Inclement weather on Sunday morning had everyone using wet tyres for qualifying and the majority of the day’s races, with only the last few of the afternoon’s Finals held in the dry.

The Bambino races that were held on Saturday however experienced dry Spring like conditions. Five drivers were entered in the diminutive Bambino class this month, with Ernie Wade coming out on top to take the Final win by 13s, from an exciting dice between Freddie Williams and Jenson Drummond – which saw the two in a photo finish with Freddie coming out on top by just 0.01s! The Electric powered kart of Kai Erginsoy finished 4th just ahead of Ollie Spooner-Green in 5th.

Honda Cadet.

The first Final of Sunday afternoon was held when the track was still slippy although a dry line had started to appear out on the back section of the circuit. 7 karts set off from their standing start with Jack Cope and Riley Taylor setting the pace at the front. Taylor having won the morning’s very wet Heat race after Cope spun while leading, the latter made amends in the Pre-Final though taking the win over his adversary and good friend Taylor.

Noah Clare wasn’t quite as close to the pairing ahead as he was last month, he ran 3rd in front of William Spencer in 4th, George Pickett in 5th, Ibrahim Hussain 6th and Tristen Bennett in 7th.

The two leaders were running nose to tail throughout and even though Taylor took the fastest lap on the penultimate tour (55.28s), he could not challenge the well driven kart of Cope who won by 0.22s after 11 laps of continued pressure.

Clare was 4s behind in 3rd with Spencer a similar distance behind him in 4th. Pickett took 5th from Bennett in 6th after Hussain had a nose fairing penalty, thereby losing his hard-fought last lap position gain which dropped him to 7th.

Senior Club Max 177.

Tyre choice had been hard to predict for the Senior Club Max 177 Final, with the circuit conditions improving rapidly due to the rising humidity levels, while the drivers were lined up on the dummy grid.

BM plate holder Oliver Hutchings had been on top form during the day lining up on pole position, he chose to stick on wets, although Frederic Lecomte alongside him chose slicks. Second row starters Jason Page and Michael Gibbons went for wets as did Daniel Wright and Tyler Cox on the 3rd row. The 4th row was slick shod with Lewis Deacon feeling he had nothing to lose by switching and Ben Avery leaving it late to choose the same option.

Chaos ensued over the opening laps, and it was hard to know where to look with the lead changing hands repeatedly as the wet shod drivers battled it out, while the slick shod runners built some heat into their colder rubber. Hutchings had led initially, before Wright stormed through only to fall back behind the Hutchings on the next lap.

Page was also forcing his way to the front, running side by side with Hutchings at the start of the 4th lap, things came to a head between the two unfortunately on the exit of the first infield hairpin, as Page and Hutchings became entangled shooting off into the tyre barrier on the outside of the corner, their chances over in an instant and tempers flaring.

Taking advantage of the mayhem ahead were slick shod runners Lecomte, Deacon and Avery and it was clear to see that the winner would come from one of this trio. For Lecomte however there was drama around the corner as he had to retire due to his engine working loose in its mounts, as he had failed to retighten them after an earlier set up change!

This left an inspired Deacon out in front with Avery breathing down his neck. Indeed, the black kart of Avery was soon in front although his front fairing was looking ominously as if it had dropped, this then required him to be at least 5s ahead of Deacon in order to take the win. This is where Deacon starred as he kept Avery firmly in sight until the end of the race, even setting the fastest lap (48.25s) on the last lap, rewarding him with a much-deserved win when the aforementioned 5s penalty was applied to Avery’s finishing time.

Avery was still well clear of the wet shod drivers who filled the remaining places, with Wright taking 3rd, Cox 4th, Gibbon’s 5th, Dennis Trzeciak 6th, David Ives 7th, Gerry Poore 8th and Reece Anscombe 9th.

Rotax Cadets.

The next Final was for the Rotax Cadet class with 6 drivers appearing this month. Dimitar Uzonov has shown flashes of speed in the class this year and looked to be heading to a good win on Sunday, that was until Lewis Herberston managed to catch and pass him on the 8th lap, thereafter pulling clear to take his first win by 3.52s.

Jack Blackman and Ellis Honey saw their chances of victory disappear on the opening lap when they tangled, delaying both. Last month’s winner Blackman did recover to 3rd by the finish but two 5s penalties subsequently dropped him to 5th behind Oliver Maskell in 3rd and Joseph Cox in 4th. Honey’s early delay meant that he could not recover any further than 6th by the finish. Fastest lap went to Blackman with a 53.56s lap.

Junior Club Max Rookie/Junior Libre Club Max.

The Rookie Junior class followed on next with 15 karts taking to the circuit for their Final. Ayda Sexton has been close to winning this year having proven to be consistently quick since joining the class and on Sunday she was in fine form, taking Heat and Pre-Final wins which placed her on pole position for the Final. Ruben Mamelok had proven to be her nearest rival as he lined up next to Ayda on the front row. The 2nd row had Che Marriott-Dixon and Jasmine Keepax side by side, they were ahead of Wiliam Aldis and Daniel Butcher on the 3rd row. Next up were Freddie Wall now fully recovered from his painful crash last month and Oliver Turner.

From the start of the Final Sexton was flying, immediately pulling clear of a brief fight over second between Mamelok and Marriott-Dixon which the former came out on top of. Wall had made great progress to climb up 4th as Keepax tumbled through the pack, he then hit 3rd passing Marriott-Dixon who was also dropping away from the front of the field like Keepax.

