The third round of the BMKR 2023 championship was held last Sunday 18^th June, with a bumper entry which filled the Sittingbourne circuit, on what started off to be a glorious summer’s day.

Thunderstorms were forecast for later in the afternoon, so the club’s organisers were keen to stick to the programmed timetable throughout. An interesting innovation that the circuit were trialing was a Pace Kart for the Rotax classes, which picked the karts up half a lap before the start, holding a steady pace before peeling off through a gap in the tyres, just ahead of the start line.

Qualifying had the drivers and teams discussing track limits as they were being strictly enforced throughout, a somewhat tricky problem for some of the drivers, as they tried to work out just where they were abusing the imposed limits.

Bambinos.

With the afternoon sun gradually disappearing, the 4 Bambino drivers appeared for their Final. Albi -Jay Stubbs sat in pole position after winning the Pre Final from Freddie Williams, who had put up a good fight in the early laps of the race.

Nico Wesolowski and George Lilley completed the grid. As with the Pre final, Freddie was taking the fight to Albi-Jay in the opening laps, leading at mid distance before he lost the tow and dropped away from an imperious leader.

By the end of the race Albi-Jay had built up a 5.1s lead as he crossed the finish line after 9 laps. Freddie was pleased to have had a good showing after last month’s disappointment and he also took the fastest lap of the race too. Both Nico and George were some way behind in 3^rd and 4^th as they got to grips with the circuit, this being their debut appearances.

Senior Club Max.

Josh Pullen was having a superb day with victories in the morning’s Heat and the Pre Final, as he lined up in pole, looking odds on favourite for the win. Jonathan Dalton sat alongside the pole man, making a rare appearance at the circuit and going well.

Joe Gethen was 3rd on the grid and after having missed morning qualifying – was on a charge with fastest laps in the bag from the Heat and Pre Final. Ciaron Edgson was also making up for a non-finish in the Heat by lining up 4^th after an impressive drive in the Pre Final.

Sam Chappell was another making up for lost ground, he was 5^th on the grid with Joe Wood alongside. The 4^th row consisted of Oliver Johnson and welcome returnee to the class – Zac Dear. Frederic Lecomte and Mollie Griffiths headed the 5^th row. 

At the start Pullen led Dalton and Gethen away and over the opening laps looked very comfortable in the lead, although it wasn’t long before Gethen slipped ahead of Dalton for 2^nd.Edgson too soon demoted Dalton for 3^rd as Dalton then ran 4^th ahead of Chappell in 5^th. 

By half distance the leading trio started to bunch up and soon Pullen sensed that Gethen was on his bumper, as he started to defend his line. It didn’t take long for Gethen to seize the opportunity to pass, as he wrestled his way ahead at the bottom hairpin. Edgson also scythed past Pullen to run 2^nd, leaving Pullen now in 3^rd.

As the laps ticked down the trio ran together to the finish of the race, Pullen looked the fastest at this stage, but could not find a way back ahead, even managing to trip up over Edgson on the last lap which quite possibly led to a post-race nose drop penalty. Gethen took the win just ahead of Edgson with 0.25s separating the pair after 12 laps.

Pullen dropped to 6^th with his penalty applied, lifting Dalton to 3^rd Chappell to 4^th and Oliver Johnson to 5^th. In 7^th was Jack Badger, who had a busy day recovering from various contretemps, likewise Joshua Pattrick who finished 8^th. 9^th & 10^th were Lecomte and Oliver Hutchings. Gethen topped his day of fastest laps with a time of 46.74s in the Final.

Honda Cadet 200/160.

The two grids of Honda Cadets were up next, with the 200cc engines leaving the grid first. Ronnie Smart kept up his recent stellar run of wins at the circuit with a 4.58s win over a great scrap for the runner up position, which eventually went the way of Freddie Wall.

