The BMKR 2024 owner drivers championships came to a close over last weekend, with the new champions crowned after nine hard fought rounds at the popular Sittingbourne circuit – Bayford Meadows.

A very busy day with the end of season trophies handed out after the racing had finished.

Bambinos.

The Bambino class had their final championship race of the year on Saturday, with 6 of the diminutive competitors lining up on the grid. Kai Erginsoy was the sole Electric battery powered kart entered and had a lonely run in the Final after starting ahead of the five Comer engined drivers. He secured the Electric Bambino title after his run, finishing top of the points for the 6 drivers who took part throughout the year in the class, Jenson James Williams was 2nd, Freddie Dye 3rd, Etienne Gardner 4th, Junior Wright 5th and Felix Tandy 6th.

The five Comer drivers had a delayed start behind Kai and it was Jenson Drummond who proved victorious, just under 4s ahead of Lenny Barton who had led early on in the race. Freddie Williams was another 4s back in 3rd, with Ollie Spooner-Green 4th and William Boswell in 5th. Jenson set the overall fastest lap at 1:01.94s and also ended up champion in the Comer class, just 8 points ahead of Freddie in 2nd and Ollie in 3rd, Benjamin Sljivar 4th, Lenny Barton 5th and Theo Azzopardi 6th.

Honda 200/Rotax Cadets.

Sunday was a little less cold for the main finals day and it was the Honda/Rotax Cadet classes that kicked off the afternoon’s action. The season long battling between friends Jack Cope and Riley Taylor had left them both in with a chance of taking the overall champions crown and before the weekend it would take a brave man to predict who would come out on top.

Perhaps taking in account the results from recent rounds – Taylor had the slight upper hand, however Cope had other ideas on Sunday, taking comfortable wins in the Heat and Pre Final. There were sadly only two other drivers in the class this month, George Quinlan and Olly Knox who both ran behind the championship rivals.

At the start of the Final both Cope & Taylor were clean away from the start and initially Taylor managed to stay with leader Cope, this was in vain though, as Cope soon edged ahead lap by lap, pulling clear and eventually going onto win by 5.37s to take the win and the overall championship title from his rival Taylor.

Quinlan and Knox ran close together behind the leaders in 3rd & 4th going on to finish in that order. Cope’s 52.03s 10th lap, was the fastest of the race. Behind champion and vice champion Cope & Taylor in the championship finished William Spencer, (who was racing in the Junior club max rookie class on Sunday) 3rd, Noah Clare 4th, George Pickett 5th and Mason Becker in 6th.

In the Rotax Cadet class just two drivers ventured out on Sunday, Dimitar Usinov continued his fine 2024 dominance by taking a clear win over Joseph Cox setting fastest lap on his way with a

51.46s lap. This pairing also finished 1st & 2nd in the 2024 Rotax Cadet championship, with Ellis Honey who wasn’t racing on Sunday finishing 3rd, Lewis Herberston 4th, Jack Blackman 5th and Jacob Daujotas 6th.

Senior Club Max.

As with the Honda Cadets there were two drivers in with a shot of taking the championship in the Senior Club Max class on Sunday, only this time Ciaron Edgson’s title chances rested on championship leader Josh Pullen having a bad day.

These two have been consistently fast all season long, with both taking wins along the way which had left them both clear of Joe Gethen who was on top form on Sunday, having proved quickest in Qualifying, then going on to take both the Heat and Pre Final wins, putting him on pole position for the Final.

Edgson sat alongside him on the front row with Pullen and Sean Dabin on the second row. Felix Dymant and Joseph McVeigh were next on the 3rd row, on the 4th were novice Mattehew Angel and Louie Aspel. Oliver Johnson & Jemima Woolley completed the 5th row of the 15 karts entered.

From the start Edgson was keen to make his outside grid slot count pulling alongside poleman Gethen on the run to turn , he was unable to get his kart across in front though which left him running a little wide and letting his championship rival Pullen through into 2nd.

Behind it had been a messy start to the race with Jayden Miles losing his exhaust after contact with Mollie Griffiths at turn 1 and then Johnson was turned around at the first infield hairpin, capping a miserable day for the HPM driver.

At the end of the first lap, Gethen led Pullen with Edgson keen to find a way past, Dymant and Angel were ahead of Dabin who had been delayed by being involved in the Johnson spin, Connor Tubby was in Max Verstappen mode, having jumped from 15th to 7th on the opening lap! Aspel was 8th ahead of McVeigh in 9th and a soon to retire Emma Stoner in 10th.

By lap 3 Edgson was on a charge and was ahead of both Pullen and Gethen to lead, over the next few laps this trio traded fastest laps and it was clear to see that none had a clear advantage as they ran nose to tail. Dymant, Angel and Tubby held their positions behind the leaders as Aspel dropped a place to a delayed Griffiths.

