On Sunday 18th September Bayford Meadows held round 7 of their 2022 championship, which was combined with the final round of the 4 race Kent Kart Championship, which guaranteed some exciting racing during the day as the drivers looked to consolidate or improve on their positions.

Bambinos.

The seven drivers in the Bambino class had been close on lap times throughout the day, which lefteveryone anticipating a close Final. Louis Williams-Mabbs won the Pre-Final, heading Joseph Cox,Franklin Street, Ellis Honey, Freddie Williams, Beau Blundell and Ted Deeprose to a 4s victory, making him favourite for the Final.

As the lights changed to green Louis led the 7 kart field away overthe first lap, Ellis made a lightening start and made the most of a costly mistake by Joseph, toimmediately put pressure on the leader Louis. Franklin ran 3rd from Beau in 4th, Freddie 5th, Ted 6th and the recovering Joseph 7th.

Ellis was soon past Louis to lead and looked very comfortable out infront. Louis held his ground in 2nd until trouble hit and he had to retire with his fuel tank having come loose. Franklin tried his hardest to close in on the leader Ellis but fell 3.3s short as Honey tooka popular win.

Joseph Cox set the fastest lap as he recovered to 3rd at the finish, Beau Blundell had to retire early on,which left Freddie Williams in 4th and Ted Deeprose in 5th. Ellis Honey finished top in the Kent Championship points table, from Street and Blundell, Williams, Deeprose and Finley Bedford the top 6.

Senior Club Max 177.

The 177 Senior class has seen a close fight between GMS driver Thomas Lawson and Roalf racing’s Billy Watts rage all year long and this was the case once again on Sunday.

Watts took a close win from Lawson in the Pre-Final, so started from the inside front row of the Final grid with Lawson alongside. On the 2nd row was Matthew Hickson and Tom Richards, next upon the third-row was Daniel Wright & Mike Ashby, Aaron Deacon and Dennis Trzeciak shared the 4th row.

Watts led away the 18-kart grid with Lawson tucked in close behind. Wright, Richards and Trzeciak had jumped ahead of a slow starting Hickson and Ashby ran 7th.

As the field entered the 2nd lap, Lawson made a decisive lunge down the inside of Watts into turn 1 taking the lead which he then controlled until the race’s end after 14 laps, his margin of victory being 3.75s, over Watts who had done enough to secure the Kent Championship with his 2nd place.

Hickson fought back from his tardy start in his ASM kart to take a very close 3rd place from Richards in 4th, Tzeciak in 5th, Wright in 6th and Ashby in 7th. Luke Bailey climbed from 15th grid slot to take 8th, Deacon 9th and Jason Bear finished 10th. The fastest lap went to the winner Lawson who was runner up in the Kent championship with Ashby taking 3rd in the final points table, 4th, 5th & 6th were Bailey, Trzeciak & Wright.

Honda Cadet.

Nine karts rolled onto the grid for the Cadet Final with Teddie Cooper starting from the pole. Albert Lapper lined up alongside making an appearance in a Project One kart for the first time, on the 2nd row was the Ambition pairing of Harry Russell and Daniel Butcher.

Lewis Riley & Adam Turecek were next up on the third-row from Leon Knight & Ayda Sexton on the 4th. Johannes Fris was alone on the 5th and final row. The grid for this class always runs very close together and Sunday’s Final was no different, as Cooper and Lapper fought tooth and nail over the lead.

Russell was in 3rd waiting to pounce if the chance arose and it did look at one point as if he could push forward totake the win. After 13 very hard-fought laps it was a stoic Cooper who held on to take the win from Lapper in 2nd.

Russell and Butcher crossed the line together in 3rd & 4th, Riley took 5th from a heated battle for 6th which went the way of Turecek. Sexton finished 7th, Friis 8th and a frustrated Knight 9th. Lapper set the fastest lap during his feisty fight with winner Cooper who completed his winning day by wrapping up the Kent championship from Russell in 2nd and Riley in 3rd, Butcher, Knight and Friis 4th to 6th.

Honda Rookies.

The 15 kart Rookie Final was next on the card and Ambition racing’s Maria Ruberto started from the pole, after taking a comfortable win in the Pre-Final from Freddie Wall, last month’s winner George Clarke and Ralphie Branscombe.

These drivers filled the first 2 rows of the grid, the 3rd row had Laurie McVeigh and Ronnie Smart next to each other, Harrison page and Alfie Clark completed the 4th row. Ruberto didn’t put a foot wrong as she powered her kart to a 3.73s win over a very relaxed looking Wall, who was also well clear of an entertaining battle for the final podium position, which eventually went to Clarke with McVeigh finishing in 4th.

Branscombe took 5th from Noah Curtisin 6th (and fastest lap), Smart in 7th, Clark 8th, Jack Cope 9th and Mattew Lilley in 10th. The final positions in the Kent championship saw the win go to the ‘laid back’ Freddie Wall, with Alfie Clark taking 2nd, Ralphie Branscombe 3rd, Ronnie Smart 4th, Matthew Lilley 5th and Riley Taylor 6th.

Junior Club Max.

