With the winter well and truly settling in the club’s summer championships drew to a close, after 10 hard fought rounds at the Sittingbourne circuit.

Timed practice/qualifying and the first group of Pre finals were held on a cold wet and slippery track, causing a few incidents which kept the proactive marshals very busy.

Damian tops Bambino runs.

Damian Barruss-Haggett proved fastest in all three Bambino timed runs, his blue Wright kart handling the change in conditions well. Macauley Bishop took 2nd in the first two runs and third in the final run, Blake Ticehurst was 3rd in the first two runs and 5th in the third. Tighe Wratten was runner up in the final run, backing up his usual pace which was missing on the earlier runs. Eden Spanswick, Mason Bishop, Sherrie Powell, Oscar Cheasley and Charlie Warren completed the diminutive racers.

Reece Lomax takes debut Clubman win.

The Honda Clubman drivers started off the afternoon’s Grand Finals and with the two pre finals proving to be very close affairs, the final was eagerly anticipated, could Alfie Brooks keep up his winning streak ? After 3 laps it looked a very difficult task for him as Declan Russell (Evolution) and Reece Lomax (RHP) had broken clear, with the relative novice Lomax soon asserting himself out in front. His pace was an eye opener for someone who only graduated into Cadets from co-operate karts in August, as he gapped Russell to take a debut win by 3.1 seconds, a win that he will surely never forget. Russell finished in a comfortable second place ahead of a battle over third featuring a quartet of drivers, Ryan Willis, Alfie Brooks, Joseph Knight and Leon Frost, who finished in that order with Project One’s Willis delighted to beat the champion Brooks across the line. A special mention must go to Nathan Marques who finished 9th, this after rolling his kart in a nasty looking incident in pre final 2, a brave effort. Winner Lomax also took the fastest lap.

Bobby Grove romps to JX30 win.

Bobby Grove put in a champions drive in the Junior X30 class, after comfortably winning both pre finals he controlled the final at his own pace leading everyone of the 14 laps, his margin of victory was 1.8 seconds, it has been a fine year long effort for the dad and lad team . Ben Cowley moving up from Mini Max, just pipped Grove to the fastest lap on his way to 2nd place, Brodie Rivers finished 3rd, with Peter Knight 4th in front of Cameron Poynten and Matatora Wada in 5th and 6th. The 6 runners were covered by just over 9 seconds after the 14 laps, showing that the class has closed up over its first year at the circuit, this is encouraging for 2017 especially if a few more runners can be enticed into the burgeoning class.

Tom Lawson spins and wins.

The Mini Max final was a feisty affair with Evolution driver Fraser Brunton jumping off the outside front row grid slot to lead Tom Lawson into turn 1. Lawson shadowed Brunton for 6 laps looking to have pace in reserve over the leader, indeed he made his move to the front on lap 7, but then tellingly not being able to drop Brunton over the remaining laps. Going into the last lap Fraser looked to be fancying his chances of retaking the lead from the #34 kart of Tom and approaching the final chicane was as close as ever – he then tried a lunge down the inside, a move that I have only ever seen pulled off once before in Cadets, he wasn’t successful and the end result was that both karts were spun across the exit, momentarily blocking the track until they recovered with Brunton crossing the line first. Lawson was naturally left frustrated until a post race penalty took the win away from the over ambitious Brunton, who will no doubt have taken the knowledge that he has the speed (with fastest lap) to challenge for victories in the class next year. Benjamin Boras (LICA) overtook the fast starting Josh Wellard (KPi) to finish 2nd, with Wellard 3rd and the penalised Brunton 4th, Austin Pegg rounded out the finishers in 5th.

Saunders and Meapham inherit Senior Rotax spoils.

The Senior Rotax class final was a championship decider, the title resting on the day’s events going right down to the wire between Spencer Younger and Jack Wall. Wall had the looked to have made the perfect start by winning the first pre final and setting off in the lead in the second, that was until his chain broke on the approach to the chicane early on in the race, thus scuppering his chances of a front row start in the Grand final. Lewis Ridd (Team Bull) had won that 2nd pre final and rocketed away in the Grand final, going on to take his first overall win since moving up from the Junior class. Joel Saunders (G-Tech) was a welcome addition to the grid this month after competing in the endurance classes this year, he failed to set a time in qualifying and yet still managed to come through to 2nd place at the flag. Spencer Younger sealed the title by finishing 3rd in front of the frustrated Wall, who complemented Younger post race on a well driven final . Behind Younger in 5th was Mike Ashby (G-Tech), proving that he is one of the fastest Grandads in racing, with a fine drive in his debut season keeping within 1 second of the youngsters in front. James Ockenden finished 6th from ‘Mad boy’ Ryan Haines who also lost a chain during a pre final.

