The July owner/driver race day meeting was held under clear blue skies and as the temperatures soared during the day, the action on track occasionally almost boiled over!

It was great to see the public back at the circuit again after recent restrictions, as they soaked up the atmosphere and enjoyed the near perfect conditions.

Bambinos.

The six young Bambino drivers had 2 runs and a Grand Final after their early morning practice session. The competition for the win in the final was fierce as Jack Cope was back up to full speed this month. He pressed Maria Ruberto’s purple kart for the win in the first of the runs and then managed to hit the top spot in the second. In the Grand Final Maria led away and had Jack’s kart sitting on her bumper over the first 6 laps, shadowing her every move.

Mason Brooks went from 5^th to 3^rd off of the grid ahead of Sebastian Bearman and Jack Blackman in 4^th and 5^th, with Matthew Lilley and Ella Dixon following on behind. Cope saved his best for the last lap by passing Ruberto to take the win, setting the fastest lap too, during what had been one of the closest Bambino finals since the youngsters started racing together.

Brooks was 3.65s behind in 3^rd at the finish, with Blackman getting the better of Bearman over the last lap to take 4^th. Lilley was 6^th behind Bearman in 5th and Dixon finished the 7 laps in 7^th.

Senior Club Max 177s.

The Senior 177 grid has been steadily growing over the season and since former club champion Thomas Lawson has joined the fray, the other drivers have a benchmark to aim for. After Sunday it would seem that the competition still has some way to go to catch the rapid GMS driver. Lawson commanded the final with a 8.28s win over his team mate Michael Gibbons in 2^nd place, 3^rd went to Dennis Trezciak, from James Pagden in 4^th.

Andy Locke had held 4^th up until half race distance before slipping back to 5^th overall. Behind these there was a tale of retirements and disqualifications as the temperatures ran a bit too high on the opening lap! Billy Watts retired after 4 laps, James “Adam” Pell was classified 7^th after not completing a lap and both Andy Parish / Lewis Holt-Brown were disqualified for driving infringements. Lawson cruised to the fastest lap on the 10^th tour.

Mini Club Max.

The eight Mini Club Max entries proved to be very competitive throughout the qualifying races, with Lloyd Hare taking pole position for the final. Morning Heat winner Josh Selvadorai lined up alongside him on the front row, the 2^nd row consisted of James Sherrington and Tighe Wratten, behind them on row 3 was Jack Pullen and Tom Ingram-Hill. Luca Osman-Price and Ryan Welsh completed the 8 kart grid.

Hare led away what was to be a 14 lap final, Selvadorai didn’t have a great start running in 4^th; ahead of him Sherrington & Pullen had made good starts to run 2^nd & 3rd. As the race settled down Selvadorai began his charge back up, passing Pullen and then immediately attacking Sherrington, unfortunately this didn’t go well as the two drivers collided on the exit of turn 1, with Selvadorai on the inside riding up over Sherrington’s immaculate looking C.H.D.D. kart, which came off the worse as Sherrington was left facing the wrong way on the circuit, with his kart damaged.

Once he had re-composed himself, he was soon back underway, although now too far back to challenge for the win. Selvadorai escaped the incident intact and set about consolidating his hard earned 2^nd place. Hare now had a comfortable gap over the rest and cruised onto victory, securing the fastest lap on the way. Selvadorai was only just over 2s behind at the finish, Jack Pullen had his best result yet in the class, taking a well-deserved 3^rd after a for once trouble free day. 

Tom Ingram-Hill came out on top of a race long dice with Tighe Wratten to grab 4^th on the last lap, 6^th less than a second behind Wratten was Luca Osman-Price. Novice Ryan Welsh was 7^th from the dejected Sherrington in his damaged kart in 8^th.

Junior Subaru.

Liam Thomas annexed pole position for the Junior Subaru final after taking a good win from grid 4 in the Pre final, alongside him sat Bentley Lovegrove-Fowler who had proven once again to have the pace to run at the front. Next up were William Fallon and Ciaron Edgson, both hungry and keen to take the win in the final. Jenson Taylor and Jace Goslett filled the 3^rd row and the final row was completed by Ryan Dell and George Oxford.

We’ve had some excellent racing in this class all year, although one or two incidents have marred the outcome of the events, Sunday’s final continued the trend, with some outstanding racing interrupted by another clash of wheels. Thomas led Lovegrove-Fowler, Fallon and Edgson away over the opening few laps, Goslett held 5^th from Oxford, Taylor and Dell.

