Last weekend saw Bayford Meadows hold the latest round of their kart club championships and the Kent kart Championships and with 109 entries it promised to be a great day’s racing at the Sittingbourne circuit.

The diminutive Bambino drivers had their usual three timed runs throughout the day in, the increasingly popular and competitive class, Tighe Wratten proved to be the fastest in each session taking maximum points. Damien Baruss-Haggett finished second in the points, Blake Ticehurst, 3^rd, Marco Horsely 4^th, Lewis Stannard 5^th and Freddy Theobald in 6^th.

The grand finals were over 10 minutes + 1 lap and the Honda Clubman class were the first on track. Fraser Brunton and Alfie Brooks won the two Pre-finals and shared the front row of the grid. Alfie Brooks led away from pole leaving behind a fierce scrap for second on his bumper. Novice Fraser Brunton was driving well mixing with the more established runners, Ryan Willis too was pushing hard and held the lead for one lap early on until Brooks locked out the front spot, helped by a brief tangle between Brunton and Willis.

At the flag Brooks in his NR kart, celebrated in a style not seen at the Swale circuit before, no doubt influenced by his peers! Ambition driver Mika Renzullo had coolly worked his way into 2^nd place with Brunton making a late charge to take 3^rd from DNL driver Corbin Newbury in 4^th. Willis ended up 5^th from James Higgins in 6^th.

Bobby Grove totally dominated the Junior X30 class all day to take the win, not putting a foot wrong in his blue and yellow Alonso kart, he coasted into a 8.3 second win the finish, an impressive performance. Behind him chaos reigned at the hairpin on lap 1, Alfie Glenie starting second was turned around and through the drama Finley Cross, Cameron Poynten and Harry Fitzsimmons emerged in front of the much delayed Luke Shopland and Alifie Glenie.

Cross who had dropped away from Grove, still looked secure in 2^nd driving well, however behind, the cool Poynton in her first JX30 start was steadily being reeled in by the recovering Glenie and Shopland. She held out until lap 7 when the Evolution duo passed her, although she kept the duo within sight over the next few laps.

Glenie was on a mission the fastest driver on the circuit until a recurring throttle gremlin hit him as it had earlier in the day, on lap 12, Shopland cleanly passed him but Poynton unsighted, hit Glenie with a Playstation style nudge at the hairpin, she still made it through but, Glenie was left trying to coax his kart one handed to the finish. So after all that action the final results were- the dominant Grove 1^st, Ambition’s driver Cross a happy 2^nd, with Shopland a no doubt relieved 3^rd. Poynten a still impressive 4^th from the wounded and unlucky Glenie in 5^th, Fitzsimmons was classified 6^th although he had hit kart problems early on forcing him to retire.

The Mini Max class looked a settled affair, with the LICA kart of Thomas Rotherham leading the Project One kart of James Wharrier up until the final lap of the race, the places behind were settled too, with Thomas Lawson and Declan Lee holding their positions in 3^rd and 4^th. On the last lap though everything changed when Wharrier made his move, this unsettled Rotherham terribly and Lawson seized the chance to lunge the blue kart to snatch 2^nd place leaving the #15 kart off line, this let Declan lee through too into 3^rd. Rotherham ended up a very disappointing 4^th  Ben Cowley took 5^th and Benjamin Boras 6^th.

The Project One team had a much easier win in the Senior Rotax final as Jonathan Wilkes took a comfortable victory over Spencer Younger in 2nd, Jack Wall took 3^rd from Darren Bartlett 4^th in a top 4 that remained the same from lap 1.Nick Packham was next up with Stephen Bouffe rounding out the top 6.

5.5 seconds was the margin of victory for Troy Beswick in the Junior Subaru final, this was impressive for a class that pride itself on close racing. Charlie Nash and Zac Spence were much closer in their dice for second which lasted the whole race, with Nash taking the runner up spot. 4th behind Spence was a delighted James Black, in what was an inspired drive in his newly livered kart. He pulled off a cheeky overtake on George Leeves on the last lap, 6^th behind Leeves was Ross Connolly, closely followed by John Victory, less than a second covered these four at the chequered flag, in what was a typical Junior Subaru close finish.

The Honda Cadet grid was brimming with quality and it was difficult to predict a winner from this fiercely competitive class. Pre final wins for Oliver’s Greenall and Marsh set the front row of the grid. Over the first few laps the jostling began, Greenall managed to be in front at the line over the first 3 laps, before Project One’s Marsh claimed the position, behind these two, Zak Ripley, Max Herbert, Callum Gunning and Liam McNeilly fought hard to push to the front.

The Evolution kart of Greenall relieved Marsh of 1st place for 3 laps mid race before Marsh crucially snatched the place back, only this time he made it stick. Greenall lost time trying to fend off the chasing pack, with robust moves being pulled at virtually every corner. At the end of the 13 laps it was Marsh who crossed the line first, taking his first overall win in the class and making up for a disappointing 0 plate event last month. Greenall just snatched 2nd from the DRS kart of Ripley in 3rd, Frank Elwell moved himself into 4th place, Herbert slipped to 5th, Kristian Brookes finished 6th. McNeilly crashed out after contact on lap 8 and DNL’s Gunning was rudely assorted on the last half lap leaving him a frustrated 13th .

The last race of the day for the Junior Rotax class witnessed another Project One win for Charlie Bennett, making it a fruitful day for the on site team. Bennett drove perfectly throughout the day, a cool performance indeed of which we have come to expect from this young man.  The only driver that managed to stay anywhere near him in the final, was KPi’s Harry Gent, competing at 5 kilos over the minimum weight limit, the tall Gent is always going to be giving away a few tenths to his rivals, so to keep Bennett within 3.2 seconds at the flag was the mark of a good drive. GMS driver Sean Berry was only just over a second behind Gent at the finish and Oliver Appleby moved his KPi kart into 4th after a hiccup in one of the Pre finals. Henry Ayres took 5th from Liam Carter in 6th.