The return of the Kent kart Championship which alternates between Lydd International and Bayford Meadows, bolstered the grids at the much improved south east Kent circuit.

The ongoing investment by the circuit owners was evident on arrival and the spring sunshine helped to highlight the effort that the club’s team have recently put in.

Round 1 of the Lydd Summer championship coincided with the first round of the popular Kent series, which was returning after a covid induced two year break. The 100 + entries were bolstered by the visiting 4 stroke FP4 class, who always put on a great show in large numbers.

Bambinos.

Nine drivers headed out for the first final of the afternoon, with Bertie Clark having been dominant in the morning’s Heat and later Pre final, starting from pole position. Finley Bedford lined alongside the pole man having finished 2^nd in the Pre final, Beau Blundell & Franklin Street filled the 2^nd row of the final grid.

Bertie Clark shot away from the others at the start of the Final, as he had done in the previous two races, he then built up an unassailable lead to go on and win by over 20s, only then to fail a weight check post-race leaving him unfortunately excluded.

Behind Bertie there was some close and entertaining racing going on, with Finley Bedford coming out on top, ahead of Franklin Street, Ellis Honey and Beau Blundell, as the quartet took the top 4 places . In 5^th was Regan Mew, 6^th Ted Deeprose, and in 7^th Freddie Williams. Jenson Purrell unfortunately joined Bertie Clark as having also been excluded for being underweight.

Cadets.

The seven kart Honda Cadet class Final was closely fought throughout as Teddie Cooper managed to pull an early gap over Lewis Riley, breaking the slipstream tow between the two karts, he then successfully maintained this until race end, although Riley did take the fastest lap in his chase with just 0.61s between the two at the finish.

With his big brother away racing at Brands Hatch, Leon Knight manage to complete the podium with 3^rd place, holding off the Ambition racing duo of Harry Russell and Daniel Butcher in 4^th & 5^th. Johannes Friis finished 6^th in front of Issac Doble in 7^th.

Rookies.

The Honda Rookie class caused the Clerk of the Course a few headaches, when events became heated during the afternoon’s Final. The Pre final win went to Ralphie Branscombe after a close race in which the lead changed hands between him and Sebastian Bearman, with the latter holding to the top spot until near the end of the race. Some equally close racing had been going on behind the leaders as Jack Cope came out on top to finish 3^rd, from Alfie Fox in 4^th.

As the lights went out at the start, Branscombe & Bearman stared eye to eye as they left the front row together, this lasted as far as the first chicane where Branscombe was left bogged down in the bark on the outside of the corner, leaving him way back in 8^th place once he had regained his momentum.

This left Bearman out in the lead, however he wasn’t pulling away from Cope, Fox and Alfie Clark in 2^nd, 3^rd & 4^th. The matching Project One karts of Freddie Wall and Ronnie Smart were next up in line running 5^th & 6^th. As the race wore on Branscombe was making rapid progress back up through the pack to run 4th, as ahead the leaders had held each other up while dicing amongst themselves.

Fox was now 2^nd behind Bearman with Clark in 3^rd, when Branscombe somehow managed to jump past both of them on the 12th lap. Moments later though Branscombe’s efforts were over, as he ended up in the bark. An attempt for the lead went sour, leaving both him and Bearman off of the circuit, with the latter ending up visiting the circuit’s medical crew. Branscombe’s day was to get worse, as he was later excluded post-race.

The battle for the lead was now between Fox, Clark & Cope and after a tense final lap the trio were covered by just 1 second as they crossed the finish line, with the Clarke kart of Fox taking the win, ahead of a delighted Alfie Clark and Jack Cope. Wall and Smart finished close together in 4^th & 5^th, Maddison Chappell took 6^th, Mathew Lilley 7^th and Riley Taylor 8^th. Despite his exclusion Branscombe was still given the race’s fastest lap.

Mini Max/Junior Subaru.

Small grids in both the Mini Max (3) and Junior Subaru (4) classes, resulted in the two mixing for the day. Antony Parfett set a blistering pace in the Mini Max class to take a dominant win overall and fastest lap, from Ryan Gwenzi and Jack Brown.

 In the Junior Subaru class William Fallon came out on top, after his nearest threat Jenson Taylor endured a day of two halves – after winning the morning’s Heat, he was penalised 5 laps in the Pre final, before then retiring in the Final with throttle linkage problems, we hope he can bounce back stronger after that. Ryan Dell finished runner up to Fallon in the Final and Presley Walker took 3^rd.

Junior Rotax.

The Junior Rotax class provided some outstanding racing on Sunday, although a contentious moment in the Final dampened the result somewhat. The Pre final was won by Roalf racing’s Freddie Ingram after Freddie Lloyd and Finley Watson tripped over each other on the last lap. Finishing 2^nd in the Pre final and therefore lining up alongside Ingram was KRM’s Ryan Micallef. Simon Parfett and Watson were on the 2^nd row and Jacob Hobbs and Lloyd on the 3^rd row of the 11 kart grid.

