Buckmore Park played host to the final round of its winter series on Sunday with cold and wet weather testing those in attendance to the full.
Late morning hail, sleet and rain gave way to a damp afternoon; this led to a change in the usual running order in one or two classes.
The Junior Max class kicked off the finals – throughout the qualifying races, it had been Charlie Bennett, Myles Apps and Tyler Sullivan who had been sharing the podium positions. The final continued this trend with Bennett coming through to take a commanding win and also wrap up the championship. Apps and Sullivan were never far apart in second and third with Michael Smith in fourth from Ben Steward and Daniel Lamport.
A father and son outfit dominated the Honda Cadet class this month with Luke Whitehead comfortably winning both the Pre Final and the Main Final.
Luke’s dad absolutely nailed the Kart set up for the conditions, allowing him to set the benchmark for his fellow young cadet drivers. Behind the new winter champion, Harry Thompson drove a blinding race from eleventh on the grid to take a superb second place at the finish. Harrison Blake had held the second spot until the last lap dropping to third at the flag, with Ollie Marsh finishing fourth from Nicholas Reeve and Ben Fayers.
The IAME and Honda Clubman cadet classes ran together for this month with the former starting on a grid in front of the latter. That man Harry Thompson who was starting his second final, set off like a mad March Hare in the IAME class, leaving his fellow competitors in his wake, perhaps having already driven in a final had ensured that he was fully up to temperature!
Behind him a good dice for second place ended with Maxwell Dodds taking the spot from Charlie Typaldo-Cole – Sam Shaw took the overall championship win. In the Clubman class Alex Moody only just held off the ever present Sebastian Bloch, Frankie Elwell was third in front of Declan Lee who had thankfully recovered from last month’s crash which had halted the final. In the novice class, Edward Pearson won form Alex Ley. Sam Heading had already secured the Clubman championship and chose to race in the Honda Cadet class for this month.
A quintet of Mini Max drivers was all that appeared for this month’s final round, with clashing events elsewhere taking their toll on entries. Evolution racing’s Ronnie Foster drove faultlessly to lead every lap and take the win and championship from Patrick Kibble who had won the earlier pre final, it was close at the finish with Kibble only half a second behind in Foster’s cold slipstream. Oliver Appleby, Jamie Rogers and Conner Garlick rounded off the finishers.
The last race of the day was for the Senior Max drivers. What looked on paper to be an epic final was almost spoilt at the first hairpin when Taylor Harding took a brave lunge down the inside, this paid off for him having emerged in front of Elliot Rice but, behind Tom Prior and Sam Baker were badly delayed.
Harding gamely held off the faster looking Rice for seven laps, defending cleanly and fairly until Elliot picked his passing spot, once in front he controlled the race perfectly to take a great win wrapping up the championship in style. Harding held onto the second spot, behind him Prior and Baker entertained fighting their way towards the front, although it didn’t end well for either of them with both retiring after contact.
Max Read eventually took third from Johnathon Wilkes, with another Jonathon (Humba) finishing fifth. The only 177 driver Matthew Wetherill retired early on in the race, X30 racer, Michael Houghton failed to start the final.
Images courtesy of Paul Babington