Sittingbourne circuit Bayford Meadows was baked in late summer sunshine for round 7 of the popular BMKR championships.

There were no worries over using wet tyres as was the case last month; however tyre age did have an effect, as some drivers were running new tyres against those with older rubber, which contributed to a performance advantage while the tyres were fresh.

Bambinos.

Just two drivers shared the circuit during three the timed runs in the Bambino class, Sergio Wirz proving to be the fastest of the pair. He set his fastest timed lap of 1m 01.73seconds in the second run, Ronnie Legg also set his fastest time during the same session, a 1m.05.50 seconds.

Senior Club Max & 177s.

The circuit was full for the Senior class throughout the day, as 25 karts were entered, four of those in the 177 category. Riley Stephenson used his new tyres to full effect in qualifying and then took wins in the morning’s Heat and the following Pre Final. Both Declan Lee and James Tomsett were on fine form as they took a second place each, Tomsett in the Heat and Lee in the Pre Final. Last month’s victor Jack Bartholomew finished 4^th in both the Heat and Pre Final.

Jonathan Harrison and Will Barnes both put in great performances in the Heat by finishing 5^th and 6^th, although they slipped back to 8^th and 14^th in the Pre Final, with Barnes unlucky to be caught up in somebody else’s incident, it was Jack Wall who took 5^th   from Joe Gethin and Josh Pullen in the Pre Final.

After the introduction of the new start line straight approach a few months ago, the rolling starts have generally gone without a hitch; this didn’t prove the case on Sunday however, as a midfield attempt to run four karts wide into turn 1 ended in disaster!

Several karts were caught up in the ensuing melee, which left 2 driverless machines stranded on the circuit as the leaders completed their first lap, giving the officials no choice back to red flag the race. Barnes was once again amongst the unlucky 5 drivers side-lined from the restart.

The restart took place over 14 laps, this time pole man Riley Stephenson lost out to Declan Lee’s Project One kart as they poured into turn 1. Bartholomew had jumped ahead of Tomsett’s Clarke kart, but found himself unable to stay with the leading duo. Wall held 5^th from Gethin and Pullen, Harrison, Steven Crow and James Popple. By lap 4 – Stephenson’s GMS kart had found a way past Lee and began to push to pull a gap.

Bartholomew had Tomsett breathing down his neck and eventually succumbed to the pressure, only then to have a wheel fall off of his kart putting him out of the race. Wall lost two places to Gethin (GMS) and Pullen (Clarke karts) to drop back to what would now be 5^th after last month’s winner Bartholomew’s retirement. After 14 flat out laps, Stephenson crossed the finish line first, his victory margin was just 0.95s over Lee, recording the fastest lap as he did so.

Post race he thanked his mechanic David Weaver for doing such a great job with his kart set up. Lee was close enough to have capitalised on any mistake, and should have been pleased with his efforts, very definitely his start! Tomsett too was relieved to be back on the podium and bang on the pace, a real confidence booster for him.

Gethin and Pullen picked up good points with 4^th and 5^th, Wall too in 6^th. 7^TH was a solid result for James Popple who had a good turn of speed in the final. Max Goodwin who started from the back of the grid after a Pre Final incident looked to have spoilt his day, made up 16 places to finish 8^th.Harrison finished 9^th ahead of Crow in 10^th.

In the 177 class Karl Mepham won from Dennis Trzeciak, Andy Parrish and McLaren CEO  Zak Brown, who was delayed by an early spin.

Honda Clubman Standard.

Last month’s winner Emily Jackson started from pole position for the Clubman class final, after winning the earlier Pre Final. Sharing the front row with her was Oscar Osullivan, John Ward and Kristian Stefanov, lined up on the 2^nd row, with Sebastian Morgan and Josh Selvadorai on row 3, the Parfett brothers Antony and Simon filled the fourth row of the 16 kart grid. Jackson led the 12 lap final away in her pink and black kart, Osullivan and Ward battled over 2^nd place until an incident between the battling top 3 down at the bottom hairpin dropped Jackson and Ward away from the lead.

This left Osullivan ahead until a charging Morgan usurped him; Morgan had suffered engine troubles in the Pre Final but was now proving to be back onto race winning pace. Osullivan was resolute in 2^nd as was Stefanov in 3^rd, who was too having a very competitive race. As the final reached its climax the leaders were really bunching up, with the bottom hairpin proving once again to be the incident danger spot. Morgan tried everything he could to hold onto the lead only to find him once again muscled back into the pack, as the leading bunch tripped over themselves into the hairpin!

The resulting moment left Osullivan leading with Stefanov 2^nd, the positions that they held until the finish. Antony Parfett was just under 2s behind the leaders in 3^rd, with Ward recovering well to finish 4^th, unlike Jackson who was very disappointed to be back in 9^th. Simon Parfett took 5^th, Jack Pullen 6^th.

Jack Owen-Drawbridge made up a creditable 8 places to be 7^th; Morgan was understandably flabbergasted to be back in 8^th ahead of Jackson and Selvadorai in 10^th. Ward took his Caveman kart to the fastest lap on the 8^th tour.

Junior Subaru UK.

The Junior Subaru final was just about every bit as fraught as the preceding Clubman event! Kieran Janali had by Junior Subaru standards, put his SAIT Motorsport Comp kart comfortably on pole in the morning, the gap being 0.22s to Joseph Knight in his Knighty Alonso kart.

