The BMKR club continued their season with the June race day held under leaden skies, with early morning rain testing the drivers during the practice and qualifying sessions.

Another healthy entry filled the paddock albeit still without spectators due to the continued Covid restrictions being in place. The healthy Junior and Senior Rotax grids provided plenty of action throughout the day, with the racing becoming quite fraught at times.

Bambinos.

Sadly there were only four Bambinos entered this month and the three timed runs provided identical results, with Maria Ruberto topping the leaderboard on each occasion. Jack Cope had a better time than last month by finishing 2^nd in each run, Ella Dixon 3^rd and Matthew Lilley 4^th. Maria set her fastest lap time in the 2^nd of the runs with a time of 1:02.94s and all four of the young drivers managed to avoid time wasting spins during their runs, which was great to see.

Honda cadets.

The seven kart Honda Cadet class produced a cracking final, which was the first of the afternoon. Oscar O’Sullivan took the win in the morning’s Heat, from Fletcher Jamieson and Rio Licata, in the following Pre Final it was Jamieson who reversed the positions, by beating O’Sullivan and Licata to take the victory.

This set us up for a close Final and we weren’t to be disappointed. “Flat out Fletch” Jamieson led the grid away and initially looked comfortable ahead of O’Sullivan and Licata. Antony Parfett held 4^th, with Jonas Klimas in 5^th,although he was soon to drop behind firstly Andrew Dixon and then Callum Sims later in the race.

At half distance Licata had powered through into the lead over Jamieson and O’Sullivan, who was by now starting to struggle with his own pace. Dixon was showing a great turn of speed and moved into third place during the last third of the race. At the head of the field Licata and Jamieson continued to swap the lead, putting on an enthralling battle. Licata led into the last lap but it was Jamieson who eventually came out on top, spreading his arms in a wing-like formation as he took the finish!

Licata and Dixon were less than a second behind in 2^nd and 3^rd places, Parfett took 4^th, O’Sullivan 5^th, Sims 6^th and Klimas 7^th. Dixon’s charge up to 3^rd netted him the fastest lap of the race.

Senior 177s.

Former Senior Rotax circuit champion – Thomas Lawson made a welcome return to racing in the Senior 177 class on Sunday. He showed that he hadn’t lost any of his ability by topping qualifying, taking wins in both the Heat and Pre Final and then romping away to a 9.6s win in the Final, with the fastest lap to boot.

Michael Gibbons was a clear 2^nd in the final but the battle for the last podium position was always in doubt after a turn 1 coming together delayed several drivers. James ‘Adam’ Pell kept clear of the incident to run 3^rd right up until the end of the race when a recovering Billy Watts caught and passed him, only to discover post-race that the first corner crash had given him a dropped nose fairing penalty, relegating him back behind Pell to 4^th.

Andy Locke was another to be overtaken at the end of the race to lose his 5^th place, only to discover that Dennis Trzeciak had also been hit with the same penalty resulting from the first corner crash, giving Locke his 5^th place back. With Trzeciak in 6^th Andy Parish finished 7^th, also after he too was delayed at the first corner.

Mini Club Max.

The opening laps of the Mini Club Max class had lots of jostling for positions behind the pole sitter Lloyd Hare. By lap 3 the race had settled down and Tighe Wratten set to the task of trying to catch Hare’s immaculate blue kart in front. Luca Osman-Price ran 3^rd ahead of James Sherrington in 4^th, next up was a charging Josh Selvadorai whose nose fairing was visibly loose after running into Sherrington at the first corner.

Tom Ingram-Hill, George Barker and Ryan Welsh held the remaining positions.  Wratten in 2^nd tried his hardest to challenge Hare but eventually failed to do so by just 0.7s. Selvadorai stormed his way up to 3^rd at the finish until the inevitable nose fairing penalty relegated him back to 5^th in the results.

Sherrington took the final podium position in 3^rd, Osman-Price finished right on his bumper in 4^th. Behind the penalised Selvadorai in 6^th was Ingram-Hill, Barker was 7^th and Welsh 8^th. The fastest lap went to Selvadorai, some compensation from the penalty that he received after the race.

