The first round of the BMKR 2025 championships were held last weekend, with the Bambinos racing on Saturday while the other classes took to the track on Sunday for their races.

Only four karts were entered in the Bambino class with Lenny Barton and Jenson Drummond sharing some close action during the day. It was Lenny who came out on top in the Final, after a last lap pass, finishing 0.22s ahead of Jenson. Santo Amico finished 3rd ahead of William Boswell in 4th. The fastest lap went to winner Lenny at 1:03.65s .

Sunday morning’s qualifying sessions were held on a dry but very cold circuit, and the forecast for the day told us that the temperatures would not be climbing much higher, which really put the brrr in February! Due to the cold conditions, it was decided that the drivers would have an extra warming up lap to build some heat into their tyres before the start. Just under 80 competitors lined up for the afternoon’s Finals, the first of which was opened by the Honda Cadet class.

11 Hondas and one Rotax Cadet lined up for their standing start with Jack Cope sitting on the pole position after comfortably winning the earlier Pre Final. BM plate winner George Quinlan sat next to Cope on the front row with Marcus Cooper and George Lilley on the second. George Pickett collected a nose fairing penalty in the Pre Final which dropped him down a place on the grid on 5th, he had Ernie Wade sitting alongside as company on the 3rd row. Jenson Fathers and Lola Holt-Brown filled the 4th row.

Cope had missed out on competing in last month’s BM plate meeting and was keen to make up for it as he blasted away at the start of the Final, from there on he never looked back and took an impressive 4.65s win, securing fastest lap at 52.22s as he did so.

Quinlan finished 2nd well clear of the dicing Cooper and Pickett who fought hard over 3rd place, with the former Cooper coming out on top. Lilly had held 4th early in the race before Pickett found a way past before mounting his challenge on 3rd place, leaving Lilly in 5th. Fathers had a good race with Wade on his way to 6th place with Wade finishing 7th. Alexander Robertson took 8th, from Fynnley Thompson 9th and Ollie Spooner-Green in 10th. Maskell will be hoping that others enter the Rotax Cadet category next month as he finished behind Holt-Brown in 11th overall.

Senior Rotax Max.

19 karts lined up for the ultra competitive Senior Max class, with the drivers thoroughly enjoying driving on the Mojo tyres for this year, which also appears to have closed up the grid during qualifying. Caitlin May was in fine form early on, proving fastest in qualifying before going onto take a comfortable Heat win in her Blueberry run kart.

She slipped to 3rd in the Pre Final behind Rory Burke and Joe Gethen who had looked very rapid in his GMS kart, taking the win and pole position for the Final. Burke was disqualified post race for a kart technical fault, leaving him at the back and a lot of work to do for the Final.

Taking his spot in 3rd on the grid behind Gethen and May was Felix Stolkin, he had Joshua Pattrick alongside him on the 2nd row. The third row consisted of Ciaron Edgson and Ryan Welsh, who has moved up from the junior class for this year. Behind them on row 4 sat Josh Pullen and Sean Dabin, Mollie Griffiths and Harry Hinton completed the 5th row.

At the start of the Final the front row led the colourful grid away into turn 1, May sat firm around the outside of Gethen, but as the pole man ran wide she was forced to give in, as they both rode up onto the outside corner banking. Gethen managed to rejoin in the lead before the bottom hairpin leaving May losing places to Edgson, Stolkin, Pullen, Welsh and Pattrick.

After the close of the first lap it was clear that Gethen had a very fast kart as Edgson couldn’t hold onto him in 2nd. Pattrick managed to jump ahead of Stolkin & Pullen by the third lap and he then closed in on Edgson. Pullen ran 4th as Welsh also passed Stolkin for 5th. As the race settled down Gethen gapped the rest and eventually cruised to a 2.91s win, his GMS kart running like clockwork in the cool afternoon sunshine.

Edgson gradually dropped away from the leader and had to deal with a hard charging Pattrick, the number 12 GMS kart eventually passing Edgson on the 8th lap to take a 1-2 for the team, Pattrick also recorded the fastest lap on the 4th tour at 45.25s. Edgson held on to finish third from Pullen, who had closed up by the finish even with earlier set up issues. Stolkin took a solid 5th having passed Welsh also on the 8th lap, Welsh finishing a good 6th on his Senior debut.

Burke fought his way up to 7th at the finish, passing Flelix Dymant by the end of the race, although Dymant had picked up a nose penalty to be classified 10th. May finished 9th on the road, before also being penalised for a nose drop, this after an earlier clash with Griffiths broke a seat stay, which left her struggling throughout, all of which left Matthew Angel to take 8th and Griffiths in 9th.

Junior Max Rookies.

15 karts were entered in the Junior Rookie class, however a very messy Pre Final left one driver missing from the grid – William Spencer had been caught up in a huge pile up at turn 1, which left Jacob Jarman and his kart sitting on top of the unfortunate Spencer!

While the race continued Spencer was trapped underneath for what must have felt like forever for him. Eventually Jarman’s kart was lifted clear with Spencer having to go to hospital having fractured an arm. Radiator coolant had also been dropped on the run into the bottom hairpin which confronted those that had escaped the turn 1 crash, forcing them to skate off onto the grass before rejoining.

