The annual Kent Kart Cup was held at the Bayford Meadows kart circuit, now in its third year, the event is held as a celebration of the late Gerard Cox’s life, a man who was synonymous with the circuit through his Project One team and his dedication to supporting drivers at the track.

A great entry and a relaxed programme of events brought a somewhat calmer feeling to Sunday, before the racing began in earnest.

As in past years an F1 qualifying format took place on Saturday to determine the grids for Sunday morning’s point scoring Heats and Pre Finals, which would determine the grids for the all in important Finals in the afternoon, the top qualifiers then being rewarded with trophies. A memorial race for Gerard was also held in the circuit’s hire karts on Saturday, along with a prize draw and a chance to sit in a Formula Ford car. To add to the above events, the Bambino classes ran through their series of races to determine their Kent Cup champions.

Bambinos.

The Bambino drivers were split evenly for the meeting with four drivers in both the Electric battery karts and four in the Comer powered versions.

Heat wins went to Joshua Chung in the electric class and Reuben Finch-West in the Comers. Chung also took the Pre Final electric win, with Bertie Cockill topping the Comers.

In the 8-lap Final Joshua led from start to finish in the Electric class, heading home Harriet Jones by just 0.72s, Benny Drake took 3rd from Oscar Osbourne in 4th. Harriet’s 6th lap proved to be the fastest at 1:00.80s.

The Comer Final was won by Reuben Finch-West, after he had started 3rd before moving up past Harper Reay on lap 1 and then catching and passing Bertie Cockill over the 4th lap to take the win by just over 6s from Bertie. Harper finished 3rd from Max Oliver in 4th. Reuben set the fastest lap at 1:01.73s on his 4th tour.

Honda Cadets.

JSF’s Jenson Drummond was the fastest in qualifying for the Honda Cadet class, ahead of Dylan Burton and Louie Whitcroft in Q2 on Saturday. Drummond would also take the Heat win from Whitcroft & Burton; however it was Burton who would come out on top in the Pre Final from Drummond & Whitcroft.

The Final was very close and exciting to watch, Cadet racing at its best. Drummond led over the first half of the race with Burton and Whitcroft in close company, this trio were also joined by Eric Gryzbek and Thomas Pregnell, giving us a quintet to battle it out over the remaining laps.

Burton surged ahead of Drummond over the 7th lap before the places were reversed on the following lap, Burton wasn’t giving in there though and fought back once again to take the lead. Drummond was about to retaliate once again when Whitcroft took him by surprise on the infield, snatching away 2nd place, Grzybek also pounced on a now unsettled Drummond to take 3rd place from him.

Over the remaining two laps Whitcroft ran close to Burton but could not find a way past the leader with the pair crossing the finish line nose to tail after 13 hard fought laps, the two novices celebrating wildly as they did so. Grzybek kept Drummond at bay to take 3rd place on his birthday, behind BM plate holder Drummond in 4th – Pregnall, Kabir Singh and George Pickett were running close behind in 5th – 7th places. Ethan Hulbert, Oliver Jones and Charlie Cruttenden completed the top 10 positions in the 14-kart field. Pregnell took the fastest lap at 52.14s on the 7th lap.

Senior Max/177s.

The Senior Max and 177s were merged for this event, with 15 of the former joined by 3 177 drivers. After two very close qualifying sessions on Saturday, it was Riley Stephenson who headed the Senior Max times by just 0.02s from Josh Pullen (who had been quicker in Q1), Noah Janben took 3rd from Jack Pullen in 4th. Jason Mills topped the 177 trio from Lewis Deacon and Colin Walker.

Josh Pullen had a tardy opening lap from pole in the Heat before hunting down last month’s championship round and comeback king – Riley Stephenson to take the win. In the Pre Final it was Stephenson who took the win as Pullen was content to sit on his bumper for most of the race, perhaps holding back his resources for the main Final.

Ayda Sexton had run at the front early on in the Pre Final before dropping back and retiring in what was turning into a miserable day for her. Noah Janben took 3rd in the pre-Final ahead of Jack Pullen who was struggling to get comfortable in his kart. Jason Mills took both of the wins in the 177 class ahead of Lewis Deacon.

Although both Pullen and Stephenson had tied on points up to this point, it was Pullen who took the pole position for the Final due to his faster lap in the morning Heat. On the 2nd row sat Janben and the younger Pullen – Jack, next up on the 3rd row were Arjun Mehta and Matthew Angel. Rhys Rutland and Ayda Sexton shared the 4th row from William Chaplin and Kyle Dickens on the 5th.

The start of the Final would be crucial for both of the front drivers as they were so evenly matched and Pullen held the advantage with his inside grid slot, indeed he made full use of this by leading into turn 1 and down to the bottom hairpin, holding off Stephenson’s GMS machine. Jack Pullen ran third and then pulled off an outlandish move on Stephenson by running around the outside of him at hairpin 2 which gave him the inside line for the tight hairpin 3.