On lap 9 as the leaders went into the bottom hairpin Gethen clattered into the back of Edgson sending him wide and finding himself now side by side with Pullen. Gethen received a warning but didn’t give the place back to Edgson, perhaps thinking he would be penalised post race anyway, so he just got his head down and eventually pulled clear of the battling duo behind, who were slowing each other up, with Pullen briefly making up to 2nd before the places were reversed.

After 13 hard fought laps Gethen crossed the line 2.43s ahead and showing that he was the fastest on the day with the best lap of the race at 46.8s set on the 6th tour. He was no doubt relieved too to find that no post race penalty was coming his way after his earlier clash with Edgson.

2nd place went to Edgson from Pullen whose 3rd place was enough to give him the honour of back to back championship victories. Dymant finished 4th ahead of Dabin who had overtaken Angel for 5th & 6th.

Tubby took 7th from Johnson who had fought his way back up to pass Griffiths near the end of the race. Aspel completed the top 10 one place behind Griffiths in 9th. The top 6 in the championship were – Pullen, Edgson, Gethen, Joshua Pattrick, Griffiths and Dymant.

Junior Club Max Rookies.

The biggest grid of the day was in the Junior Club Max Rookies with 24 karts filing onto the circuit. George Cole took pole position after showing impressive pace during qualifying, the morning Heat and Pre Final coming out on top in all 3 sessions.

Reuben Mamelok finished just under 2s behind Cole in the Pre Final to line up 2nd on the grid, ahead of the 2nd row incumbents Ayda Sexton and Daniel Adomaitis. William Aldis and Freddie Wall were next up on the 3rd row from Kieron Hammond Nikolaos Gourzoulidis on row 4. Fletcher Growns and Che Marriott-Dixon completed the 5th row of the grid.

It was going to take a monumental effort from Mamelok to pass Cole into turn 1 at the start, with the outside grid slot such a disadvantage at Bayford Meadows and so it proved as he couldn’t keep alongside the Jenner mentored kart of Cole and also lost out to Sexton who was glued to the leader’s rear bumper.

Adomaitis was 4th from Aldis 5th and Wall 6th after the first lap. Leader Cole pulled clear of the squabbling Sexton and Mamelok who were swapping places over the opening laps until Sexton settled into 2nd.

Mamelok soon dropped back behind Adomaitis who was having his best run at the circuit after taking a break following a run of poor results. Aldis in 5th had a train of karts behind him, led by Wall who was keen to escape the presence of Gourzoulidis and Marriott-Dixon close up behind him, Hammond and Growns ran in 9th & 10th over the early segment of the race.

The top 4 positions remained the same over the second half of the race with Cole cruising to a 2.07s win over Sexton who broke her recent run of bad luck, but still felt lucky as her radiator bracket had broken during the race.

Adomaitis was pleased to be back at the sharp end with 3rd ahead of Mamelok in 4th. Gourzoulidis ended up 5th after firstly Wall was nerfed out of 6th and then Aldis’s tenure of 5th ended on the last lap.

Hammond and Growns finished 6th & 7th from Oliver Peters, Alexander Campbell and Spike Ward finished 8th, 9th & 10th, with Wall in 11th. The fastest lap fell on the 8th lap to Sexton at 47.27s. The final order of the top 6 in the championship was Cole, Sexton, Mamelok, Butcher (who had a disastrous final round),Marriott-Dixon and Aldis.

Rotax Inters.

The ultra fast Rotax Inters were up next, with the earlier races having proved very close . The battling teammates Nelson Taylor and Akille Nane Giannone sat on the front row after finishing a close first and second in the Pre Final. Eden Salvidge had ran with the pair to take 3rd and the inside of row 2, alongside him was John Reynolds going well in the C.H.D.D kart.

On the third row was Matthew Lilley and Zak Jennings who had appeared glued to each other all day. The fourth row had Harry Wright Cordell Sinclair sitting next to each other, the fifth Harrison McNealey and Nishaun Marshall, the last of the 11 runners was Robert Wijnand.

The eleven karts left the grid as one at the start with the formation struggling to hold, this gave Salvidge a run down the inside of poleman Taylor into turn 1 and he took the lead from grid 3 over the opening laps, Taylor wasn’t letting the leader pull clear and soon moved onto the leaders tail, bringing Giannone along with him.

Reynolds had chopped across the nose of a fast startingLilley into turn 1 and ran 4th initially before Lilley moved ahead, only then for the places to swap back in favour of Reynolds a couple of laps later. Jennings was next up in 6th ahead of Wright and Sinclair fighting over 7th.

Salvidge lasted until the 4th lap before Taylor and Giannone dropped him down to third. The teammates then spent the majority of the race running nose to tail before Giannone found a way past on the penultimate lap, going on to take the win by just 0.12s from Taylor.