Junior Subaru.

The Junior Subaru class lacks in numbers compared to recent years, but what it loses in quantity is made up for in quality, with a very close race for the championship honours being played out each month. Things did boil over in the final after some great racing in the qualifying Heat and Pre Final though.

Liam Thomas and William Fallon started from the front row, behind them sat Ciaron Edgson and Jace Goslett. Row 3 consisted of Jenson Taylor and Ryan Dell, the fourth and final row had George Oxford and Bentley Lovegrove-Fowler.

Some close side by side racing initially went the way of Fallon with Edgson and Thomas running as one. Up to 4th by lap 3 was Lovegrove-Fowler, who then took advantage of the three ahead dicing by towing right up to them.

By lap 5 things were getting heated at the front – Fallon had taken the lead back from Thomas who had led for the lap previously, Edgson fancied a move on the GMS kart of Thomas but then Lovegrove-Fowler slipped past both of them at turn 1 in an excellent move.

All was about to turn bad though on the run down to the bottom hairpin – and I expect that each driver has their own version of events of what happened? The outcome was that Fallon emerged into the infield section with a comfortable lead, Thomas and Lovegrove-Fowler were both delayed and the unfortunate Edgson was on the grass on the outside of the corner and out of the race, which was galling for him after being bang on the front pace this month.

The race was effectively over now as Fallon controlled his lead pace comfortably over the remaining laps to take a deserved win. Thomas set the fastest lap during his recovery to 2^nd place, but it was to no avail as he sustained a dropped nose in the earlier incident, which demoted him to 3^rd. George Oxford had stayed out of trouble and took a well-deserved 2^nd overall.

Lovegrove-Fowler recovered from the earlier incident to cross the line in 4^th, until he too was given a nose drop penalty, relegating him to 6^th in the standings. Jace Goslett  was classified 4^th, Jenson Taylor 5^th ahead of Lovegrove-Fowler and Ryan dell in 6^th. It will be interesting to see who will come out on top when they all resume their push for the championship next month.

Honda Rookies.

An excellent 23 kart entry assembled on the grid for the Honda Rookie final and once checked for positions by the grid marshals, they were soon snaking their way down into turn 1. Harry Freeman had been in good form to take the Heat and Pre final wins and led over the first lap. Archie Beard has recently proven to be Freeman’s biggest threat in the class and he sat 2nd, with Harry Taylor in 3rd.

Leon Knight, driving a new kart for this event was 4th Hayden Butcher 5th and Ryan Blake moving past Isaac Doble for 6th. As the laps counted down ‘Head down Harry’ Freeman was setting a fierce pace out in front and trying as he might – Beard could not live with him, although he was comfortable ahead of Taylor.

Butcher found a way past Knight into 4th, as the latter slipped into a battle with Doble, Alfie Mew and Blake. As the laps ticked by it was clear that Freeman had this one in the bag and he eventually completed the 13 laps 4.5s ahead of runner up Beard.

Taylor was a couple of seconds behind in 3rd, Butcher 4th, Mew won the battle for 5th from Doble (6th) and Blake, who unfortunately picked up a nose drop penalty, dropping him back to 11th. Knight was 7th, ahead of Joel Bullen 8th, Freddie Duncan 9th and Lewis Riley 10th. It was not surprising to see that Freeman took the fastest lap on the 5th tour as he was building his lead.

Senior Club Max.

There was another 23 kart entry for the Senior Club Max drivers, however due to a big crash to Joseph Doble in the 2nd Heat, that was soon down to 22. Heat wins went to Riley Stephenson (heats 1 & 3) and Kieran Ives took the red flagged 2nd heat.

The grid line up was headed by Stephenson and Elliot Rice on the front row, Ives and Joseph Gethin on the 2nd, James Tomsett and Harry Chamberlain on the 3rd, Zak dear and Poppi Stephenson filled the 4th and Oliver Bullion and Joe Wood the 5th.

