Sunday 25th October saw the 8th round of the Bayford Meadows Kart Club summer championships, take place in near perfect conditions at the friendly Sittingbourne circuit.

All the competitors had two qualifying races before their finals in the afternoon.

The first final was for the Honda Cadet class which unusually was dominated by one driver Bradley Hardy. Fresh from a fine fourth place the previous weekend at Buckmore Park, the 9 year old found some speed from his Zip chassis that the others couldn’t, winning by 3.9 seconds.

Daniel Gale had pushed Hardy in the pre final but had no answer this time, still it was a fine second place over Callum Tadman in third with Oliver Greenall, Kristian Brookes and Oliver Owen rounding out the top six.

In the Mini Max final Oliver Appleby shot off the line to lead with Ronnie Foster and Freddy Simpson-Stacey close behind. After the early laps had run, Simpson-Stacey worked his way through into the lead, after a grassy moment into the infield hairpin had slowed Appleby.

This trio stayed close together all race but the positions remained the same, with Simpson-Stacey winning by 0.31 seconds, from Appleby and Foster, the latter having secured the Summer championship with the result. Connor Garlick finished fourth from Thomas Rotherham and Henry Ayers.

19 karts filled the grid for the Junior Subaru final, always a close and competitive class and this final didn’t disappoint. Three drivers once again had an advantage over the rest of the field, Jenson Harvey and Max Goodwin who have fought hard all year, were joined by Charlie Nash.

Goodwin held sway over Harvey until the second half of the race when Harvey found his way through, thereafter Goodwin could not find a way back past, having to be careful as Nash was nibbling away at his rear bumper.

Harvey nonchalantly took the chequered flag with Goodwin alongside, the margin was a mere 0.082 seconds, with Nash only 0.330s behind, a very close finish. The rest of the top six was filled by Nathan Jeffrey, Thomas Lawson and Riley Stephenson, with the rest of the field entertaining throughout.

Only five karts made it out for the Senior Rotax final. Kent Cup champion and Sittingbourne resident Jonathan Wilkes drove as though he needed to be somewhere urgent, by driving away rapidly from the other four, his advantage at the flag was out to 8.14 seconds, from a close dice for second between Jack Wall, Sam Gumbell and Luke Beeson, they finished in that order with Antonio Sagona recovering from a trip into the chicane tyres, in fifth.

The Junior Rotax final was like a tense thriller. Lewis Ridd started from his first ever pole position after an incident in the second Pre final delayed many. Ridd drove beautifully for half the races’ distance, holding off the others until Jenson Harvey (Junior Subaru winner), tore through the pack along with a fired up Liam Carter to take a thrilling win. Harry Gent also nicked past Ridd to take third place, Sean Berry and Liam Hamblin bumped into each other several times to take fifth and sixth behind a happy Ridd.

The largest entry of the day for 20 karts, made up the grid for the Honda Clubman class. Some qualifying mishaps had delayed some of the classes’ quickest drivers and allowed Oliver Greenall to steal a march on the pack. This takes nothing away from Greenall and his yellow and blue Evolution kart though, as he was imperious on the day, winning by 8.18 seconds, this sort of winning margin is rarely seen in this class.

Ambition driver Mika Renzullo, KPi’s Luke Garlick and Jamie Perilly initially tried to stay with Greenall but gradually slipped back.

Three of the drivers suffering from qualifying dramas teamed up as one high speed train and tore through the field, Alex Moody, Callum Gunning and Sebastian Bloch, the trio eventually made their way up to fight over the runner up spot, although at the flag it was Bloch in second, Gunning in third and Anthony Amato in fourth, Moody had some contact and slipped to fifth, with early flyer Renzullo in sixth.

Having three timed runs during the day were the diminutive Bambino drivers. Top point scorer over the amalgamated sessions was Luke Hayward, in his last drive in the class. Second was Jaron Kiff from Alfie Hunt, Nathan Marques, Jack Theobald and Sherrie Powell.