The BMKC began their 2016 season on Sunday with a warm-up event before their season long championship begins in earnest next month.

On circuit that had a good soaking overnight the competitors had a Pre – Final and a 20 minute +1 lap Grand Final (15min + 1 Cadets) after qualifying first thing.

The first final was for the Honda Clubman class with 15 drivers sharing the grid, leading away was Jamie Perilly driving the KPi run Tony kart, he was hotly pursued by the Project One colours of Ryan Wills.

After 4 laps of pressing Perilly, Wills took the lead, he then managed to pull away to an almost 4 second victory. Behind Perilly just held off Alfie Brooks in an enthralling battle. Zach Walters and Mitchell Gibbons had a good dice in 4^th and 5^th, dropping Jack Matthews in 6^th, who had run as high as third early on.

The Mini Max class only managed 5 runners for their Winter Trophy final. For 14 laps James Wharrier held the lead comfortably from Thomas Rotherham, who had been dicing with Declan Lee over second place.

On the 15^th lap Rotherham’s set up suddenly came alive as he took the lead from Wharrier, this is maintained over the remaining 9 laps to win by 5.4 seconds. Lee dropped back to 4^th by the flag as Henry Ayres moved into third behind Wharrier. Ben Cowley was the last remaining runner.

Fresh from his win at Buckmore Park last week, Oliver Bearman started from pole position in the eagerly anticipated Honda Cadet final. Alongside in his all black kart was the #65 of Callum Tadman and these two led away the 25 kart snarling pack. Bearman was in no mood to tow the rest of his competitors around and pulled a gap early on, leaving behind a great race for second place, between the impressive Tadman, Dylan Cooper and Kristian Brookes.

It didn’t take long for Honda Clubman graduate Oliver Greenall to pull himself together and show what an expert he has become at the Swale circuit, by carving through past these three into second place, his Evolution kart then set off after the flying Bearman.

The circuit had dried considerably by now and this played into the hands of Sam Heading – having struggled in qualifying and the Pre-Final due to worn wet tyres, Heading now had intermediates fitted and boy did they make a difference.

From his starting position of grid 14, he had worked his way up into 3^rd place by the 11 of the 18 laps; there he continued to reel in Greenall, who in turn had closed on the now tyre struggling Virtus kart of Bearman. The gap between 1^st and 3^rd was eventually just 1.5 seconds, a fine performance by all three drivers.

Callum Tadman whose kart was by now almost without his #65, held off Tom Lebbon and Dylan Cooper in a blanket finish for fourth, Kristian Brookes took 7^th from the DRS twins of Bradley Hardy and Zac Ripley.

The Junior Subarus had some new faces joining them this year and with others moving on the grid had an unfamiliar look to it. Perhaps the unfamiliarity had an effect on some, as there were numerous incidents throughout the race’s 24 laps. George Leeves took a narrow win over Troy Beswick, a mere 0.154 seconds covering them at the line, Dylan Lewis had been right with the duo until a late in the race chicane clash, dropped him back. Ross Connolly, Thomas Lawson and Riley Stephenson rounded out the top 6, the latter having a very eventful action filled race.

The Junior Rotax and X30 classes followed up next. Project One’s Charlie Bennett won comfortably by 7.4 seconds, from Sean Berry who along with Harry Gent, kept Charlie honest for several early laps. Gent kept race long pressure on Berry without being able to mount a pass, they were separated by 0.2 seconds at the finish.

Bobby Grove managed to bring his X30 powered kart up into 4th overall and win the X30 class in front of James Freeman (Rotax) and Ben Rawlinson (Rotax). Luke Shopland finished 2nd in the X30 class from Anthony Amato. Leading retirements were Luke Whitehead (chain), Oliver Appleby (rear bumper).

The final race of the day was for the Senior Rotax and X30 classes. Jack Wall had a big off into the tyre wall in the Pre Final but recovered well to win the Rotax class by a large margin, similarly Ed Bridle had an equally comfortable win in the X30 class, after his brother Chris had his engine oil up on the dummy grid.

Jamie McGeohan finished 3rd overall from Dan O’Brien, Chris Harvey and Stephen Walls. Chris Bridle eventually finished 6 laps down in 7th after a lengthy pit stop.

Blake Ticehurst took the points win in the Bambino class after their three runs, Alfie Hunt was 2nd from Tighe Wratten, Damien Baruss-Haggett and Marco Horsley.