Yes it may be October but the BPKC Summer Championships were in full swing at Buckmore Park for round six last weekend.

The event was blessed with a pleasant afternoon, after the early morning gloom lifted. For this event the regular championship classes were joined by the visiting Southern TKM series, which featured races for both juniors and seniors. The visitors bolstered a bustling paddock at the picturesque Chatham circuit which had a 32 race program to work through.

Starting the afternoon’s finals off was the Honda Cadets and leading the 25 karts away from pole position was Harry Thompson. The race was soon halted not once but twice, due to a couple of incidents which required cautionary check-ups, from the Buckmore Park medical team.

When the race finally resumed over 8 laps, the Super One series runner up Thompson, pulled clear with Oliver Bearman in tow and soon they were to open up an ever increasing gap over the rest of the field. Although Britons number 4 Bearman, stayed glued to Thompson, he could not find a way past, ending up a mere 0.090 seconds behind at the end of the race.

Behind this pair an exciting tussle involving several drivers went the way of Ben Fayers, with Bradley Hardy inheriting 4^th after Alfie Prince was removed from the results, Dylan Cooper drove well to take the 5^th spot from Tom Lebbon.

The Mini Max final produced an excellent race, Ronnie Foster and Chris Lulham took turns in leading, with Oliver Appleby, Patrick Kibble for close company. However lurking behind them was Jenson Butterfield from Halling, running out of the local KPi awning, he scythed his way through stealthfully to take the win.

Appleby had contact with one of the others from the leading group over the start line, causing him to spin and drop back in the pack. This left Lulham and Foster to fight over second place, in the end it was the former who grabbed the runner up spot, Klass Kooiker came through to take fourth from Kibble, with Keiron Jermey fresh out of Cadets taking 6^th place.

The visiting series were up next with the TKM Extremes on first. This was a close race amongst the senior drivers with the top four covered by a second at the finish, Joe Stocford took the win from Matthew Allnutt, Matthew Ayres finished third.

In the Junior class pole position holder Abbi Pulling dropped to third place at the second hairpin on the first lap, when Joe Fowler and Alexander Page nipped through. It wasn’t long however before young Abbi found her way back to the front, leading comfortably to the end of the race. Joe Fowler later retired, but Sam Fowler fought through to take second from Ross Deal and Bradley White, Page finished 5^th from Curtis Grainger.

In the Senior Rotax class that was next up, Elliot Rice won from last month’s winner Kit Brough, only just over one second separated them at the flag, after 12 flat out laps. Sittingbourne’s Kent Cup champion Jonathan Wilkes, held down third spot until right near the end when Sevenoaks driver Sam Baker and Lewis Brown both passed him, leaving him in 5^th. 6^th went the way of the unlucky Shaun Hollingsworth, who will be hoping that his recent spell of misfortune is now behind him. In the 177 class Mark Figes proved victorious once again and then set off to compete in an endurance karting event later at the circuit !

Two X30 karts ran with the Rotax classes, the brothers Bridle from Maidstone fought each other for the win, with Edward taking the spoils this month from his twin brother Chris.

Ten karts lined up for the IAME Cadet final made up mostly by the colourful Fusion race team. Teammates Joseph Taylor and Georgi Dimitrov fought tooth and nail for the races duration, seemingly never more than an inch apart, Taylor just taking the win by 0.071 of a second from his teammate. Third was Van Knapton from Harry Thompson who had taken the Honda Cadet win earlier in the day.

The Honda Clubman final proved to be a corker, although a contentious incident near the end tarnished it for some. Alex Moody, Callum Gunning and Josh Wellard took turns in leading the race, with Sebastian Bloch, Oliver Greenall and Ronnie Mansfield in close company.

When the flag dropped it was Moody who took a satisfying win, a delighted Josh Wellard finished an excellent 2^nd after a recent run of bad luck, Bloch was 3^rd from a very disappointed Gunning, the Herne Bay driver having to take to the grass in avoidance of another driver towards the end of the race. Greenall was close by in 5^th from Mansfield in 6^th.

The Rotax Juniors rounded off the day and one man dominated his peers from the moment the lights turned to green, Bromley’s Charlie Bennett the new Kent Cup holder, revelled in his karts performance and handling, to take a comfortable win from Tyler Sullivan, who you can guarantee was driving his heart out to stay with Charlie. Dragan Pinsett took third overall and first in the X30 class, from Charlie Lamb, Michael Smith and Liam Carter.