By lap 4 the heat was turned up on track as Thomas was passed by Lovegrove-Fowler and Fallon, Thomas then tried to respond at the 2^nd hairpin but braked too hard causing himself to half spin onto the grass and lose a lot of momentum – now down in 6^th. By lap 6 the battle for the lead was close to boiling over and at one point the karts ran 5 abreast along the infield straight!

Through the pandemonium Goslett found himself out in front, with Oxford now up to 2^nd, Lovegrove-Fowler was 3^rd, Fallon and Edgson were fighting over 4^th. Thomas could sense a chance to get back into the fight as those in front slowed themselves up. Goslett’s tenure in front didn’t last too long as soon Lovegrove-Fowler worked his way back to head the field, Edgson was up to 2^nd and closing in on the leader.

As they headed into the 12^th lap Edgson made a move on Lovegrove-Fowler into the bottom hairpin, the latter held his ground and the inevitable contact was made, with both drivers losing time and the chance of winning the race. Thomas pounced during the chaos and managed to leapfrog into the lead going into the final lap, going on to take the most unlikely of wins. Goslett was just under a second behind in 2^nd place, Lovegrove-Fowler recovered to take 3^rd from Fallon and Oxford in 4^th and 5^th. Edgson came over the line in 6^th, Taylor 7^th and Dell 8^th.  Thomas’s recovery charge earned him the fastest lap of the race.

Junior Club Max.

A full grid of 24 karts gridded up for the Junior Club Max final. Project One’s Jamie Perilly topping the grid as he continues to show his stunning recent form at Bayford Meadows. 2^nd & 3^rd on the grid were two drivers who have been hit with bad luck over the recent events, Declan Russell and Joshua Pattrick .Consistent Max Lee once again started from the sharp end of the grid in 4^th, Mikey Porter made a return to the circuit in 5^th – alongside him on row 3 was Finlay Watson. Daniel Hughes and Sebastian Morgan headed row 4, from John Ward and Ethan Bentley on row 5.

From the start it was clear to see that Perilly was keen to shrug off the disappointment of the recent National ‘O’ plate meeting, where his kart was assaulted while he led the race, as he powered away to head the colourful pack though the opening lap.

A mid pack teenage gathering at hairpin 2 split the field and delayed several drivers as others benefitted. Patrick was revealing in his GMS kart as he moved into 2^nd ahead of Russell’s Clarke kart, next up was Roalf racing’s Lee in 4^th, Porter was holding off the threat of Morgan who looked faster at this stage of the race. Back at the front the red P1 kart of Perilly had the race under control, not making a single mistake as he powered away to another victory at the Sittingbourne circuit.

Pattrick looked secure in 2^nd and was matching the leader’s lap times up until half distance. Russell was safe from Lee’s attack in 3^rd, but couldn’t do anything about the two ahead of him, similarly Lee was clear of the raging battle for 5^th between Porter and Morgan.

This tussle ended when Morgan had to retire with a detached rear bumper after clipping Porter’s JAXX kart when passing him. The SAIT pairing of Finlay Watson and Kieran Janali (who had benefited from the first lap incident) put pressure on Porter as the race progressed and eventually passed him over the last lap, to finish 5^th and 6^th. Behind the 7^th placed Porter was Hughes and Bentley in 8^th and 9^th. Brentley Sims rounded out the top 10. 

Senior Club Max.

27 drivers were entered for the Senior Club Max class this month, which meant that a “B” final would be required for 4 drivers to join the top 20 point scorers, after the 3 qualifying heats were run.  This was won by Harry Chamberlin, with Lewis Deacon, Joe Wood and Luke Winter joining him in the “A” final.

Top of qualifying after the three heats was Elliot Rice, as his fastest lap time proved faster that welcome returnee to Bayford Meadows – Jonathan Wilkes, these two would form the front row of the grid for the final. James Tomsett and Jack Bartholomew made up the 2^nd row, Jonathan Dalton and Riley Stephenson comprising the 3^rd. 7^th and 8^th quickest were Charlie Hand and Zac Dear on the 4^th row, the 5^th row featured Ben Slipper and Joshua Pullen.

At the start Rice and Wilkes went side by side through turn 1 with the rest jostling for position behind. At the back of the field there was a coming together, this then magnified at the hairpin turn 2 when Will Tidman collected Luke Winter, leaving the former unable to immediately extract himself from his kart, which initiated a red flag.

Jack Bartholomew meanwhile had driven straight into the pit lane as his kart had refused to run cleaning away from the start, the red flag was a blessing in disguise for him as a quick plug change had him back out on the track for the restart, once Tidman had gingerly extricated himself from his now bent looking kart.

