Blessed with some early summer sun the Buckmore Park Kart Club, played host to round 2 of their summer championships at the much improved Chatham circuit.

Visiting Formula Blue driver started the day’s finals off, entertaining all with a fine clean race and it was great to see the camaraderie amongst the competitors throughout the day. A comfortable final win went to Ian Branfield, Anthony Cleal was 2nd from Luke Latimer in 3rd and Kevin Ford in 4th, all putting on a very entertaining race.

From the wealth of experience of the Formula Blue drivers we next had the youngsters learning their skills in the Honda Cadet Clubman final. A first lap crash at the first hairpin delayed half of the field, with Josh Wellard (Chatham) and Corbin Newbury (Sheerness) suffering the worst.

At the front Zach Walters led the way, with Mitchell Gibbons driving a new kart this weekend, trying desperately to find a way past the LICA #77 machine. Four other drivers joined in the battle, Ryan Willis, Alfie Brooks (Dartford), Christian Lilley and Joshua Hoy (Bexleyheath).On lap 9 Gibbons found away past Walters until the latter retaliated at turn 1, the two karts ran wide and the others pounced. Out of hairpin 1 it was Willis who had the lead with Gibbons on his tail, until they reached hairpin 2 when they both tangled.

Brooks, Walters and Lilley were caught up in the ensuing melee, with karts spread across the circuit’s width, poor Wellard who was next on the scene collided with a recovering Lilley and Walters was in some discomfort in his kart, the race director had no choice but to red flag the race. The results were put back to the previous lap, giving the win to Walters, Willis took 2^nd from Brooks in 3^rd, 4^th went to Lilley, 5^th to Hoy and 6^th to Wellard. Gibbons was ultimately penalised and ended up 11^th overall.

With the Super One series arriving at Buckmore Park next month one or two national teams were using this event as a warm up event. Alex Lloyd from nearby Meopham hasn’t been to the Chatham circuit for some time, you wouldn’t have guessed it though as he romped to a clean sweep in his DHR kart. His 4.6 second win and fastest lap was only spoilt by his lack of a ‘Dab’ celebration at the finish line!

When questioned on the subject after, he shyly stated that it was because there were only 13 karts entered; perhaps he is waiting for the Super One event to repeat his unique celebration? Behind the dominant Kentish lad – Kieron Jermey, Klaas Kooiker and Oakley Pryer had a good mid race scrap, which ended in these positions, less than half a second between them. In 5th place James Wharrier held off Ryan Taylor-Trueman and Declan Lee in a close dice. Taylor Waldron won the guesting Junior Blue class.

Another DHR driver and local lad from Dartford – Myles Apps had a comfortable drive to clinch the Junior Max final by 4.1 seconds, this gap was largely due to contact between Kpi driver Harry Gent and Jordan Brown at the first hairpin on lap 13. Gent was driving superbly in the runner up spot, when Brown forced his kart down of his inside into the tight right hand turn, the ensuing contact pitched both karts wide, Gent was out later in the lap due to damage inflicted in the incident and Brown dropped to 4^th as Charlie Bennett (Bromley) and Tom Edmunds took full advantage, ending up 2^nd and 3^rd at the line.

This was a great result for Project One’s Bennett who had a disastrous first heat when a steering bolt sheared, leaving him starting from near the back in the Pre final. Behind Edmunds in 3^rd, the delayed Brown in 4^th was Liam Carter (Maidstone) in 5^th, Conrad Collinson rounded out the top 6.

The Junior X30 results were decided in the steward’s room after the race, as tempers boiled over on the track. Ronnie Foster and Nelson King couldn’t be separated all day, but the latter crossed the line in 1st but was penalised for contact and ended up classified 7^th in the results. Evolution driver Foster it was then that won by 2.7 seconds, over a somewhat surprised Alfie Glenie (Sissinghurst), his luck finally holding out and his potential proven, after a snapped throttle cable and crash in the earlier races. Finley Cross took the final podium spot from Bobby Grove in 4^th and Frankie Flunt in 5^th.

It was local teams DRS vs DNL in the Honda Cadet final. DRS drivers Zach Ripley and Bradley Hardy had worked perfectly together as teammates in the first heat, pulling away from the field and looked to do the same in the Pre final until Callum Gunning got between them, Hardy then suffering a penalty dropping him back to a 10^th  place grid slot for the final.

A first lap crash brought out the red flag which was lucky for Gunning who hadn’t made a great start dropping to third behind Harry Garman and leader Ripley. The race restarted over the full distance and this time Gunning anticipated the lights to perfection. Walderslade driver Ripley soon put the DRS kart back in the lead though, leaving the blue and yellow DNL kart stuck to his bumper. We all waited to see when the Herne Bay driver Gunning, would make a move for the front over the last lap and sure it enough it came at the second hairpin, with a clean incisive move down the inside of Zach’s colourful kart.

When they came back into view up the hill Callum had held onto his lead, celebrating in style, but with Zach breathing down his neck just 0.050 seconds behind him. Harry Garman stayed close behind the battling duo in third; Callum Tadman took 4^th from Jack Davis and the unfortunate Hardy up to 6^th.

The Senior Max final saw a jump start penalty take the win away from Sam Baker(Sevenoaks) after the race, it was a tough decision to take but the circuit’s cameras didn’t lie. Elliot Rice had fuel mixture problems which prevented him mounting a successful race long attack on Baker, although with hindsight it wasn’t needed as he annexed the win. Lewis Brown finished on Rice’s bumper to inherit 2^nd place, with his penalty in place Baker took 3^rd, from 177 driver Karl Mepham in 4^th, James Pagden finished 5^th.

There were only 4 karts out for the senior X30 final, split between Ambition and KPi teams but what a race they provided! Ed Bridle (Ambition) hit some engine gremlins and fell away from Emily Rogers (KPi), Chris Bridle (Ambition) and Will Morris (KPi).These three put on a great spectacle of close and clean racing with nothing between them throughout the 15 lap race distance. Morris managed to be at the front when it mattered to take a good win for the local KPi team. Ed Bridle (Maidstone) managed to coax his recalcitrant Ambition kart home as the last X30 finisher.

Next month’s meeting (June 19^th) will prove to be busy, with the Super One teams using the Kent circuit as their last warm up opportunity before the Super One event the following weekend (25^th-26^th), it will be interesting to see how the local drivers fair against our country’s best.