A dusting of overnight snow greeted the healthy number of competitors for the first of the three round BPKC winter series.

Once the circuit staff and volunteers had the cleared the remnants of the icy blast, the event began on schedule. The qualifying races were held on a wet surface and it wasn’t until the last two finals that slicks could be used.

The first final of the afternoon was for the Honda Clubman youngsters, Josh Hoy had the joy of taking pole position after qualifying but it was Alex Ley who dominated the races. Looking resplendent in his new Dkr racing colours, he comfortably won the earlier pre-final and repeated it in the main final, winning by 6.6 seconds from Ryan Wills. Alfie Brooks clinched a fine third from Leon Clark, with Jamie Perilly dropping down from an earlier third to fifth, driving the KPi run Tony kart. Leon Frost rounded out the top six.

Racing with the Clubman class were the IAME competitors and it was Oliver Gray who finished second overall to take the class win from Tyler Read.

Eight karts appeared for the Mini Max final, with one Junior Subaru interloper, Carla Simpson-Stacey. Ben Burgess and Oakley Pryer entertained at the front of the field for virtually the full 15 laps, until the former pulled a race winning gap, Pryer looked frustrated at the finish and later had further reason to be when a post-race infringement moved him to the bottom of the results.

Henry Ayers inherited the runner up spot, Jenson Watts third place, the depleted field due to kart problems, left the lone Subaru of Simpson-Stacey fourth overall, James Wharrier was classified fifth from Clayton Ravenscroft. One driver who never even made it off of the start line was Kieron Jermey, he definitely had a day to forget and will be hoping for better luck next time out.

A huge 25 kart grid lined up for the Honda Cadet final and Ben Fayers led from pole into the turn 1 tapping the side of his crash helmet, telling the others to think and work together. Oliver Bearman had other ideas though and took the lead from Fayers, controlling the race at his own pace. The last time Bearman visited Buckmore Park he was unceremoniously loaded up at the first hairpin on the last lap, losing the lead and the chance to win a coveted ‘H’ trophy, this time he pulled a gap and won comfortably by 5.4 seconds.

Oliver Marsh carried over his excellent form from last month with another 2nd place, Dylan Cooper was glued to his bumper at the line in third. Sam Heading took on-board his Dad and team engineer’s advice and moved up 7 places from his pre-final result, to finish 4th, Fayers had slipped to 5th and Alex Eades was 6th. The equal three biggest climbers of the race were Sebastian Bloch, Arvid Lindblad and Callum Tadman who each made up 10 places, dominant Bearman took the fastest lap.

The circuit had a clear dry line appearing for the junior final, the split grid Rotax and X30 drivers had to choose between slicks and wets. A delay on the grid waiting for a troubled engine starting on the dummy grid, helped the slick tyred drivers as the circuit continued to dry. From the lights a wet shod Myles Apps led the two grids away, but by lap 6 his rubber was overheating and the slick shod Charlie Bennett tore through to lead, Harry Gent and Bradley Barrett soon followed Charlie through, at the races end Apps and similarly wet shod Oliver Appleby ended up 4th and 5th, with hindsight slicks were clearly the better choice.

In the X30 class a similar scenario was taking place, Luke Whitehead in his first junior race, had appeared to have timed his slick tyre charge to perfection by snatching the lead from Freddy Simpson-Stacey at hairpin on the final lap, however an indiscretion with another driver had been spotted on his way through and he was given a penalty demoting him after the race. So Simpson-Stacey took his first X30 win from class debutants Larbi Belkhit, Finley Cross, Kartik Sawhney and Brodie Rivers.

The last race of the day was another split grid affair for the Senior Rotax and X30 drivers. By now all the drivers were on slicks and the lap times were tumbling. Jack Bartholomew looked to be cruising to his first ‘karting comeback’ win until Elliot Rice found some mid race pace, passing the Aston Martin GT4 driver on the 10th lap and then driving away to victory by just under a second.

Tom Croydon took 3rd from Coles teammate Stephanie Le-Vesconte in 4th. Connor Hughes on worn tyres just held off a charging Ben Steward, who took the race’s fastest lap on his way to 2nd place. Chris Bridle, Callum Hopcutt and Scott Lee rounded off the X30 runners. Karl Meopham took the Rotax 177 class from Gary Cox.