The Medway Valley Kart Club ran a six race meeting championship at the popular woodland Buckmore Park kart circuit during 2024.

With the regular classes joined by several other guest series throughout the year, which included a visit from the raucous and very racy F100 karts.

MVKC’s – Jay & Lauren Fairbrass worked tirelessly to attract competitors from all over the country, reaching out to many who had never raced at the circuit before, which nestles close to the M2 at Chatham.

A core of drivers supported the club over the full championship, racing on the second weekend of the month from April to October (missing August), culminating in some close championship battles right up until the final round.

In the Bambino class, 17 Comer powered karts appeared during the year with Freddie Williams sealing the championship with a win at the September meeting.

Benjamin Slijivar took three outright wins, taking part in four meetings compared to Freddie’s five, to finish vice champion in the class. Ernie Wade finished 3rd after taking two wins and a second in his three competing events and George Morra scored enough points in his four meetings to take 4th in the championship, 5th & 6th went to William Boswell and Oliver Daniels.

The MightE electric powered Bambinos appeared at rounds 2 & 3 with Jenson James-Williams taking both of the wins, ahead of Freddie Dye in 2nd.

Jesse Plowman’s round 2 appearance and 3rd place finish also netted him 3rd in the championship. Junior Wright finished 4th at round 3 to take 4th overall ahead of Kai Erginsoy who only competed in round 1.

The Honda Cadet class proved to be very close with the top three of Shaylan Sreekantan, Riley Taylor and Jack Cope taking the title fight right down to the wire.

Three wins at rounds 2, 3 & 4 were enough to give Shaylan enough points to beat off the ever consistent challenge of Riley at the season’s end. Jack was always finishing at the sharp end of the results to finish clear of George Pickett in 4th, although he did miss 2 rounds of the series.

Ricky Junior Mackintosh ran in the last two rounds and managed to fight off challenges from Shaylan and Riley to take two wins and finish 5th in the championship. Harry Grant raced in two events, taking a win and a third on his way to 6th in the championship.

Ronnie Kempson was the only Walter Swift Cadet driver who took part in all the rounds of the championship, with 5 wins, so he romped to overall victory, ahead of Harry Chapman, who won on his only appearance at the 4th round. Louis Williams-Mabbs & Daniel Genov finished 3rd & 4th after both entered the final round.

The Micro Max class was won by Elijah West, he won on 3 of his 5 appearances to take the title from vice champion Jacob Daujotas who did the full season, with a win in to his name in round 1.

Dimitar Uzunov rocked up for the second half of the season, scoring a 2nd place and two wins on his way to third overall. Freya Bond, Jack Daniels and Ellis Honey finished 4th – 6th out of the 12 drivers who took part during the year.

27 drivers scored points in the InterMax class during the year, coming out on top after some very competitive racing was Alfie Mew, he took 2 wins in the 5 rounds that he competed in to take the overall title.

Harry Wright finished the vice champion after his win at round 4 and other consistent high points scoring, sealed the position for him. John Reynolds showed a lot of potential on his way to third overall, a 2nd place at round 4 proving to be his season highlight.

Both Max Williams and Zac Jennings scored well to take 4th and 5th, Daniel Vysniauskas took a win at round 5 on his way to 6th at the season’s end.

The Junior 2 stroke class went right down to the wire, with Ayda Sexton just pipping George Cole to the championship title. The series went down to the final round where Ayda took her third overall win to clinch the title by just 4 points from George who took two wins during the year.

Reuben Mamelok ran at front with Ayda and George all season, taking a win at round 2 to finish 3rd overall, from Kosti Dzharov in 4th, who’s best result came at round 3 with a second place.

Daniel Adomatis was a consistent scorer which ensured a 5th overall and Daniel Butcher improved throughout the year to take 6th ahead of Freddie Wall in 7th. A total of 32 drivers appeared throughout the year in the popular rookie class.

The Junior Max drivers actually topped the 2 stroke class by numbers with 39 entered during the year. Coming out on top after taking wins in rounds 1 – 3 was Jack Baker, capping a good year for the teenager after also performing well elsewhere nationally.

Vice champion Aiden Large also had a successful year locally and his win in round 5 and consistent pace was rewarded at the year’s end. Callum Sims had a run of 2nd place finishes at rounds 2 – 4 and scored well all season to take third overall, ahead of a solid points scorer Jonas Klimas in 4th.

Ollie Oretu had an up and down season which culminated in a great win at the final round on his way to 5th overall. Oliver Liversedge and Freddie Leppenwell finished their year in 6th & 7th.

A word of mention must go to Fletcher Jamieson who only made a solitary appearance at round 4 but managed to take the win.

There was some fierce racing among the 34 Senior Max entrants all summer long, which kept the hard working officials busy!

Coming out on top after a run of very consistent point scoring was Dominic Squibb, he didn’t manage an outright win, but was there on pace at each event. Liam Phillips took two 2nds and a 3rd during his season long run of points scoring, which gave him the vice champion award and left him just 6 points behind Dominic the champion at the end of the year.

Kate Broadbent grew with confidence during the year and scored well to take 3rd, something she should be very proud of. Sean Berry and Jamie Rogers only appeared in selected rounds, both taking a win a piece at rounds 1 & 2 and proving to be fiercely competitive whenever they did race, they finished 4th & 5th.

Jake Riches finished 6th and Louie Aspel 7th. Other notable appearances went to Liam Thomas who won rounds 4 & 5, Freddie Ingram who triumphed at round 3 and to Freddie Lloyd who took a victory at the final race of the year.

The Senior 177 class was unfortunately poorly supported with just 3 drivers supporting the class sporadically during the year. Hayden Phillips won at round 1 and Martin Marrison raced alone at the final 2 rounds to take the overall title with his accumulated points.

Full end of season championship positions can be found here .

For 2025 the MVKC are aiming to build on the sucess this year’s summer championship by running a winter series next year, with races in January, February and March before the summer championship begins in April. The dates and further details can be found here on the MVKC website.

Future owner/driver events at Buckmore Park will hopefully be bolstered by the recent exciting plans announced by the circuit owners, with a new facility being proposed called ‘The Paddock’, this is scheduled to be completed by 2026 (subject to planning permission) and will incorporate some landscaping to the paddock, hopefully levelling areas which are often a bone of contention with the owner/driver community.

Certainly there is a feeling of optimism being generated by the circuit with it’s successful 24hr event selling out again in record time for 2025, along with the Junior and Senior hire series and the new driver development program.

The circuit’s high profile social media presence and the efforts of the MVKC team can join together to help to attract more drivers to make the switch to the competitive world of owner/driver kart racing at the famous karting venue, which has seen many successful racing driver’s careers begin over the years.