The final round of the BMKR Winter series was held on Mother’s Day this year, so it was lovely to see so many mums trackside at Bayford Meadows watching and cheering on their racing loved ones.

Overnight rain had lef tthe circuit wet for the morning’s qualifying sessions, this left teams and drivers guessing on which tyres to use. However by the time the Heats were underway the track surface was dry and the weather forecast looked good for the day ahead.

Senior Club Max.

The Senior Club Max class started the afternoon’s finals promptly at 2 o’clock this month and starting from the pole position after a storming Pre final was Lewie Weaver.

Having had the time toset the new CKR kart up since last month, he had clearly found the sweet spot as he cruised to the Pre final win. Series leader Declan Russell shared the front row and looked good to collect more points towards a Winter series victory.

Stefan Kaczmarczyk continues to find his feet in the class and put in a strong showing to line up 3rd on the grid, alongside him was Josh Pullen, who was looking to end the series on a high note. Circuit returnee James Otto found the CKR chassis to his liking as he lined up 5th, with another newbie Senior Jack Badger 6th alongside him.

Ciaron Edgson and Frederic Lecomte completed the 4th row and Ella Haines and Oliver Hutchings the 5th.Weaver timed his start perfectly and had the eager Kaczmarczyk pushing him over the start line into turn 1, this left Russell stranded on the outside as he dropped to 3rd.

Otto initially jumped Pullen until the roles were reversed on the 2nd lap. Edgson led Badger until Badgerre-claimed the place on the 2nd lap as the pair both moved ahead of Otto.

Back to the front Weaver was pulling a comfortable gap over the rest of the field, he set the fastest lap on lap 5 (46.70s) and then went on to win by a margin of 2.48s.

Behind Kaczmarczyk was doing a great job in 2nd place as he went on to take his best Senior finish in his Roalf racing run kart.

Pullen had moved up a gear by the 3rd lap and took a welcome third ahead of Russell who consolidated his number 1 position in the series with 4th.

Edgson found a way back past Badger to take a stellar 5th with Otto taking 6th from Badger in 7th. Lecomte, Hutchings and Haines completed the top 10.

Bambinos.

The four Bambino drivers were onto the track next and an exciting Pre final gave hope of a similar race for their main Final. Circuit newcomer Albi-Jay Stubbs had other ideas however, as he lit up from the start and was never headed over the 9 lap Final, securing a fastest lap of 1:03.31s along the way.

Freddie Williams had taken the Heat win and had a great race with Stubbs and Louis Williams-Mabbs in the Pre final, as he took 2nd, 9.4s behind the winner at the finish.

Williams-Mabbs finished 3rd and wrapped up the class Winter series as he did so. Beau Blundell was a little demoralised at the finish in 4th, as he had struggled gamely to match the pace of the three in front all day.

Honda Cadet 200/160.

The Honda cadets were split into two grids again as the format worked well last month. Ronnie Smart was in fine form all day and despite a mid race challenge from Lewis Riley, took a popular maiden class victory, to please his family who were watching trackside,cheering him on.

Project1 teammate Riley was enjoying the grunt of the 200 engine over his previous 160 version, as he put in a very competitive drive in finishing 2nd just 0.4s behind the winner.

Last month’s winner Freddie Wall finished 3rd heading Jack Cope in 4th. Ethan Okoro pipped Riley Taylor to 5th right at the end of the race, Taylor annoyed to have suffered a second failure over the weekend with the ‘new’ 200 engine.

Harry Grant rounded out the 200 runners in 7th. Smart’s 7th lap proved to be the race’s fastest at 52.79s.

After a slightly disappointing meeting last month, Dylan Glasgow was back on the pace this month in the 160 class. He had a race long battle with Daniel Butcher,who was having his first Bayford Meadows race of the year.

There wasn’t too much between the pair over the 10 lap race distance but the Zip kart of Glasgow just had the edge over the CHDD kart of Butcher to take the win and fastest class lap.

Harrison Page and Hayden Fisher finished ahead of last month’s class winner Johannes Friis, as they finished 3rd, 4th & 5th.

Alfie Clark headed Harvey Turner in 6th & 7th.

Senior Club Max 177.

Adam Clark probably felt that he had the outright pace last month to have taken the win over Alex Magee, ultimately finishing 2nd to the latter who had driven a perfect race.

This month their roles were reversed as Magee had a tardy start which eventually left him too much to do to catch Clark, who was driving faultlessly.

Magee had slipped to 4th at the start as Daniel Wright and Dennis Trzeciak jumped him over the opening tour, by the time he recovered his starting position, Clark had disappeared.

Wright continued to the final podium position in 3rd, Trzeciak was beaten to 4th by TylerCox. Jason Bear took 6th from Ben Avery who was making a rare appearance in his ASM kart in 7th. Ben Pawsey finished 8th from Andy Locke in 9th.

A 47.58s lap was Clark’s and the race’s fastest overall, on lap 10 of the 11 laps.

Rotax Inter.

It wasback to the youngsters for the next Final, with the rapid Rotax Inter class taking to the circuit. The so far dominant Harry Freeman continued his sensational early season form by taking wins in the Heat and Pre final.

Adam Turecek had kept within 5s of Freeman in the Pre final and was hoping for more in the final, so was new to the class Teddie Cooper, who was so rapid in the Cadet 160 class last year. Laurie McVeigh was starting on his back foot after picking up a 5s drop nose penalty in the Pre final, putting him to the back of the 6 kart grid.

Ayda Sexton & Lucas Knibbs would be starting 4th & 5th. Freeman had a monster first lap leaving the rest in his wake to fight over 2nd place over the 9 lap race.

