Last weekend featured the second post Covid-19 lockdown owner driver event at Sittingbourne’s Bayford Meadows kart circuit.

Once again the meeting was split over two days to adhere to the social distancing requirements which have been put into place.

Saturday’s racing consisted of the Bambinos, Junior Subaru, Junior Clubmax and Honda Cadet classes.

The day’s format began with practice sessions followed by qualifying, before the afternoon’s racing began. One thing that wasn’t included into the well thought out program was the horrendous rain storm that hit the circuit just before the Junior Clubmax Pre final!

The aftermath of which left the circuit team with a massive clear up job to undertake. Eventually it was decided to run the remainder of the event on the shorter three quarter circuit, which avoided the worst of the flooded areas. Full credit must be given to the team of track marshals that enabled the racing to recommence.

Class winners from the day were: Jack Baker, Conner Winfield and Austin Newstead in the Bambinos, Ben Cooke in the Junior Subarus, Ryan Willis took the honours in the Junior Clubmax class and Owen Neave won the Honda Cadet final.

Sunday 16^th.

With the further threat of thunderstorms during the afternoon and the main straight still holding a lot of water, it was decided that day two’s racing was also held over the shorter circuit layout.

Honda Rookies.

Twenty young chargers were entered in the Honda Rookie class and after the morning’s practice and qualifying – Josh Selvadorai ended up on top of the pile, Callum Sims and Antony Parfett were next up in 2^nd and 3^rd. Parfett took the win in the qualifying Heat, with Sims and Tom Ingram-Hill 2^nd and 3^rd.  The Pre final was won by the C.H.D.D Evolution kart of Sims, with Project One’s Ingram-Hill 2^nd and the JSR kart of Selvadorai in 3^rd.

The Final held over 17 laps was an epic affair, with the combination of a shorter lap, greasy wet conditions, plus the added drama of lapping backmarkers, it created a nail biting finish. Initially Ingram-Hill led the opening laps from Sims, with Selvadorai in 3^rd. Rio Licata had started an excellent 4^th but was soon pushed back a place by rapid novice Isaac Doble into 5^th.

Andrew Dixon ran 6^th until a charging Parfett stormed up from 12^th on the grid after a first corner spin in the Pre final. As the race settled down Selvadorai’s kart came alive and he soon moved up and into the lead, although to everyone’s surprise his tenure in front only lasted for one lap, as the determined Ingram-Hill snatched the place back.

As the race progressed the top 6 were barely a couple of seconds apart and it looked to be anyone’s race to win. Ingram-Hill, Parfett (now up to 2^nd) and Selvadorai were at times three abreast, jostling for the lead, Doble was in the mix along with Licata too.

The final lap was quite chaotic as the leaders came up to lap a group who were having their own little battle, just at the final sequence of corners. As they accelerated out of the final hairpin Ingram-Hill took the win, just from a side by side Parfett and Selvadorai, the positions changed post race however as unfortunately for the former Parfett had picked up a 5s nose drop penalty, during his drive up through the field.

This gave Selvadorai 2^nd place, Doble 3^rd, Sims 4^th, Licata and Dixon 5^th and 6^th. In 7^th was Joel Bullen ahead of Jonas Klimas in 8th, Parfett was relegated to 9^th and Ryan Gwenzi finished 10^th. Best lap time was accredited to Selvadorai although Parfett equalled this during the race.

Senior Clubmax.

The GMS pairing of Sean Berry and Riley Stephenson headed the dry qualifying session, ahead of Kieran Ives, Declan Lee and last month’s victor Alfie Brooks. Berry took the heat win from Stephenson and Lee. Ives and Brooks were delayed after the former was tipped around into a spin at the infield hairpin, forcing Brooks to run onto the grass. Berry once again won the Pre final, with his teammate Stephenson finishing closer to him this time. Lee was again a consistent 3^rd, with amazingly Ives up to 4^th and Brooks up to 5^th.

For the 19 lap final the 17 karts accelerated out onto the startline on the now fully wet track, it was clear on the opening lap that Stephenson had his kart set up perfectly for the conditions, as he left the seemingly impervious Berry in his kart’s spray, pulling a gap over the opening laps. Berry was initially struggling and couldn’t stop Lee and then Ives finding their way past into 2^nd and 3^rd. 

