The English summer made a rare appearance at Bayford Meadows over the weekend, as round 4 of the circuit’s club championships were held in honour of Lee Wood who will always be remembered from the circuit’s early beginnings.
Drivers were keen to rack up points towards their title aspirations in the various classes, which led to a few heated on track moments, no doubt further fuelled by the high ambient temperatures on the day.
Thankfully there was only one red flag incident during the Junior Rookies morning Heat, from which both drivers came away virtually unscathed.
Bambinos
It was great to see 11 Bambino karts entered for this month’s event, with those numbers being made up by 8 Comer and 3 Electric battery powered machines. Benjamin Sljivar has developed a habit of winning lately and he continued this trend on Saturday, dominating the Comer engined karts throughout. Junior Wright came out on top in the ultra quiet Electric karts, full results from the Bambino class can be found here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/e/192376
Honda Cadet 200.
After being pipped to the post last month, Jack Cope was keen to return to winning ways on Sunday, he was boosted with his endeavor by running in a new kart with bright Jack ‘Dash’ Cope graphics. This obviously had the right effect as he won the Heat – Pre Final and main Final, only being headed in the morning qualifying by circuit returnee Ricky Junior Mackintosh.
Cope’s win in the Final wasn’t a walk in the park however as Mackintosh sat on his bumper, pressuring throughout, finishing just 0.14s behind at the finish. Noah Clare stuck with the leading pair all race long, not quite able to mount an attack as he finished 3rd just 0.49s behind. Last month’s winner Riley Taylor never really recovered from a spin in the morning Heat as he finished a further 1.36s behind in 4th place.
Jerry and Reggie Dufficy completed the remaining runners in 5th & 6th, as William Spencer was unfortunate in suffering a mechanical failure on the opening lap. Runner up Mackintosh recorded the fastest lap on the 5th tour at 52.20s.
Senior Club Max 177.
15 drivers rolled out for the 177 Club Max Final grid with Oliver Hutchings heading Lewis Deacon on the front row, the latter having proved fastest in qualifying and then taking a comfortable Heat win, before Hutchings headed the Pre Final to line up on the pole position.
Frederic Lecomte was next up in 3rd, going well in his Intrepid kart, ahead of Dan Wright in 4th. Ben Avery was having an up and down day after trouble in qualifying from which he then recovered to race up to 2nd place in the Heat. From there on though he slipped back to 5th in the Pre Final, to line up alongside Adam Clark in 6th. On the 4th row sat Tyler Cox and Jason Page.
The opening lap was pretty fraught as Hutchings initially led from a pumped up Lecomte who dive bombed him into the first of the infield hairpins, to lead, with Deacon in 3rd, Wright in 4th, Clark 5th and Avery 6th. Hutchings didn’t waste much time in usurping Lecomte demoting him to 2nd with an eager Deacon in 3rd.
These two then battled hard, before Deacon eventually misjudged a move into turn 1 spinning Lecomte out of 2nd place. Deacon then had Wright to contend with as the Jenner liveried kart slipped ahead through the infield, before the two clashed at long left hander around the mound, spinning Wright out of podium contention. Through all of this Hutchings now had a comfortable lead ahead of a battered Deacon, Clark meanwhile had worked his way up to third after winning a scrap with Avery, who was another to hit the very unlucky Wright. Michael Gibbons was 5th at this stage until Page passed him on lap 10.
At the finish Hutchings’s margin of victory was a very healthy 7.73s over Deacon, who picked up a 5s penalty for his earlier incident with Lecomte, the penalty however having no effect on his runner up finishing position. Both Page & Gibbons inherited two positions post race to finish 3rd & 4th after Clark & Avery were penalised 5s, dropping them to 7th & 9th respectively.
Masters winner Dennis Trzeciak kept out of trouble to take 5th from a recovering Lecomte in 6th. Wright eventually survived the day to take 8th and Tyler Cox took 10th, the fastest lap went to Deacon on lap 7 at 47.73s.