Ingram led the field away in to the narrow chicane from the start with Micallef slotting in behind, Lloyd had made a great start and by the end of a frantic opening lap found himself somehow in the lead. Over the next few laps the Evolution kart of Lloyd and Ingram fought tooth and nail at the head of the field, with Ingram leading after 5 laps.  Watson was up to 3^rd with Micallef 4^th, Lloyd Hare had brought himself into contention up from the back to 5^th and Liam Thomas ran 6^th.

As they approached the end of the 10^th lap, Lloyd towed up alongside Ingram at the end of the long back straight – this is where things didn’t quite go to plan, as Ingram was forced off into the bark on the outside of the corner, his chance of victory over.

Lloyd appeared affected by this as he soon slipped back to 4^th, leaving Watson, Hare and Micallef running as the top 3. This was how the dramatic race ended as Watson took the win, Hare 2^nd and fastest lap, with Micallef completing the top 3 in 3^rd. Lloyd was a subdued 4^th, Thomas and Hobbs 5^th & 6^th. Stefan Kaczmarczyk finished 7^th, Parffet 8^th after an early trip off the circuit delayed his progress, 9^th was a very frustrated Ingram, who deserved more from the race. 10^th & 11^th were Josh Pollitt and Aston Munday.

Rotax 177.

Not to outdone by the Junior class, the 177s also provided us with some thrilling racing. The Pre final win fell to Buster Mepham after Thomas Lawson and Billy Watts tripped over each other, Richard Friend and Daryl Maxwell finished 4^th & 5^th, Andy Locke 6^th.

At the start of the Final circuit specialist – Mepham stormed away leaving Watts and Lawson to once again fight over 2^nd, this lasted until the 4^th lap when almost inevitably contact between the two dropped Watts back to 6^th and Lawson all the way down to 11^th.

Maxwell now headed Friend in 2^nd & 3^rd behind the leader who had opened up a clear gap out in front. As the laps clicked down the top 3 remained the same, Watts managed to clear Locke and then Shaun Tear to move up to 4^th, Lawson was absolutely flying and by lap 13 of 17 had caught Watts, moving ahead on the following lap, before Watts cheekily grabbed it back. Mepham eventually won by 3.95s ahead of a very close race over 2^nd between Maxwell & Friend, who had nothing between them at the finish.

Lawson had a good run at Watts as they approached the finishing line and they ended up crossing the timing strip side by side, this all proved to no avail however as Watts suffered a 5s drop nose penalty and Lawson was excluded for being underweight. So 4^th fell to Mike Ashby who had been calmly making his way up through the pack after starting near the back of the grid due to a troublesome Pre final. Watts’s penalty left him 5^th in front of Locke 6^th, Luke Bailey’s DG kart took 7^th, Dennis Trzeciak 8^th, Ben Pawsey 9^th and Geoff Cox 10^th. Lawson’s unrewarded recovery drive, did net him the fastest lap of the race.

Senior Rotax.

The GMS Motorsport team dominated the front of grid for the Senior Rotax Final, with James Tomsett taking the pole from Joe Gethen. ASM’s Kieran Ives and the MPK kart of Sam Chappell made up the 2^nd row. The third row consisted of Jonathan Dalton and Ciaron Edgson, Nooris Gafoor & Jack Richards the 4^th.

The race took a couple of attempts to get going and when it did Gethen shot across Tomsett’s bows to take the lead over the opening lap. Ives was 3^rd and at this early stage Chappell 4^th. It took Tomsett just two laps to assert himself out in front, as Gethen tried to without avail to hold off Ives for 2^nd place. Gafoor was now up to 4^th, Chappell 5^th and by lap 8 Declan Russell 6^th. Russell had been leading the Pre final and looking very impressive in his Folland kart when it failed on him, leaving him the enormous task of racing from the back of the Final grid.

As the race approached its climax all eyes were on the two out in front as Ives was pressuring Tomsett for the lead, with the last few laps providing some quality close kart racing at its best between the two. The win eventually went to a delighted Ives, with Tomsett in 2^nd who left Lydd with an early championship point’s lead. Gethen was resolute in his efforts to hold onto the final podium position and managed to succeed in the end with 3rd. Gafoor lost out during the battle for 3^rd and ended 5^th on the road behind the flying Russell in 4^th.

However once nose drop penalties were applied – it was Chappell who was classified in 4^th, Jonathan Dalton 5^th and Tom Richards who had made up 9 places in 6^th. Edgson finished 7^th, Max Goodwin 8^th and the nose drop penalised duo of Russell & Gafoor 9^th and 10^th. Chappell took the fastest lap on the 10^th tour.

FP4

A grid of 27 FP4 karts made for quite a spectacle around the Lydd circuit during their three heats and Final during the day. The win in the Final went to Jamie Traylor who was lapping karts by the end of the 15 laps, his margin of victory was only 0.5s over Mark Davis – who had come out on top of a battle with Adam Malins for the runner up spot.

Michael Marrison worked his way up to 4^th from 13^th on the grid to beat Tony Lamb in 5^th. Keith Robertson finished 6^th ahead of Rob Teague in 7^th, in 8^th, 9^th & 10^th were Gavin McGill, Chris Goodwin and Joshua Francis. Impressive novice driver Marrison took the fastest lap.