Brooks ran 5^th and Joe Wood 6^th both clear of Vincent Osbourne who had karts queuing up behind him. Back at the head of the field Stephenson controlled the pace, well clear of the quite intense battle between Lee and Ives, Berry wasn’t far behind this pair in 4th, Brooks and Wood in 5^th and 6^th were steadily losing ground over the top 4. At the finish Stephenson’s margin of victory was 5.24s, Ives had eventually found a chink in Lee’s armour to take an accomplished 2^nd place, which was well deserved.

Lee was less than a second behind in 3^rd, comfortably clear of Berry in 4^th, who had been no doubt hoping that the two ahead would tangle at some point during their battle. Brooks was unusually off the pace in 5^th, less than a second ahead of Wood who finished a creditable 6^th.

Charlie Hand was having a break from his very promising Junior saloon car racing career, finishing in 7^th, 8^th & 9^th was taken by Lee McCrumlish and Stephen Bouffe, Charlie Blackman completed the top 10.  Fastest lap fell to Stephenson who now looks forward to the British Championship event at Lydd this weekend. Andy Parish was the only 177 class driver in the final as Karl Mepham did not start.

DART racing series.

Guesting at the circuit for this weekend was the DART racing series, the six 4stroke karts providing some good racing with their 3 heats of mixed grids and grand final format.

Nick Williams took two of the heat wins with Archie Sherwood taking the other. In the wet 18 lap final Sherwood drove away clear from the start, as Williams appeared to be struggling more so for grip. Daniel Read and Lewis Nurse had a very entreating dice until Nurse lost touch with a spin at turn one. Read was soon pestering Williams and eventually found a way past into 2^nd place.

Sherwood celebrated a comfortable victory in style with a sideways finger waving drift out of the final corner, which deserved 10 out of 10 for effort! Read was very happy to finish 2^nd but was unfortunately given a 5s penalty for a dropped nose fairing post-race, handing 2^nd back to Williams. Nurse took 4^th and Darren Bartlett was off of his earlier dry pace in 5^th.

Chris Day did not start. Sherwood collected the fastest lap during his emphatic win, which saved me from eating my hat after an earlier prediction to Colin the start line marshal!

Mini Max.

The last race of the day was for the Mini Max class, eight drivers made up the entry for what has become another very competitive class, in which it is difficult to pick a favourite. Mikey Porter topped the qualifying session, just 0.110s ahead of Jai Lawrence and Sebastian Morgan, Holly Miall showed great improvement with 4^th.

The heat win went to Porter from Lawrence and Simon Parfett. Miall was 4^th, Morgan 5^th after suffering rear axle problems. The Pre final was also won by Porter from Lawrence, with Morgan up to 3^rd. The rain began to fall during the latter half of the race, which then set in for the rest of the afternoon.

Porter led the 18 lap final away as Lawrence and Morgan squabbled over 2^nd place. Parfett ran 4^th ahead of Harry Kidd in 5^th, who was trying his best to stay ahead of Lloyd Hare, Luca Osman-Price and Miall. Lawrence hit the front of the field on lap 4 but was immediately heading for the pits after receiving a mechanical warning flag after his chain guard had fallen off, shocking luck for the Project One driver.

Porter’s C.H.D.D Evolution kart regained the lead but had Morgan’s Project One kart breathing down his neck. These two fought hard for a lap or two before Morgan took control over the remaining laps, Porter had nothing left to give, even though he stayed within touching distance of the delighted Morgan who was taking his maiden win in the class. Parfett was 5s behind in 3^rd, but well ahead of the battle for 4^th that Hare managed to take on lap 14 after some robust yet clean defending by Kidd.

Both Osman-Price and Miall spun during their efforts to pass Kidd during the race. Osman-Price eventually took 6^th after Miall had a post-race 5s nose fairing penalty. Morgan complemented his maiden win with the fastest race lap.

Full results from Saturday can be found here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/2020/2020/

With Sunday’s results here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/2020/105/