The Heat win went to Janali from Charlie Hand with Knight in 3^rd. The Pre Final went to Hand this time, from Janali and Knight. Rory Burke and Benjamin Witham were in touching distance in 4^th and 5^th.

Hand led the opening laps of the final while behind Janali and Knight tussled over 2^nd, with the position eventually going to the former. Burke and Witham joined in the train at the front, waiting to pick up the pieces from any mistakes made ahead. Janali’s earlier pace kicked in as he took the lead and now led the train from Hand.

Once in front though Janali found that he could not use his pace advantage to pull a gap over his pursuers and instead took a defensive approach to his position, which led to a very close train weaving its way around the Swale circuit. An incident on the infield broke up the tight pack as Witham’s kart took some damage dropping him back, Robin Jandau who was running 6^th also had to retire on the spot.

Two laps from the end and the tension at the front was becoming unbearable with Hand trying everything to pass the stubborn but well driven kart of Janali. Eventually something had to give and once again there was contact between the two divers. Janali came off the worse and dropped to 4^th, Hand briefly led only for Knight to come through and snatch the victory, the affable 13 year old absolutely delighted with the win as his crossed the finish line.

Hand was 2^nd on the road but was given a 5s penalty for ‘gaining an unfair advantage’ dropping him down to 4^th and promoting the Clarke kart of Burke up to the runner up spot. Janali took something away from the race with a podium in 3^rd. Behind Hand in 5^th was Ciaron Edgson, Vincent Osborne took 6^th, Callum Romaine 7^th (making up 12 places), William Fallon 8^th, Ben Cooke 9^th and Kipp Chorley 10^th of the 21 kart field. Knight not only took the win but also the fastest lap on lap 11.

Junior Club Max.

The results from the morning’s qualifying session showed that there wasn’t anything between GMS teammates Red Beswick and Caitlin May, as both set identical fastest times.  Beswick went onto lead the first 2 laps of the Heat, before Caitlin stamped her authority on the class by taking the win and then dominating the Pre Final, leaving her on pole for the afternoon’s final. Last month’s winner Oliver Bullion lined up on the 2^nd row behind May and Beswick, with Leon Clark alongside him. Next up were Daniel Hughes and Brendan Sathees.

May and Beswick led away the all blue and white GMS front row, with May holding the inside line perfectly to take the lead. Clark initially held 3^rd before Bullion took the position and then stealthily showed great pace by hunting down Beswick. The latter found himself running 3 tenths a lap slower than the flying May, not being able to match her pace as he had wished.

By the races end Bullion had hunted him down and took the runner-up spot 3.8s behind the triumphant May, who topped off her perfect day by recording the fastest lap too. Clark held onto a good 4^th 2.5s behind Beswick and 3.5s ahead of Hughes who ran in a lonely 5th.

The SAIT kart of Sathees held 6^th for much of the race until he was overtaken by the GMS machine of Poppi Stephenson. Frederick Lubin had held 7^th until a post-race nose fairing penalty dropped him back to 10th overall. Novice Jack Dear drove well to take 8^th , as did Jayden Neal-Holder who made up 10 positions to finish 9^th.

Mini Max.

The Mini Max class ran next having their own final after previously running on the back of the Junior Club Max class. It was great to see past Cadet champion Jamie Perrily back at the circuit and racing in the class and bolstering the grid to 5 karts. He won the Heat and Pre Final comfortably but had his work cut out over the initial laps of the final as Harry Chamberlin and Rylee Brown gave him a hard time.

There was some great racing from the boys over these early laps and it was fun to watch. After a few laps though Perrily had reasserted his dominance as he pulled clear of both Brown and Chamberlin, who now had C.H.D.D. Evolution teammate Mikey Porter putting some pressure on him. Holly Miall couldn’t quite keep up with her teammates in 5^th place. Drama almost struck the erstwhile leader Perrily over the final few laps, as discovered that his radiator had worked loose on his Project One kart.

Luckily he did not receive a black mechanical warning flag, which would have been heart-breaking for him; and he literally held it on to take the win! Privateer Brown was some 6s behind but happy to beat the three teammates running behind him, he was just over 1s clear of the Chamberlin/Porter duo in 3^rd and 4^th.Miall crossed the line in 5^th. The fastest lap fell on the 11^th tour and went the way of the victor – Perrily.

Honda Cadet.

Gustavs Usakovs took the Pre final win after enjoying a great race with Privateer Ian Marginean, he now had to repeat that in the 13 lap final, which had 7 karts starting.

Things started well for Usakovs as he led up until half distance from Marginean, Thomas Bearman, Joshua Graham, Emily Jackson, William Murphy and Owen Neave. The #24 kart of Margnean moved past the Project One kart of Usakovs on lap 7. The two drivers had swapped places continuously in the Pre Final but this time Usakovs bided his time and sat on Margenean’s rear bumper looking to make a move later in the race. Graham had moved ahead of Bearman for 3rd as this pair ran as one.

As the last lap began Usakovs wasn’t quite close enough to make a move on Margenean, losing out by 0.21 at the finish, Margenean punching the air in delight as crossed the line. The battle for third went to Bearman as he fought back ahead of Graham, who had initially started from the back of the grid .Jackson, Murphy and Neave maintained their 5th, 6th and 7th places to the finish. bearman’s late race charge netted him the fast lap.