Rotax Cadet.
Just 5 karts were entered for the Rotax Cadet class, quickest on the day of the quintet was Dimitar Uzunov who took wins in the Heat and Pre Final before romping to a 5.93s win with fastest lap in the Final. Lewis Herbertson finished 2nd 3s clear of a good dice between Joseph Cox and Ellis Honey in 3rd & 4th. Oliver Maskell finished a lap down in 5th.
Junior Club Max Rookie/Junior Libre Club Max.
The largest entry of the day was for the Junior Rookie classes, with 20 karts entered. Unfortunately for Jasmine Keepax, a crash in the Heat held during the morning involving Leon Knight, curtailed her day with a wrist injury. The Heat win went to George Cole who had also topped the morning qualifying session. Cole then followed that win up to take pole position in the Final, with another in the Pre Final, as Ayda Sexton finished just 0.2s behind to line up on the front row.
Reuben Mamelok headed the 2nd row with impressive newcomer Nikolaos Gourzoulidis sat next to him. On the third row sat BM plate holder Freddie Wall and Daniel Butcher. William Aldis and Daniel Adomaitis, completed the 4th row ahead of Alexander Campbell and Leon Knight, who was showing no after effects of his earlier crash.
Cole continued his impressive form by leading Sexton over the opening laps of the race, with the pair circulating as one and pulling away from the rest of the field. Mamelok initially ran 3rd before being passed by Gourzoulidis on lap 3, these two pulling clear of the race for 5th which was initially headed by Wall, until lap 4 when both Butcher and Aldis moved ahead, leaving Wall very frustrated.
Adomaitis was next in 8th from Campbell in 9th and Knight in 10th. As the race entered it’s last quarter the pace at the head of the field was fierce as Sexton piled the pressure on leader Cole, eventually passing him on the 10th lap, setting the fastest lap as she did so. She then managed to hold off any retaliatory move over the remaining laps from Cole, to finish winner by 0.77s in what had been an intense battle between the two.
Mamelok pressed Gourzoulidis for third failing to pull a move off on the track, however a post race nose fairing penalty meant his endeavours weren’t in vain as he was rewarded with 3rd, with Gourzoulidis dropping to 6th after showing a stellar defence. Butcher put in a solid performance in 4th, his best in the class so far, along with a similarly impressive Aldis in 5th. Adomaitis managed to pass a struggling Wall to take 7th behind the penalised Gourzoulidis.
Ninth behind Wall was Campbell, who finished just ahead of Che Marriott-Dixon in 10th. Tabitha Mellor was the only representative in the Junior Libre class, she raced for the last time before stepping up next month, she will welcome the extra competition in this thriving class.
Rotax Inter.
The Burgeoning Rotax Inter class were next on track, with 12 of the rapid & diminutive karts entered for this month. Elijah Hazelwood was fastest in qualifying, before tangling with Aklle Nane Giannone at the start of the Heat, giving Harry Wright a clear run to win.
Gainnone took the Pre Final win from Hazlewood and Wright, leaving these three heading the grid for the afternoon’s Final. Alex Shepherd recovered from a Heat spin to line up 4th from Harrison Page in 5th. 6th, 7th & 8th on the grid were Cordell Sinclair, Zac Jennings and Benjamin Beresford.
From the start of the Final it was clear that the race for the win would be between the front row incumbents – Giannone and Hazelwood and that was exactly as it played out, with the former initially leading from the pole until Hazelwood managed to edge ahead on the 3rd lap, with Giannone briefly running onto the grass before recovering.
Hazelwood’s tenure in the lead didn’t last long though as Giannone took just two laps to reverse the positions, then going on to take the win by just 0.1s from Hazelwood. Shepherd got the better of Wright early on to run 3rd, as Page too passed Heat winner Wright, although several laps later the latter was back in 4th as Page had to settle for 5th.