Rice once again got away well but behind him there was chaos as Wilkes tangled with Tomsett, which gave the following Stephenson nowhere to go. All three karts were heavily damaged, although Stephenson did manage to continue for a few laps before calling it a day. Back to the race, Rice led from Bartholomew as the pair got their heads down and started to pull away from Dalton, Hand, Dear, Pullen and Gethin.

After 5 laps Pullen had scythed his way up to an impressive 3^rd , Dalton held station over Gethin and Hand, in 4^th, 5^th and 6^th. Dear was 7^th, Slipper 8^th and Oliver Bullion 9^th, Lewis Deacon had shot his way up to 10^th after a stonking first lap up from his 22^nd place grid position! 

As the race entered its final third there was no one going to catch the two experienced drivers out in front, as Rice controlled the pace over his adversary Bartholomew, with just 0.23 separating them at the finish. Pullen was comfortable in 3^rd and matched his younger sibling – Jack in the Mini Max class, by maintaining the place to the finish. Gethin drove very well to salvage 4^th place after starting 12^th on the grid.

Hand won the battle for 5^th as Dear claimed 6^th from Bullion and Dalton 7^th, 8th. Slipper put on his best performance of the year so far with 9^th, as “B” final winner Chamberlin took advantage of Deacon retiring by taking 10^th. Joe Gethin’s charge up to 4^th enabled him to set the fastest lap of the race.

Honda Cadet & Rookie.

The Cadet classes this month were mixed together, which was set to make an interesting comparison between the two, the 6 Cadets going up against the numeric majority Rookie class of 22 entries.

This would however bring a need for a “B” final to fill the maximum 24 kart grid. Of the eight drivers in the “B” final Matthew Knoesen took the win after Lewis Riley had led the majority of the race, only to have contact with Knoesen around the mound section of the circuit, which sadly left him stranded on the grass and out of the top 4 qualifying positions.

The three other drivers to qualify through with Knoesen were Ollie Oretu, Ashley Hasse and Ralphie Grainger. Bizarrely one driver Frankie Bullett ended his qualifying challenge, stranded on top of a car tyre, which had been dragged around the circuit by Harry Wright!

Antony Parfett and Harry Taylor led away the final from last month’s victor – Fletcher Jaimeson and Jonas Klimas, Archie Beard, Rio Licata and Harry Freeman ran in line astern, with Rylan Blake joining in. Both Taylor and Klimas tangled on lap 3 which moved everyone up 2 spots in the leading train.

The leader Parfett headed the cadet class with Jaimeson snapping at his bumper whenever he could , Licata also in the Cadet class along with the top 2 was running third, holding off the leading Rookie runners which consisted of Beard, Freeman and Blake. Albert Lapper was 7^th overall, Leon Knight 8^th and Alfie Mew 9^th.

With two laps to go the battle at the front heated up as Fletcher took the lead with one lap to go, Parfett wasn’t going to give up the position easily though and took back the lead to the race win after 13 gruelling laps in the summer heat. Licata headed the Rookie train taking third in the cadet class, leading Rookie Beard was glued to his bumper in the knowledge that if he stayed there his class rival Freeman could not pass, he successfully succeeded managing to take a delighted class win.

Freeman finished on his bumper 2^nd in class and he had Blake and Lapper celebrating as they crossed the line behind him in 3^rd and 4^th in class. Mew was next up 5^th in class, Knight 6^th, Levi Merchardie 7th – behind 4^th in the Cadet class Andrew Dixon. Jonas Klimas took the fastest lap, some recompense after his earlier incident with Taylor.

FP4.

The popular FP4 class visited the BMKR club on Sunday, bringing a healthy 21 of their 4 stroke karts along to race 3 heats and a final. David Jarvis and Angus Waddell led the rumbling karts away over their 12 lap final, in what was the last race of a busy day at the circuit.

Unfortunately an incident around the mound on the 3rd lap led to Jarvis and Mark Davies dropping down to midpack. The incident left the colourful #1 kart of Waddell clear in the lead and from there his lead was never under threat as he crossed the finish line 5s ahead of 2nd place man Keith Roberstson, who had passed Aex Whiteley for the position towards the end of the race.

Chris Kelly finished 4th behind Whiteley, James Costin 5th, 6th & 7th were Joshua Francis and Gavin McGill , Roy Fothergill, Adam Malins and the recovering Davies rounding out the top 10. Waddell recorded the fastest lap of the race on lap 11.

Full results form the event can be found here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/2021/4/

The August BMKR club meeting will be held on August 15th.