On a day when heavy rain was predicted, Lydd kart circuit hosted the final round of the Kent Kart Championship under gloomy skies on a circuit which thankfully remained dry.

Several class championship honours were to be fought out during the day, creating some tense moments on and off of the fast flowing circuit near Dungeness.

Bambinos.

Six Bambino drivers had three timed runs throughout the day. Harry Freeman topped the qualifying times and then romped to the fastest time in the first run, although Charlie Warren was just 0.15s behind in 2nd. Charlie’s red kart then whizzed around to the fastest time in the 2^nd run, just 0.01s ahead of the blue kart of Harry.

In the final run Harry managed to go even faster than his previous runs to take the fastest lap time. Charlie had his white crash helmet tucked in behind his steering wheel in a vain attempt to maximise his speed but, fell 0.5s short as Harry’s 53.26s lap proved to be unbeatable. Jack Pullen took two thirds in runs 1 & 2 then finishing fourth behind his Clarke Karts teammate Rio Licata in the final run. Rio had been 4^th behind Jack in the previous two sessions. Alfie Mew and Teddy Porter finished 5^th and 6^th in each outing. Harry took a close points victory in the championship from Charlie and Jack in 3rd.

Honda Clubman Elite.

Jamie Perilly came into the final round of the championship handily placed at the top of the point’s leaderboard, with Declan Russell as his nearest challenger. The latter took the fastest time in qualifying, just 0.1s ahead of the points leader Perilly, who went on to win the opening heat ,with Russell keeping the pressure on with a close 2^nd place. The Pre Final was very tense as the two broke clear of the rest of the pack, headed by Leon Frost. They swapped places consistently over the 8 laps, with Russell this time coming out on top, Perilly just 0.08s behind.

The opening 4 laps of the Final carried on where the Pre Final had finished with Russell and Perilly having a ding dong battle out at the front. Behind third place starter Frost got bogged down at the start and fell back to 6^th , having being jumped by girls Jessica White and Chloe Chong, Finley Watson too slipped back from his 4^th place start. At this point Nathan Marques headed Chris Doble, Ethan Bentley and Jack Theobald.

As the race reached the halfway point Perilly led, Russell was sat right on his rear bumper taking a breather after the fraught early battle. Frost had moved past his teammate Chong and set after his other Clarke Kart teammate White, he managed to jump ahead of her on the 6^th lap of 10 and tried to close the gap down on the battling duo ahead. Initially they looked to be out of his reach as he had struggled to match their pace during the earlier two races. Things were set to change though as Russell and Perilly attempted to head through the final turn on the penultimate lap side by side, this was never going to work and Frost seized the chance to jump both of them, heading into the last lap in the lead!

While Russell recouped in 2^nd place, Perilly slipped up on the final lap falling even further back. As the race reached it’s dramatic climax Frost took a delighted win, Russell right behind in 2^nd, with a speedy Jess White shadowing him in a very competitive 3^rd. Chris Doble drove a stellar race to climb from 8^th to 4^th after some good racing with Watson,  Marques and  Chong in 5^th 6^th and 7^th.  Perilly eventually finished 8^th, Bentley 9^th and Theobald in 10^th. After some post-race points deliberation Perilly was declared the champion from Russell in 2^nd and race winner Frost who set the fastest lap in 3^rd, Marques, Doble and Theobald completed the top 6 in the championship.

Honda Clubman Standard.

Kaiser Riemann headed the qualifying times for the competitive 13 kart Clubman Standard class, with just over 1 second covering the top 11 on the grid.  Beau Sullivan took a close Heat win, with the top 5 karts on his tail. Harrison Crowther led away the start of the Pre Final before a spin at the first chicane relegated him to the back.

His chance of winning wasn’t over though as a nasty looking accident between Josh Camp and James Bentley brought out the red flag while the drivers were being attended to. It was decided that the restart would be a completely new race, so Crowther retained his position on the front row alongside Sullivan. From the start Crowther controlled the race in front Harry Chamberlin and Joshua Graham in 3^rd.

Crowther led the field away for the 10 lap final, Chamberlin held 2^nd from Graham in 3^rd over the opening couple of laps. Mikey Porter was 4^th, Riemann 5^th, Gustavs Usakovs 6^th and Jayden Sherwood in 7^th.  As the leaders headed into their 4^th lap a crash involving Riemann, Porter and Sherwood on the exit of the final corner resulted in another red flag. Riemann had spun leaving Porter nowhere to go but hard into the tyres, Sherwood was caught up in the incident also taking a hard hit.

Riemann recovered continuing back onto the circuit, both Porter and Sherwood needed to be checked over though and took no further part in the restart, although thankfully were okay being checked over by the excellent circuit medical staff.