Jennings ran with these two before settling for 6th ahead of Sinclair in 7th, Beresford finished 8th after running 7th early on. 9th & 10th were Nelson Taylor and Ibrahim Hussain. A fastest lap of 48.88s went to winner Giannone’s Clark kart on the 9th of 12 laps.
Junior Club Max.
12 Drivers appeared for the Junior Club Max class this month, another Final which was going to be hard to predict, especially after Aiden Large topped qualifying and the morning Heat, before Luke Broadbent took the Pre Final win, this after Jack Pullen had had a brief spell in front before slipping to third behind Large.
These three headed the grid for the Final from Jacob Hobbs in 4th, Kajus Zygmanta in 5th, Kosti Dzharov in 6th, Byron Scott-Simmonds in 7th, Max Osbourne 8th, Dexter Collins 9th and Freddie Leppenwell 10th.
It was all green at the front for the Final as Large and Broabent pulled away from Pullen who just didn’t have the pace in his kart to keep up. Zygmanta was up to 4th but also soon struggling for pace, causing a bit of a roadblock to those behind, eventually though Hobbs did make a move stick towards the latter part of the race.
Back at the front Broadbent shadowed the leader’s every move, mounting pressure on Large before eventually making a move stick on the 10th of 13 laps, then going on to take a very popular win for the Blueberry team driver. Large wasn’t too disappointed with 2nd place, which was a good result for the JAXX team.
Pullen will no doubt bounce back to the front next month once his Jenner team analyse where he was losing out to the leaders. Hobbs was comfortable in 4th once passed Zygmanta, who soon also dropped behind Osbourne in 5th, before regaining the place post race after Osbourne was hit with a nose fairing penalty dropping him to 9th. 6th fell to Collins from Dejaun Bennett in 7th & Scott-Simmonds in 8th. The top 10 was rounded out by Dzharov. Large’s 7th lap of 46.87s proved to be fastest of the race.
Senior Club Max.
The Senior Club Max drivers hit the Sittingbourne circuit next for the last race of the day with 14 karts filling the grid. On pole for the Final was Ciaron Edgson who had topped qualifying, finished 2nd in the Heat and then won the Pre Final. Josh Pullen had recovered from a penalty after winning the morning Heat (which had then dropped him to 6th) – to finish 2nd in the Pre Final, leaving him completing the front row ahead of the Heat winner James Tomsett in 3rd. Alongside Tomsett was Ollie Owen in 4th, Joe Gethen in 5th and Joshua Pattrick in 6th. On the 4th row sat Calvin Ashford-Smit and Mollie Griffiths, ahead of Ella Haines and Daniel Hughes on the 5th.
At the start the front of the grid held their positions with Edgson leading Pullen and Tomsett, this trio pulling clear of Owen, Gethen, Patrick, Hughes and Griffiths. After several laps Edgson’s lines were becoming defensive as he was being pushed along by Pullen and Tomsett, this battle heating up and eventually falling apart as the three fought hard over the Sittingbourne real estate!
Edgson held the lead through it all as Pullen had survived to hold 2nd, Tomsett was in trouble first slipping back to 5th behind Owen and Gethen, then later also Hughes and Owen as Gethen had jumped up to 3rd. Over the closing laps Pullen was putting more pressure and more on Edgson who eventually succumbed to the Jenner Motorsport driver on the penultimate lap, giving Pullen the win and fastest lap too at 48.63s.
Gethen was just over a second back in 3rd behind Edgson at the finish, Hughes took his best result of the year with 4th ahead of Owen in 5th and Tomsett in 6th, who was hit with a 5s nose fairing penalty post race, leaving him tumbling down to 10th. In-between Owen and Tomsett was Haines and Griffiths in 6th & 7th and Ashford-Smit & Sean Dabin in 8th & 9th.
Full results from Sunday’s racing can be seen here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/e/191163
Round 5 of the BMKR club championships will be held over the weekend of June 15-16th.