He managed to hold off his friend and rival Jack Cope, who had to recover from a poor opening lap which had dropped him to the back. Arthur Way (4^th) Ethan Okoro (5^th) and Lewis Riley were in the mix for 2^nd all race long and kept everyone watching entertained throughout with some great racing, Riley Taylor was agonisingly just off of this bunch in 6^th.

Daniel Butcher shrugged off a sore arm to take control of the 160cc class right from the start of the day and emphatically won the Final by nearly 8s from Leon Knight in 2^nd, Ricky Junior Mackintosh 3^rd, Jack Wykes 3^rd, Alfie Clark 4^th and John Reynolds in 5^th. Fastest laps in the classes went to the respective winners, Smart (52.07s) and Butcher (52.88s).

Senior Club Max 177.

The class that just keeps on growing was up next, with 22 karts signed on for qualifying in the morning. Last month Adam Clark came away victorious after an overzealous attempt to take the lead back fired on Thomas Lawson. This time however Lawson got it right, as he passed the fast starting Clark going into the 3^rd lap and then once ahead managed to control the gap to the finish to win by 2.1s. Clark had once again found the outside grid slot worked to his advantage as he snatched the early lead from pole man Lawson, he just didn’t quite have the pace to match the rapid GMS driver. Daniel Wright has been going very well lately with the help of Lee Jenner as he kept the two in front of him honest with 3^rd place. Starting from the 3^rd row Mike Ashby slipped past Ben Pawsey early on to take a solid 4^th place in his ASM run kart. Tyler Cox moved up 2 places from the start to take 5^th, passing both Pawsey and Matt Hickson along the way. Pawsey finished 6^th, from Hickson in 7^th. Ben Avery tried his hardest to pass teammate Hickson ahead of him but just ran out of time in the end, finishing 8^th. Steve Thompson came home 9^th in front of Aaron Deacon on 10^th. The fastest lap went on the 11^th tour to Lawson with a time of 47.37s.

Rotax Cadet.

Eight Rotax Cadet karts took their turn to run behind the Pace Kart next and right from the start Harrison Page laid down his marker swooping through the first turn to take the lead from pole position. Daniel Butcher fresh from his win in the 160 Cadets followed his CHDD teammate into 2^nd place, with Matthew Lilley in hot pursuit behind him.

Henry King lost out to his GMS teammate Ted Deeprose from the off and took a couple of laps to move ahead into 4^th. Deeprose held 5^th from Dimitar Uzinov, Rory Pizzey and Joseph Cox.

The only place changes in the run to the finish were for Cox and Pizzey swapping on lap 3, as Page took a 3.6s win over Butcher in 2^nd, Lilley not far behind in 3^rd, the somewhat delayed King in 4^th, Deeprose holding off Uzinov for 5^th & 6^th with Cox and Pizzey 7^th & 8^th. Page also took the fastest lap setting a 51.9s time on the 9^th lap.

Junior Club Max.

The 15 junior Club Max drivers flew out of the dummy grid and onto the circuit as the skies began to look very threatening. Topping the Pre Final and taking the pole position was former circuit champion Liam Thomas, who has been away racing elsewhere this year. He looked very comfortable in his GMS kart all day, even driving from the last to first in the Pre Final, penalised after he hadn’t followed the Pace Kart correctly at the initial start.

Jack Baker driving out of the Roalf racing awning for this weekend, shared the front row and was keen to score a good result. Fletcher Jamieson put his kart on pole in qualifying, even after having his fastest lap removed for a track limits violation.

Jacob Hobbs shared the 2^nd row with the Jenner kart of Jamieson, Alfy Hemingway and Kristian Stefanov were next up on the 3^rd row. Finlay Underwood shared the 4^th row with Blueberry’s Ryan Welsh. The fifth was made up of Project Ones Felix Stolkin and Blueberry’s Luke Broadbent.