As the laps clicked down Sexton was well in control out front and went on to take a much deserved first class win by 1.22s from Mamelok in 2nd and Wall in 3rd. Daniel Adomaitis had raced through the field from 13th to 4th but had picked up 10s worth of penalties along the way, dropping him down to 10th in the final order.

Alexander Campbell gained 10 places to take the 4th spot, from class debutant Leon Knight who was enjoying his first race of the year in 5th. Marriott-Dixon ended up 6th, George Cole gained 8 places to finish 7th, from Turner in 8th and Aldis in 10th. Keepax and Daniel Butcher ended up colliding on the 6th lap to end both their races early. The fastest lap went to Cole during his climb up through the pack with a 47.53s lap. Tabitha Mellor was once again the only runner in the Libre Mini Club Max class, she finished 13th overall.

Rotax Inter.

Harrison Page has been the one to beat in this class since its inception and he continued this trend with wins in the Heat and Pre-Final over Elijah Hazelwood and the other 7 drivers who were entered in the class. Page led away the Final from Hazelwood, Harry Wright, Cordell Sinclair, Alex Shepherd and Zak Jennings compiling the top 6.

Unlike the previous two races in the class, Page didn’t pull clear of Hazelwood and by the end of the third lap the GMS Motorsport kart of Hazelwood was through and into the lead. Page sat comfortably behind the new leader as the two matched each other’s lap times over the remaining laps, in fact both set their fastest laps on the final tour with Hazelwood’s proving the fastest (49.38s) as the pair crossed the finishing line, positions unchanged, with just 0.2s separating the two.

Wright held 3rd throughout finishing clear of Jennings who had passed Sinclair on the 7th lap in 4th & 5th. Harrison McNealey climbed three positions to take 6th, William Kidd-Glass finished 7th, John Reynolds 8th and Shepherd 9th following a spin on the 6th lap.

Junior Club Max.

18 karts were entered in the Junior Club Max class; however, these were soon whittled down to 16 after two disqualifications during the morning Heat, ended teammates Kajus Zagmanta and Dejaun Bennetts participation in the day’s events. Jack Pullen lined up on the pole from first round winner Aiden Large. Byron Scott-Simmonds and Callum Sims shared row 2, Jacob Hobbs and Connor Tubby the third. On the 4th sat February’s Junior Rookie winner Oliver Liversedge and class debutant Dexter Collins.

At the start Pullen’s Jenner kart was jumped by the JAXX pairing of Scott-Simmonds and Large, with Sims 4th, Tubby 5th, Liversedge 6th and Collins 7th. It was soon all change at the front on lap 3 however as both Large and Pullen jumped ahead of Scott-Simmonds, Sims was still 4th, but Liversedge was now 5th & Harry Russell was up to 6th from 11th on the grid. Both Tubby and Collins were out of the race at this early stage. Pullen wasn’t letting Large take the winners laurels this month as he edged into the lead on lap 6, a lead that he wasn’t about to relinquish easily after all the hard work he had put in, as he took his first Bayford Meadows win by 0.55s over Large, who set the fastest lap (46.95s) on the 8th tour. Russell topped off what was a very impressive drive in the Final by taking 3rd for GMS Motorsport. Scott-Simmonds finished 4th, Hobbs put in a late charge to take 5th from Liversedge in 6th and Ethan Page 7th. 8th, 9th & 10th went to Max Osbourne, Kosti Dzharov and Max Freeman.

Senior Club Max.

In the Senior Club Max class 14 drivers fought for overall honours this month. Starting from pole position after dominant performances in qualifying, Heat and Pre-Final was James Tomsett, who is now really starting to click with the JAXX team. Last month’s winner Josh Pullen had shadowed Tomsett in the earlier races and shared the front row with him.

For once Joe Gethen enjoyed a trouble-free day as he sat 3rd on the grid with GMS teammate Joshua Pattrick sat alongside him. BM plate holder Ciaron Edgson was next on the 3rd row with Felix Stolkin alongside. On the 4th row was Ella Haines and Daniel Hughes.

Pole man Tomsett led the last race of the day away from the green lights as Gethen sat in close behind, forcing Pullen out wide at turn 1. Edgson soon found a way past Patrtrick to run 4th, as Stolkin ran 6th behind Pattrick, with Hughes in 7th. A first lap coming together had spoiled Haines fine grid spot as she was delayed along with Jake Riches amongst others. At the front Tomsett was banging in consistently fast laps, leaving Gethen unable to challenge him.

Pullen didn’t appear to have the speed that he possessed last month, as he was soon overtaken by Edgson who had set the fastest lap time on lap 6 (46.54s) for 3rd place with Pattrick and Stolkin still 5th & 6th. Over the closing laps it was clear that Gethen was content with his 2nd place as he started to defend his position, dropping away from the leader as he did so.

Tomsett’s margin of victory was up to 4.34s at the finish, it was a dominant end to the perfect day for him. Gethen had a train of karts queued up behind him as he successfully held off Edgson, Pullen, Patrick and Stolkin in 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th at the finish. Finlay Underwood had a troubled day but managed to salvage 7th, from Sean Dabin in 8th, Mollie Griffiths 9th and a penalty hit Hughes in 10th.

Full results can be found here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/e/178143

Round 3 of the BMKR championships will be held over the weekend of April 20th-21st.