Eventually the Mario kart like race ended with Spike Ward just beating Daniel Thomson to the finish line, that was until he was rewarded with a nose drop penalty, giving the win to Thomson and leaving him 4th overall.

So Thomson sat on the pole for the Final with Eden Salvidge alongside, who had slipped up on the bottom hairpin banana skin twice in the Pre Final before recovering to line up in 2nd. Harrison Matthews and Ward shared the 2nd row from Rhys Rutland and Bailey Doughty on the third. John Reynolds and Solomon Williams completed the 4th row.

At the start of the Final Thomson’s Project One kart got away well, Salvidge however had work to do as he was up on the outside banking and dropping back through the pack fast. Rutland initially ran 2nd before Jacob Smith came absolutely charging through from 13th on the grid ! He not only passed Rutland but also the leader Thomson on the next lap to astonishingly head the field.

Thomson held 2nd until mid distance before dropping down to 7th, Rutland having taken 2nd until the last lap when a recovering BM plated Salvidge, moved ahead to finish runner up to the invincible Smith who had won by 4.19s also taking the fastest lap at 46.62 on the way. Rutland took 3rd from Doughty in 4th, Matthews in 5th and Oscar Peters in 6th. 7th to 10th went to Thomson, Jarman, Parsa Tahmasvand and Finlay Strang.

Rotax Inters.

Just five drivers were entered for the Rotax Inter class – Project One’s Noah Clare had the legs over the rest of the quintet to take the win in the Final. Harry Wright and Jenson Ayrton Floyde-Oram fought hard over 2nd & 3rd with some great place swapping between turns 1 & 2 before the Clark Motorsport driver Floyde-Oram nailed down the runner up spot finishing 3s behind the winner and fastest lap man Clare. George Wightman took 4th behind Wright and Ellis Honey came home on 5th.

Senior Max 177/ Masters.

Finley Cross put his stamp on the 177 class on Sunday by coming out on top in qualifying and all three of the races, he cruised to a 3.54s win in the Final, taking the fastest lap on the 10th of 13 with a 47.33s lap.

Before the Final 2nd place was tough to call with at least three drivers in with a shout, Lewis Deacon, Reece Anscombe and Michael Gibbons. The latter however registered as a DNS after an unfortunate disagreement with the circuit management after the Pre Final.

Having finished 2nd in the Pre Final – Deacon was disappointed to have not been able to run with a fast starting Anscombe, who put his best drive in the class by going onto take 2nd place.

Jayden Miles had had a great battle with Anscombe in the Pre Final, fought his way past Deacon, holding 3rd for a few laps before Deacon moved back ahead to seal the position at the finish.Vito Dacres and Andy Locke took 5th & 6th both ahead of the Masters battle, which was won by Mark Goodwin, he had held off a spirited fight from David Ives over the closing stages of the race, as they finished 7th and 8th. Gerry Poore retired before the finish after running 9th.

Junior Max.

The last race of the day was for the Junior Max class. Jack Pullen, George Cole and Freddie Leppenwell had finished in that order after qualifying, the morning Heat and the Pre Final so lined up in that order on the grid for the Final. Ayda Sexton was next up in 4th on the grid, with Dexter Collins in 5th, Fletcher Growns in 6th, Daniel Butcher in 7th and Louis Bishop in 8th of a 13 kart grid.

As the lights went green at the start of the race the all Project One front row led the karts into turn 1, Cole braved it out around the outside of Pullen to lead as the pair headed down the straight and into the bottom hairpin, with a fast starting Growns up to 3rd.

Leppenwell had been boxed in behind Pullen and lost out to a forceful Collins. At the end of the opening lap Pullen sent it down the inside into turn 1 to briefly lead, but Cole dragged back past him on the run down the straight. As they came out of the bottom hairpin Pullen once again drew alongside Cole and this time held the inside into the left handed hairpin, Growns seized this opportunity to also slip past Cole too to take 2nd.

Collins didn’t last long in 4th before Bishop usurped him, Alex Shepherd also nosing in on the action too. Pullen pulled a lead over Growns who now had a composed Cole waiting to regain the position, this he did on the 5th lap as the Project One trio then led the field. Bishop however was soon keen to move his GMS kart up into the battle.

Behind Collins in 5th, Shepherd held off a hungry bunch of drivers headed by Sexton (who had a bad start) although soon it was Leppenwell that was fighting his way up to the bumper of the Evolution kart of Shepherd. On the 9th lap Leppenwell and Shepherd tangled and were out of the competitive running, letting Sexton, Butcher, Kieron Hammond and Freddie Wall through.

Back at the head of the field Cole had closed up onto Pullen’s bumper by the finish as they crossed the line in Project 1 formation, Pullen delighted to have taken the victory with his teammate next up as they shared a handshake on the cool down lap.

Bishop managed to pass Growns on lap 9 and wasn’t too far behind in 3rd, with Growns finishing 4th. Collins took 5th from Sexton in 6th on the road until she dropped to 9th with a post-race nose fairing penalty. This gave Butcher 6th place, Hammond 7th, Wall in 8th and Shepherd 10th behind the penalised Sexton. Cole set the fastest lap on the 7th tour at 46.28s.

Full results from the event can be found here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/e/256729

Round 2 will be held over the March 15/16th weekend.