The brightly coloured Turecek kart led the chase and held off Cooper initially before McVeigh made his way through and up into 3rd, Turecek & McVeigh holding these positions to the finish, some 6.82s behind the blue Project 1 kart of winner Freeman.

Cooper took 4th, from Sexton and Knibbs in 5th & 6th. Winter series winner Freeman, also recorded the fastest lap of the race at 49.30s.

Junior Club Max.

Thecompetition for the overall Winter series honours in the Junior Club Max class was a close run thing, with Finley Underwood and Liam Thomas close on points.

The latter was on top form as hetook the Heat and Pre final wins and looked favourite for the Final starting from polein his GMS kart. Both Underwood and Jack Baker suffered a terrible morning Heat when they were caught up in a first corner pile up, although they both recovered well to be in contention at the sharp end for the Final, with Baker starting 2nd and Underwood 3rd.

Callum Sims was putting in an excellent showing by starting 4th on the grid; Fletcher Jamieson & Ryan Welsh were next up on the 3rd row.

Alfy Hemingway and Oscar O’Sullivan compiled the 4th row, next up were Felix Stolkin and Jack Pullen on the 5th.

The 12 lap 14 kart Final exploded into the first corner in a mass of colour and noise as the drivers tussled for position. Thomas held the challengers off early on as the field started to settled down over the opening laps, Underwood in 2nd shadowing the leader’s every move, with Baker losing out early on from P2 on the grid but still running a comfortable 3rd.

Jamieson initially led Sims until the latter got his head down and took 4th from him. Welsh was 5th with O’Sullivan behind keen to get by in 6th.

The running order at the front plateaued as Thomas controlled the pace, Underwood was doing enough in 2nd to clinch the series, Baker would be keen to make up for last month with a win and was biding his time in 3rd.

What the top three didn’t add into their planning was that Sims fancied something more than 4th place, he picked off Baker first before repeating the feat passing Underwood on the penultimate lap, to finish 2nd behind winner and new seriesc hampion Thomas.

Baker usurped Underwood to take 3rd in the closing lap melee leaving the latter 4th. O’Sullivan was best of the rest in 5th having worked his way up to 5th, Jamieson crossed the line in 6th but had a nosedrop penalty, as did Hemingway and Pullen (for gaining an unfair advantage), when he tangled with a very disappointed Welsh.

So 6th place went to Stolkin, Jamieson was classified 7th, Emily Cotty 8th, Hemingway 9th and Jacob Hobbs in 10th.

Sim’s blistering late race pace earned him the fastest lap at 47.05s.

Rotax Cadets.

Last month the battle for victory went to Akille Nane Giannone after a great dice with Matthew Lilley, for this month the roles were reversed. Lilley proved to be the class of the field taking Heat and Pre final wins before taking his first outright victory in the main Final.

His nemesis Giannone got bogged down at the start and by the time that he had recovered the #20 kart of Lilley was out of reachand heading for his maiden win, although the Clark Motorspor tkart run driver finished just 0.40s behind at the finish and also took the Winter series crown.

Franklin Street showed some great progress this month as he becomes more acquitted to the MicroMax outfit, his Roalf racing run kart finished 3rd after running 2nd early on, just ahead of another future race challenging prospect-HenryKing and his blue GMS run kart in 4th.

The top 4 had pulled clear of a three kart battle of the remaining places, it was Dimitar Uzunov who came out on top in 5th, Ellis 6th and newcomer Ted Deeprose in 6th.

New winter series champion Giannone recorded the fastest tour on lap 8 a 53.39s.

Junior Rookie/Junior Libre (MM).

The last race of the day was for the Junior Rookies and Mini Max drivers. Presley Walker and Kajus Zygmanta had taken a win a piece in the heat and Pre finals and were to fight it out for overall honours in the main Final, starting from the front of the grid.

Joel Bullen, Jack Robinson and Conor Tubby were next up on the grid for the main event, with Dejaun Bennett, Dexter Gregory and Freddie Leppenwell lining up behind them.

At the start pole man Zygmanta led into turn 1, from Walker and Bullen, Robinson had been forced out wide as he slipped behind a fast starting Bennett and Tubby. The top 3 soon pulled clear as the race settled down, behind Tubby had a great run around the outside of Bennett into turn 1, the two karts side by side until they touched, Tubby coming off the worse spinning to a halt and facing the wrong way on the outside of turn 1.

Robinson saw his chance and passed the delayed Bennett for 4th. As we approached the climax of the race Walker saw a gap at the left that backs onto the infield straight, squeezing past a surprised Zygmanta who found himself out on the grass running down the straight, although keeping the throttle firmly pinned as he did so!

Over thelast lap Walker had the lead which he converted into a victory and also the Winter series as he celebrated in style over the finish line in his Roalf racing run kart.

Zygmanta crossed the line in 2nd but had collected a penalty as he fought with Bullen on the penultimate lap, dropping him to 4th. Bullen’s Project 1 kart recovered to take 2nd from his teammate Robinson in 3rd.

Bennett was next across the line in 5th, but his SAIT run kart had picked up a nose drop, possibly from the earlier clash with Tubby, which left him 6th. Leppenwell should have been 5th until a spin at the last corner dropped him down the order, Ethan Page benefitted the most from this, by passing both the unfortunate Leppenwell and Kosti Dzharov in the melee to take the 5th spot.

Dzharov was classified 7th behind Bennett, Gregory took 8th, Max Osbourne 9th. Novice Dexter Collins used his junior club circuit experience well to take the Mini Max class win over Harry Russell, who wrapped up the Winter series with 2nd.

Riley Mason-Lewis and Louie Millington finish 3rd and 4th in class. Both of the class winners took their respective fastest laps, Walker at 47.46 and Collins a 49.05s lap.

Full results from the event can be found here-

https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/e/116511

The 2023 BMKR begins on April 16th.