Salvidge was right behind this pair in 3rd, Reynolds took 4th from Lilley and Jennings in 5th & 6th. Wright & Sinclair finished 7th & 8th ahead of Marshall, Wijnand & McNealey in 9th, 10th & 11th.

The fastest lap went to Giannone at 48.56s. In the final championship standings – an absent Elijah Hazelwood took 1st place, from Wright in 2nd, Harrison Page in 3rd, Giannone 4th, Sinclair 5th & Reynolds in 6th.

Senior Club Max 177s.

Fourteen drivers were entered in the 177 class on Sunday, with qualifying being headed by an inform Lewis Deacon, although he had survived a hairy spin in doing so. The Heat and Pre Final wins however went to Ben Avery, who was keen to make up for last month’s result when he had looked so quick early on in the day.

Oliver Hutchings sat next to Avery in the front row, admitting beforehand that he was surprised at the ASM driver’s pace ahead of him. Michael Gibbons was next in 3rd and had Doug Jenner next to him in 4th. On the 3rd row sat Dan Wright and Adam Clark, Ian Sage and Reece Anscombe were next up on the 4th row.

Dennis Trzeciak and Geoff Cox were on row 5. Lewis Deacon and Tyler Cox sat on the back row after a coming together in the Pre Final had put Cox out and Deacon had received a 1 lap penalty for his involvement in the incident.

Avery had been nailing his starts with much gusto all day and he did the same in the Final, giving Hutchings no chance of squeezing through, in fact Gibbons latched onto Avery and Jenner nearly tried going three wide around the outside !

If that wasn’t exciting enough on the run down to the first infield hairpin, Clark was now traveling backwards surrounded by karts, with Wright to one side and Anscombe to the other!

The outcome left Ben Pawsey and Tyler Cox having to take avoiding action which left them both in the tyre barrier. Meanwhile back at the front Hutchings didn’t waste much time in passing Gibbons and was soon shadowing the leader Avery’s every move, Gibbons and Jenner ran 3rd and 4th and Anscombe was soon past a fast starting Geoff Cox in 5th and 6th.

As the laps counted down Hutchings couldn’t take the race to Avery who was putting on a wonderful display of controlled and yet aggressive driving, which rewarded him with a 0.27s victory, in what might be his last race, after announcing his retirement in true Nico Rosberg style after the race. Hutchings was happy with 2nd and the 2024 177 championship title victory over Avery.

Gibbons was a clear third after Jenner retired after 8 laps, 4th place went to Anscombe after Deacon had fought up onto Wright’s tail but then tapped him onto the grass around the horseshoe with a couple of laps to go, Deacon subsequently suffering a dropped nose fairing 5s penalty and Wright finishing down in 8th, ironically behind the penalised Deacon in 7th.

5th went to Masters winner Sage and Clark who had recovered from his spin to finish 6th. The fastest lap went to the winner Avery at 47.62s on the 9th tour. The top 6 positions in the championship were as follows – Hutchings, Avery, Clark, Wright, Deacon and Gibbons. Trzeciak was honoured with the annual Roger Sheffield trophy for his endeavors at the awards presentation post race.

Junior Club Max.

The last race of the day was for the Junior Club Max class, with seven drivers entered this month. Jack Pullen made the most of the fact that Aiden Large wasn’t racing by topping Qualifying, followed by taking the Heat and Pre Final wins.

Freddie Leppenwell started 2nd on the grid for the Final after a good result in the Pre Final, Kajus Zygmanta and Callum Simms lined up on the 2nd row, ahead of Dexter Collins, Alex Shepherd and Jonas Janusauskas. At the start of the Final Pullen was struggling for grip at turn 1 and Simms pounced to take the lead over the opening lap.

Leppenwell had a tardy start and Zygmanta also tried an early move on Pullen before settling for 3rd. Pullen then took a few laps to bring his tyres in on the now cool track surface, eventually edging past Simms on the 5th lap. It appeared that Simms had nothing in response to Pullen, although he did set the fastest lap on the 11th tour at 47.15s and finished just 0.45s behind.

It was a much deserved win for Pullen after coming close on many times throughout the year. Zygmanta had a good race with Leppenwell who had moved up to 3rd before finishing in 4th behind Zygmanta at the end. Collins ran alone in 5th, the 12 year old frustrated with not being able to run closer to the leaders.

Shepherd finished 6th ahead of Janusauskas in 7th. Aiden Large took the 2024 Junior Club Max title by just 4 points from Pullen in 2nd. Zygmanta finished 3rd, Leppenwell 4th, Collins 5th and Ethan Page in 6th.

The BMKR driver of the year award was presented to Aiden Large, for his outstanding year in the Junior Club Max class.

Full results can be found here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/e/237067

The final 2024 championship positions here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr?view=Standings&s=2024