In the 177 class guest G-Tech driver Ben Avery who had qualified on overall pole, took the win from Karl Meapham and Paul Williams. However a post race parc ferme admin check on both class winners, which asked for their engine’s log books to be present, proved disastrous for both Lewis Ridd and Avery, as neither had theirs available to be checked, an administration error which cost both dearly losing their hard earned wins.

Therefore with both class winners disqualified, with Joel Saunders and Karl Meapham inheriting the overall wins and everyone else moving up one place in the results,  Ridd was still classified as having the fastest lap.

Champion Troy Beswick ends year with Junior Subaru victory.

One of the karting success stories of the BMKR has to the the Junior Subaru class and with 30 drivers competing in this year’s championship, it continues to thrive. The affordable 4 stroke karts attract some very talented young drivers, one or two that have sampled other classes with success but, ultimately returned to the cut and thrust racing the class provides. As with other championships the cream will rise to the top over the season’s duration, this year Troy Beswick driving his well sorted GMS team kart has proven that right. Already crowned champion before the final round, he won one of the pre finals and then took the lead from an on form pole sitter, Ross Connolly early in the race, after that he pulled away to a 2 second win over Connolly who secured 2nd place in the championship . Charlie Nash always puts on a combative show in the final and he didn’t disappoint with a drive from 5th to 3rd, in 4th Riley Stephenson finished off a great season just snatching 3rd in the championship over Nash, although only two points separated them after 10 rounds. The top 10 was rounded out as follows, in 5th Zac Spence, 6th James Popple, 7th Owen Hizzy, 8th James Black, 9th Joe Hunt and 10th Emily Linscott. Riley Stephenson took the fastest lap in his drive from 6th to 4th.

Zach Ripley returns to the top step in Honda Cadet.

The Honda Cadet class saw a return to form for Zach Ripley which was great to see. The popular DRS driver won both pre finals but had a fired up Oliver Greenall (Evolution) to deal with in the Grand final. After an initial place swap over the opening laps the Evolution driver decided to shadow Ripley and save his challenge for the end of the race. Behind the pair that were beginning to break away were Jack Steadman (Project One) and Callum Gunning (DNL), that was until a charging Jack Clements and Theo Micouris (both Virtus) found their way past into 3rd and 4th. Micouris had started 11th set the fastest lap in his climb up through the field, he then managed to pass Clements who himself had started back in 7th on the last lap as the two had caught the leading pair. Greenall had found a way through Ripley’s defence on lap 10 but then Zach retaliated on the last lap with a decisive move into hairpin 1, which he held until the finish line, Greenall was still on his rear bumper to take 2nd, with Micouris and Clements 3rd and 4th,  just needing one more lap to have challenged the two in front. It was great driving by all four in a good clean exciting final. Gunning took 5th a little way behind and Liam McNeilly moved up into 6th during the race.The top 10 was rounded out by Kristian Brookes, James Higgins, Jack Steadman and Rubens Stanislaus. Absent Max Herbert had already secured the championship, Micouris took 2nd from winner Ripley and Gunning, with Brookes and Stanislaus 5th and 6th .

Thomas Rotherham steps up and takes win in Junior Max.

The final race of the BMKR season was for the Junior Rotax class, a race that featured two 2016 club champions. Oliver Appleby (KPi) had already sealed the championship and he came up against class debutant and the season’s Mini Max champion – Thomas Rotherham (LICA) . The tricky conditions didn’t favour either of them in pre final 1 as Sean Berry (2nd in the 2016 championship) took the win from Rotherham. The latter took the 2nd pre final and so the scene was set for a decider between Rotherham, Berry and Appleby in the final. The LICA driver had other ideas though as he lit his #15 kart off of the grid at the start and pulled safely away to secure a debut overall win by 3.1 seconds, Appleby on old tyres could do nothing about Rotherham in front and had to settle for second, ahead Henry Ayers in third and Berry in 4th. Luke Freestone finished 5th from Jake Kolosowski 6th and Zak Parfett 7th with James Wharrier retiring.  Thomas Rotherham took the fastest lap on his way to winning and sets us up for a mouth watering 2017, battling against the class regulars and champion Oliver Appleby.

The full championship results can be found at – http://www.mylaps.com/en/championships/6141 (under BMKR )