From the start Stephenson and Rice set off at a hot pace, Ives held 3rd with Tomsett on his bumper in 4th, Poppi Stephenson had jumped ahead of Gethin for 5th, Bullion ran 7th, Jonathan Dalton 8th, Max Goodwin 9th and Wood 10th.

It was clear at the front that  Rice wasn’t letting R Stephenson pull away and he led laps 3 & 4, going into lap5 the two were glued together but then came unstuck as Stephenson tried to squeeze past on the inside at the bottom hairpin.

Rice was defending his line trying not to leave a gap and the inevitable contact was made, as Stephenson’s kart rode up over his rival’s, unfortunately removing Rice’s radiator and leaving him parked up on the exit of the corner.

Tomsett and Ives seized the chance to jump ahead and at the end of the lap it was Ives leading from Tomsett. Stephenson had recovered to 3rd and soon made that 2nd. Gethin was 4th behind Tomsett, up to 5th from 17th somehow was Jamie Rogers, a great effort after just 7 laps ! Dalton, Bullion and Dear ran 6th, 7th and 8th, P.Stephenson 9th and Goodwin 10th. Over the closing laps Ives looked in control at the head of the field until Stephenson found a way past on the last tour to take the win.

Ives crossed the line in 2nd, Gethin 3rd, Tomsett 4th, Rogers 5th and Dalton 6th. The race results were turned on their head post race however, as Stephenson was disqualified after his incident with Rice on lap 5, Ives and Tomsett both suffered 5s dropped nose penalties, even though they kept away from any contact during the race, which gave the win to a surprised Joe Gethin and his GMS kart even more surprised was SAIT driver Rogers who inherited 2nd after an impressive drive.

Dalton was promoted up to 3rd, penalty struck Ives and Tomsett were placed 4th & 5th. 6th went to Bullion, Goodwin 7th, Richard Friend 8th, Michael Ashby 9th and Zac Dear 10th. Stephenson set the fastest lap which was little compensation for him after losing the win.

Junior Club Max.

The Junior Club Max class received the largest entry of the day with 30 karts filling the grids. Roalf racing’s Max Lee took two Heat wins and Jamie Perilly the other . A ‘B’ final was needed to decide the last four spots on the 24 kart Final grid, this was won by John Ward from Kieran Janali, a delighted Ella Haines in 3rd and Simon Parfett taking the last grid spot in 4th.

The grid line up for the final looked like this – Lee and Perilly on the front row, Ryan’s Willis and Micallef on row 2, Daniel Hughes and Sebastian Morgan on row 3, Finlay Watson and Brentley Sims on row 4, row 5 had Alexander Adams-Acton and Ben Cooke.

Lee led away from pole on the inside and was keen to keep Project One’s Perilly behind him, he succeeded for just 1 lap as the #40 kart of Perilly led over lap 2. Willis briefly headed Lee, until the latter reversed the positions, in 4th ran an impressive Micaleff who was easily having his best meeting of the year after suffering from bad luck and misfortune previously in his KRM run kart. Morgan headed Hughes in 5th and 6th, Declan Russell was on a charge in 7th and Oliver Hutchings was going very well in 8th, up from 19th!

Perilly was controlling the pace in the lead and soon opened up a decent gap, he eventually went on to win by an impressive 5.2s over Lee and Willis in 2nd & 3rd. Micaleff was doing a great job in 4th until the flying Lydd run kart of Russell found a way past, although he suffered a drop nose penalty post race!

So Micaleff was rewarded with a very welcomed 4th. Morgan in 5th had recovered well from a poor qualifying when he could not coax his wet tyres to work. Hughes finished 6th ahead of the penalised Russell in 7th, who had started 15th.

Blake Noble finished 8th, Hutchings 9th (nose drop penalty from an original 8th) and Brentley Sim’s modified kart 10th, after he was involved in one of the early lap skirmishes which accounted for a number of retirements. The fastest lap went to Perilly on his way to victory for the local P1 team.

The full results from the event can be found here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/2021/3/

The July meeting will be held over the weekend of the 17th-18th.