 10th. Hutchings topped his clean sweep with the fastest lap of the race, fully making up for last month’s race ending disappointment.

Rotax Cadet.

The Rotax Cadet class featured next with 7 karts entered. Lewis Herberston looked to be continuing his fine recent form by heading qualifying and then taking wins in the Heat and Pre Final, to line up on pole position for the afternoon main Final. Darin Dimitrov shared the front row with Lewis, Dimitar Uzunov and Joseph Cox were next on the 2nd row, from Jacob Daujotas and Ellie Honey on the 3rd, previous class winner Jack Blackman sat alone on the 4th row.

Herberston led away from the start and looked in control as the race settled down, as he had with his earlier victories during the day. However as the race entered its last stages Dimitrov who had been shadowing the leader in 2nd, began to pressure Herberston and on lap 9 of 12 managed to take the lead, he then managed to hold off Herberston to the finish line, with just 0.18s covering the two.

Uzunov ran in 3rd throughout finishing 1.23s behind the pair ahead, he was clear of an entertaining battle for 4th between Cox and Honey, which eventually went to Cox just from Honey in 5th. 6th & 7th places were also keenly fought over, as Daujotas came out ahead of Blackman. Dimitrov’s 8th lap proved to be the fastest of the race at 51.73s.

Junior Club Max Rookie / Junior Libre Club Max.

16 karts were entered in the Junior Rookie class and 2 in the Libre class on Sunday, with Ayda Sexton continuing her fine start to the year with wins in the Heat and Pre Final, to start the Final from pole position.

BM plate holder Freddie Wall sat alongside Sexton on the front row after taking 2nd in the Pre Final after initial runner up – Daniel Adomaitis was penalised for gaining an unfair advantage. Ruben Mamelok and Leon Knight both enjoyed a competitive Pre Final to sit on the 2nd row, George Cole and Che Marriott-Dixon were next on the 3rd row. Adomaitis and Harvey Murden made up the 4th row ahead of Jasmine Keepax & Daniel Butcher on the 5th.

At the start Sexton was beaten away on the run down to the first corner by a very keen Wall, however Sexton had a better corner exit to lead down at the bottom hairpin. Mamelok ran 3rd from a fast starting Cole in 4th, Knight having run wide at the first turn was now 5th from Marriott-Dixon in 6th, Adomaitis 7th and Murden in 8th. Sexton soon settled into the lead edging clear of Wall in 2nd, Cole had squeezed past Mamelok and was now pushing Wall as they went into the 4th lap.

Cole then tried a move on Wall at the bottom hairpin, which left Wall out of the race with a damaged kart, Cole now held 2nd but a 5s penalty was looming over him for gaining an unfair advantage from the incident. Sexton impressively controlled the pace over the remainder of the race, even managing to take the fastest lap on the last lap at 47.06s. Cole crossed the finish line in 2nd, which then changed to 4th once his inevitable penalty was applied. 2nd place went to Knight after a stellar drive as he passed Mamelok on the 4th lap and held the position the finish.

With Knight & Mamelok inheriting 2nd & 3rd from the penalised Cole in 4th, 5th went to Adomaitis after a spirited battle with Marriott-Dixon who took 6th. Daniel Butcher should have had his best result in the class with 7th, but a 5s nose fairing penalty dropped him down to 13th overall. This left Oliver Turner in 7th from Murden in 8th, Keepax 9th and Alexander Campbell in 10th.

In the Libre class Tabitha Mellor welcomed some competition from Teo Jones this month as he settled into racing at Bayford Meadows. Mellor completed a clean sweep over Jones on the day comfortably winning the Final and taking a fastest lap at 49.62s

Rotax Inter.

The ultra rapid Rotax Inter class formed up next on the grid for their Final, with 9 karts appearing this month. Harry Wright proved fastest in qualifying and then won the morning Heat, Harrison Page – a regular winner in the class, took the Pre Final win so headed the grid for the Final.

Elijah Hazelwood sat alongside him on the front row after Akille Nane Giannone was docked 5s for a nose fairing penalty. 3rd & 4th on the grid sat Alex Shepherd and Heat winner Wright. Next up in 5th & 6th were Giannone and Cordell Sinclair, Harrison McNealey and Nelson Taylor were 7th & 8th, John Reynolds sat alone on the 5th row.

At the start Hazelwood on the outside immediately put a squeeze on Page, the two briefly touching as they left the grid, Page held the lead on the run down to the bottom hairpin before Hazelwood’s determination had him through ahead.