At the green light start Baker ran side by side with Thomas, but it was the latter that led after the first lap. Jamieson had a bit of a tardy getaway as Hobbs ran 3^rd for a couple of laps before their roles were reversed. Hemingway didn’t launch too well as Stefanov ran 5^th from Underwood in 6^th.

As the drivers settled into their groove, Thomas initially looked comfortable leading, in fact the top 4 remained the same with only Stefanov falling behind Underwood in 5^th and 6^th. Just after half distance however rain started to fall, initially not too hard as the slippery surface flags were flown to alert the drivers. Thomas now looked to be over cautious as Baker was closing in, Jamieson meanwhile was flying and soon moved up into 2^nd putting pressure on Thomas.

On the last lap Thomas was defending hard from Jamieson and Baker, the former had a good run into the first of the infield hairpins but was cut off by Thomas, Jamieson was possibly a little aggrieved by this and as they braked for the 2^nd infield right hairpin, he nudged the back of the leader forcing him offline and giving Jamieson the lead.

This didn’t last long however as Thomas wasn’t having any of that, lunging into the next left barely addressing his speed, which culminated in T-boning Jamieson and leaving both of them angrily gesturing to each other while parked on the track! Baker steered his Roalf kart past the incumbent two and happily set off to take his maiden class win, ahead of Underwood and Hobbs, who were both delighted with their late race bonus. Welsh up from 8^th also flew in the slippery conditions to finish 4^th ahead of Hemingway who must have taken some relief in scoring a good result this month in 5^th. Stefanov took 6^th, Callum Sims was 7th, Jack Pullen 8^th ahead of Jack Theobald 9^th and Stolkin 10^th.

Both Thomas and Jamieson were penalised for their on track actions post-race and I’m sure that they both learnt a thing or two from the officials. Jamieson recorded the fastest lap, setting a 47.07 time on the 5^th tour.

Junior Club Max Rookie/Libre .

The last race of the day was actually held in the dry as the rain abated for 15 minutes or so, before returning with a vengeance, no doubt some relief to the drivers, although I’m sure that some would have preferred a wet track. With 22 karts entered the Heats were split with Ollie Orteu taking two wins and Joel Bullen the other. These two annexed the front row with their wins, with Philip Tatum and Harry Russell sharing row 2.

On row 3 was Archie Beard, back racing again after a 7 month layoff, alongside him was Ethan Page. Jack Robinson and Ciaron Colhoun-Ferguson completed the 4^th row, Freddie Leppenwell and Dexter Gregory the 5^th.The B final qualifiers were Charles Mathais, Byron Scott Simmons, Alexander Colantuono and Reece Stevens.

The two Mini Max drivers enjoyed their last race of the day in the B Final, Dexter Collins overcame being involved in a first corner crash, to catch and pass an every improving Riley Mason-Lewis to take the class win and fastest lap.

With the circuit now dry the Pace Kart was moving aside for the last race of the day and Ollie Orteu was quick out of the box leading pole man Bullen over the opening few laps. Harry Russell ran third early on taking Ciaran Colhoun-Ferguson with him as Philip Tatum slipped from third to 5^th.

Bullen’s Roalf racing kart was now putting pressure on Orteu and after a couple of stabs managed to pull off the move for the lead on the 3^rd lap, he then controlled his pace without making any mistakes to take the victory and fastest lap at 47.15s. Orteu maintained a watching brief over the leader without managing to mount an attack to finish just 0.31s behind in 2^nd place.

Tatum overcame his tardy start to find a way past a stubborn Russell to take the last podium spot in 3^rd. Russell finished 4^th, from Ethan Page in 5^th after Archie Beard picked up a drop down nose penalty relegating him from an on the road 5^th to 7^th overall, Dexter Gregory taking 6^th. 8^th, 9^th and 10^th were Jack Robinson, Toby Street and Max Osbourne.

Full results from round 3 can be found here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/e/131304

Round 4 of the BMKR championship will be held on Sunday 16^th July.