The race was restarted over the remaining laps with Chamberlin’s CHDD Evolution kart managing to take control of the race and in doing so confirming himself as Kent Champion for 2018. His winning margin was 2.5s ahead of the SAIT kart of Graham, Usakovs finished 3^rd, Riemann 4th, Crowther ended up 5^th, with Sullivan in 6^th.

Jack Minter-Young’s DART kart finished 7^th, Kyan Upton 8^th, Kenzo Craigie 9^th and James Bentley 10^th. Chamberlin’s excellent day was further rewarded with the fastest lap of the race.Sullivan and Porter finished 2nd and 3rd in the championship, and absent Reg Heywood 4th, Minter-Young 5th and Graham 6th.

Junior Clubmax.

Riley Stephenson hasn’t had much luck recently and had seen his championship points lead diminish, that was all to change when he arrived at Lydd : his domination of the class with a run of 12 consecutive wins at the circuit continued as he took the Heat, Pre Final and Grand Final wins, securing the championship in style.

Josh Pullen and James Black tried all they could to stay with the GMS kart of Stephenson and kept him within touching distance, just falling short of a challenge for the lead. Black’s JB Motorsport CompKart initially took up the challenge running 2^nd in the final until Pullen’s Clarke kart moved ahead at the end of the 4^th lap . Behind Lewie Weaver drove well to run and eventually finish 4^th,  Oliver Bullion was initially h5^th until he had an incident with class debutant Katherine White, which ended Bullion’s race and severely delayed White. Jack Richards ran and took a comfortable 5^th .

Stephenson ‘s winning margin was 0.6s ahead of Pullen and Black who took the fastest lap. Behind Weaver and Richards were : Caitlin May on her class debut in 6^th, Chloe Clarke also on her debut in 7^th, while White finished 8^th. Poppi Stephenson ended on parked up at the side of the circuit after an unfortunate spin took her out on lap 6. Pullen, Black, Richards, Bullion and Declan Lee were placed 2nd to 6th in the final championship standings.

Senior Clubmax.

Drew Holmes had a handy points lead in the championship and could afford to play it safe for the day, so when he topped the qualifying session it was clear to see that he wanted to go out with a win. Things didn’t go to plan in the Heat as Oliver Appleby took the win, Holmes’s Coles teammate Anqi Stenning was 2nd and Lewis Ridd 3rd, with Holmes 4th. The Pre Final win went to Stenning from Appleby and Holmes in 3rd, Ridd was 4th, Josh Bacon 5th and Thomas Richards 6th.

Appleby really wanted to go out with a win as much as Holmes and led the early laps of the final, with Stenning matching his pace in 2nd. Holmes had a steering column bolt snap which made it difficult for him to stay with the two ahead however and couldn’t challenge. Stenning breezed past Appleby at the end of the 3rd lap, as Appleby was seemingly powerless to keep the Coles kart behind on the long back straight.

From there until the finish the positions stagnated until the end of the race. Stenning taking 1st, Appleby 2nd, Holmes a little disappointed not to win on his way to a clear championship win in 3rd, Ridd showed well in 4th on a rare outing for the Dad and lad team, Bacon was next up in his DG kart, securing the runner up slot in the championships as he did so, Richards was 6th in his SAIT kart and a fine 3rd in the final championship positions, Mike Ashby was 7th and 4th in the championship in his GMS/DART kart. Jason Chong, Bryan Kemsley and Will Barnes complete the top 10, Kemsley having taken the 177 class win. Stenning also took the fastest lap on the 2nd tour of the race.

Full championship positions can be found at this link – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/

Two non championship races completed the day both counting towards the circuit club’s winter IKR series. In the Junior Subaru class Harvey Roffe and Ben Harper fought some titanic battles in the 3 races. The final was a cracking race with the two racing side by side for most of its duration, Roffe just came out on top of a side by side last corner shootout, an animated Harper showing his frustration as they crossed the finish line.

The two received a dressing down after the race from the officials but kept their hard earned positions, deservedly so after such an enthralling race. Joseph Knight couldn’t match the pace of the two battling ahead on his way to the remaining podium position in 3rd, Daniel Hughes was next up in a close 4th, Kieran Janali had an eventful day in taking 5th, Mario Cordell finished 6th, Rory Burke 7th (and fastest lap), Max Lee and Jayden Neal-Holder were 8th and 9th.

Just 4 karts made up the ProKart 175-200 grid, James Goymer comfortably headed home Malcolm Freeman and Marcus Beeching, Matthew Coultish non started the final.

2019 promises to be an exciting year for the Lydd kart club as they merge closer with Bayford Meadows by having MSA run events at the circuit from April, also the new building complex overlooking the facility looks set for completion providing a stunning backdrop for friendly Kent circuit.