Behind these two Nane Giannone briefly held 3rd before Shepherd passed him on the 2nd lap, with Wright and Sinclair next up. As the race progressed the pace at the front had drawn the leading pair away from the rest, Hazelwood still leading although Page was sitting right on his bumper waiting for any mistake by the leader.

That mistake finally occurred on the last lap as Hazelwood’s defence failed,when he had left a gap just big enough for Page to take advantage of, he then went onto take the win by 0.34s from Hazelwood, who no doubt learnt a lesson after 12 hard fought laps. Shepherd and Wright swapped places over the last couple of laps with the former Shepherd eventually coming out on top in 3rd place.

In 5th behind Wright was Nane Giannone who also took the fastest lap at 48.79s, he came out on top in a close battle with Sinclair who finished 6th. McNealey finished 7th from Taylor in 8th and Reynolds in 9th.

Junior Club Max.

Heading the 13 kart entry in the Junior Cub Max class was Jack Pullen, as he was fastest in qualifying before taking wins in the Heat and Pre Final to line up on pole position for the main afternoon Final.

Alongside Pullen and making up for a very disappointing round 2 was Kajus Zygmanta, his JAXX teammate Aiden Large sat 3rd on the grid with Kosti Dzharov in 4th alongside. 5th & 6th on the grid were Dexter Collins and Oliver Liveresdge, Freddie Leppenwell & Luke Broadbent lined up 7th & 8th and Autumn Hansford & Max Osbourne 9th & 10th.

After the field blasted away from the rolling start, the first corner was messy as Pullen was pushed out wide, Zygmanta was delayed too, worst was to come though as roadblock formed down at the bottom hairpin, with several drivers including Dzharov, Dejaun Bennett, Broadbent and Ethan Page involved, these were soon to joined by Pullen who had only just rejoined the circuit after his turn 1 detour and was left with nowhere else to go!

After all the initial chaos the lead had fallen to Large, who now headed Collins, Leppenwell , Zygmanta, Liversedge and Osbourne, with Byron Scott-Simmonds up to 7th from 13th on the grid after 1 lap. Over the next few laps the race started to settle down, Large was comfortable out in the lead, with Collins driving well in 2nd, from Zygmanta who had passed Leppenwell on the 4th lap, Scott-Simmonds was soon up to 5th from Liversedge in 6th.

Large led the closing laps to take a somewhat surprised win, Collins’s stellar drive was spoiled a little by Zygmanta passing him on the last lap, as he had recovered to 2nd place after his early delay. Scott-Simmonds made it up to 4th behind Collins at the finish, Liversedge followed him past Leppenwell to take 5th as the latter took 6th. 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th were Osbourne, Hansford, Broadbent and the unlucky Pullen. The fastest lap of 46.86s went to Zygmanta as he charged back from his delayed start.

Senior Club Max.

The last race of the day was for the Senior Club Max class, with 13 karts entered. As with his sibling Jack – Josh Pullen had taken the wins in the Heat and Pre Final, however fastest in qualifying was James Tomsett, who had then also finished 1st in the Heat before a non conformance penalty led to a disqualification from the results.

Alongside Pullen on the front row for the Final sat BM plate holder Ciaron Edgson, Ollie Owen and Tomsett after a charging drive in the Pre Final from the back, completed the 2nd row. On the 3rd row were Joshua Pattrick and Joseph Gethen, Daniel Hughes and Moillie Griffiths lined up on the 4th row, Oliver Sutton & Felix Stolkin on the 5th.

The pole man Pullen was away well from the start, however Edgson was equal to him and ran around the outside of turn 1 and all the way down the back straight, before conceding to Pullen at the bottom hairpin, also losing out to Owen at the same time. Gethen had gotten away well from 6th to run 4th early on as Tomsett and Pattrick were next up in 5th & 6th. Hughes, Stolkin & Griffiths ran 7th, 8th & 9th.

There was no stopping the dominant Pullen at the head of the field as he pulled clear cruising to an unassailable lead over the chasing pack, eventually winning by 5.45s. The battle for 2nd was tense as Edgson and Owen fought hard, with Edgson coming out on top to finish runner up. Tomsett recovered from a tardy start and then being stuck behind a below par Gethen for most of the race, to take 3rd from Owen in the closing stages and almost passing Edgson on the run to the finish line.

Behind Owen in 4th finished Pattrick 5th from Stolkin in 6th, Gethen 7th, Griffiths 8th, Hughes 9th and Sutton in 10th. Pullen set the fastest lap of the race on lap 6 as he pulled a gap over the rest at 46.54s.

Full results from the weekend’s racing can be found here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr

Round 4 of the BMKR Championships will be held on May 18 – 19th.