The 23 kart Junior Club Max class featured an incredibly close grid in qualifying with Liam Thomas topping the times for the first time. He started the main Final from 3rd on the grid after finishing behind Jack Badger and Finlay Underwood in the Pre-Final.

Alongside Thomas on the 2nd row was Freddie Ingram, Oliver Hutchings and Kent championship points leader Lloyd Hare were next on the 3rd row. Simon Parfett and Luca Osman-Price completed row 4, Jack Theobald & Sonni Scott row 5.

Badger made the perfect start from pole to lead over the opening lap from Thomas who had used his inside grid slot on row 2 to his advantage to jump ahead of Underwood, who also initially also lost a spot to Hutchings too, before claiming the 3rd spot back.

Ingram ran 4th as he found a way past Hutchings too over the opening laps. Hare ran 6th possibly thinking of the Kent championship points over a charge to the front. Thomas was keen to prove his pace as he closed in on the leader Badger, eventually a move for the lead went wrong on lap 8 as he dropped to third, now behind a charging Ingram who went from 4th to 2nd in one lap!

Underwood had lost positions to both Ingram and Hutchings but made up for it by race end by passing Hutchings back for 4th. At the finish Badger won by 1.7s from Ingram who was comfortable in 2nd ahead of a frustrated looking Thomas in 3rd, Underwood 4th, Hutchings who was struggling for his usual pace in 5th.

Hare was all over Hutchings in 6th as he scored enough points to take the Kent championship from Ingram in 2nd. Stefan Kaczmarcyk climbed 4 places to take 7th, Osman-Price finished 8th, Theobald 9th. Simon Parfett finished 10th and also secured 3rd in the Kent championship, Thomas 4th, Jacob Hobbs 5th and Kaczmarcyk 6th.

The fastest lap went to the man who controlled the race from thestart, Jack Badger.

Senior Club Max.

Declan Russell won a hard-fought Pre-Final from Jonathan Wilkes as the two looked to continue their battle in the main afternoon’s Final, starting on the front row of the grid. Kieran Ives and Josh Pullen were next up on the 2nd row, Max Lee & Jonathan Dalton on the third.

The fourth row saw Ciaron Edgson alongside Joseph Gethen, the 5th Luke Winter and Joe Wood. Russell scorched away from the start as Pullen vaulted up to 2nd from 4th fending off Wilkes who was keen to chase after the leader. Dalton initially ran 4th ahead of Ives, Lee, Gethin, Edgson and Winter.

Wilkes was soon up into 2nd and setting off after the leader a couple of seconds up the road. Pullen consolidated his 3rd place but couldn’t stay with the leaders, Ives too didn’t have the outright pace to push further forward, in fact it was Gethen who had set the fastest lap as he moved ahead of the aforementioned Ives.

The battle for the lead looked as if it was going down to the last lap but Wilkes just could not squeeze enough out of his Project One kart to mount a challenge over Russell’s Evolution run machine,as he finished just 0.21s behind at the finish.

Behind the winner Russell & Wilkes, Pullen took a solid 3rd place, Gethen 4th, Ives 5th, Lee 6th. Dalton took 7th from Winter in 8th, Edgson 9th and Lewis Deacon 10th.

The Kent championship was won by the ASM kart of Ives, Russell’s win secured his 2nd place in the championship, Gethen took 3rd, from Edgson, Dalton and Pullen 4th-6th.

Mini Club Max.

The Mini Club Max class was dominated by Fletcher Jamieson as he topped the qualifying times before going onto to take wins in the Heat, Pre-Final and main Final, which was red flagged after 7 laps, due to a crash just before turn 1 for the unfortunate Ryan Welsh.

Tighe Wratten came the closest to challenging Jamieson after the restart as he finished 2nd in the 2.31s behind at the finish. Ben Yiangou had his best performance so far by taking 3rd in his Clark Motorsport run kart. Antony Parfett finished 4th and secured the Kent championship title as he did so, Jack Baker looked fast all day as he took 5th and 2nd in the Kent championship ahead of Wratten in the points.

Jack Pullen had a tough day salvaging 6th in the end, Ollie Orteu finished 7th, Emily Cotty 8th, Felix Stolkin 9th and Kajus Zygmanta 10th.

Winner Jamieson took the fastest lap and finished 4th in the Kent championship, ahead of Pullen and Yianngou.

Junior Subaru.

The four Junior Subaru class karts had their own Final for this month and gave us a good race. Jenson Taylor won an exciting Pre-Final to start from the pole but couldn’t live with William Fallon over the opening lap as he dropped to 3rd place. Dextor Gregory had a messy Pre-Final and was keen to make amends, indeed he soon was on the bumper of the leader Fallon and from then on, the two had a great race long duel.

Taylor and Ryan Dell watched on in 3rd and 4th without being able to manage to challenge the two ahead. After 13 hard fought laps Gregory’s KRM kart came out on top, although by just 0.19s as Fallon kept the pressure on right up until the finish, with Taylor and Dell not too far behind in 3rd and 4th.

In the Kent championship for the class, Fallon topped the points from Dell, Taylor and Gregory.

Full results from the event can be found here – Alpha Timing-Results

The next round of the BMKR championship will be held on the 16th October.