So, at this point the Pullen siblings ran 1st & 2nd, with Stephenson 3rd, Janben, Mehta and Sexton next up in 4th, 5th & 6th. While Josh Pullen started to gap his brother Jack, Stephenson was soon past Jack going into turn 1 and set off after the leading Project One kart of his old friend and rival Josh. Janben in 4th had Sexton, Mehta, Angel, Rutland & James Cannon right on his tail early on.

After the excitement of the early laps the leading trio settled down with Josh Pullen going on to take the win by 1.48s from Stephenson who gave it everything as he tried to catch the leader. Jack Pullen looked more comfortable in his kart as he took 3rd ahead of Janben in 4th. Sexton was once again out of luck and out of the race by lap 10, Mehta dropped back to P8 by the finish, with Rutland driving well to take 5th at the finish. Cannon took 6th from Dickens in 7th, Angel in 9th behind Mehta and Georgia Perry in 10th.

Jason Mills withstood the challenge of Lewis Deacon in the 177 class to take the honours, as the latter felt that his tyres had gone away while he had headed the Blueberry kart of Mills. The fastest laps went to Dickens at 45.81s and Mills at 46.79s on laps 7 & 12.

Honda Senior.

The Honda Senior was the next to take on the increasingly humid conditions of Sunday afternoon. Robert Bury had taken the honours in Saturday’s Q2 from Jamie Bury to start from the pole position in the morning’s Heat.

However, after leading the first half of the race, he was overtaken by Jamie who then went onto dominate the Pre Final and main Final. Andrew Cole and Charlie Bradstock finished 2nd and 3rd in the Pre Final, in what is proving to be a very close grid.

In the main Final Jamie Bury pulled clear of the rest to take a comfortable 2.08s win from Robert Bury who had started 4th on the 11-kart grid. David Weaver had given up the GMS spanners for the weekend and found himself on the front row for the Final after driving well in the two qualifying races, even leaving his son Lewie (slightly?) impressed with his performance.

Despite being cheered on by the GMS team and a large number of onlookers, Weaver couldn’t match his earlier pace and slipped back to an eventual 6th. Behind the Burys, Cole took 3rd, Gerry Poore trying out a new kart took 4th, with Bradstock 5th. Daniel Pickett finished 7th behind Weaver in 6th, Gene Malcolm finished 8th with Jordan Forbes 9th, Daniel Rogers 10th and Junior Bruno 11th. Jamie Bury set the fastest lap at 55.82s on the 11th lap.

Junior Max.

24 drivers were entered for the Junior Max class, which almost guaranteed that the race officials would be busy over the two days of competition! Nexgen Motorsport’s Eden Salvidge managed to top both of the qualifying sessions that were run on Saturday, with Project One’s Laurie McVeigh and Blueberry’s Aston Tabb finishing 2nd & 3rd in both.

In Sunday’s morning Heat there was drama down at the bottom hairpin on the first lap, which wiped out the front row of the grid! A red flag was shown straight away while the carnage was cleared up and the drivers were spoken to, then due to the amount of damage inflicted on the karts involved, the race would re-run after the Honda Junior Heat.

Aston Tabb was a DNS for the restart as his kart refused to run cleanly on the rolling lap when the Heat finally got underway, with pole man Salvidge leading from McVeigh early on before the positions were reversed, Roalf racing’s Freddie Wall was on fine form as he also moved ahead of Salvidge to take 2nd behind McVeigh with Salvidge finishing 3rd. Fletcher Growns took 4th from Harrison Matthews, who climbed 18 places to finish 5th! He had started from the back after failing at the weighbridge after qualifying for being under weight.

McVeigh once again took the honours in the Pre Final, but he had Matthews’s Nexgen kart closing in on him at the finish, after he had charged up from P5 on the grid. Salvidge couldn’t hold his Nexgen teammate back as he finished 3rd ahead of Wall in 4th, with Alex Shepherd taking 5th from Growns in 6th.

Mcveigh & Salvidge would start from the front row of the Final with Wall & Matthews lining up behind them on the 2nd row, Growns and Shepherd were next up on row 3 ahead of Jacob Jarman and Lucas Knibbs on row 4. Cody Crudginton and Lucas Esser completed the top 10 on row 5.

At the start of the Final the front few rows got away cleanly through turn 1 but there was turmoil further back caused by the midpack loading, which left karts littered across the track at turn 1. The red flag was shown, and the drivers were stopped out on the back of the circuit. It was then decided that the restart would be in single file formation and once underway we had a clean start. McVeigh led Salvidge with Wall next up being pressured by a keen Matthews, Growns had a bad lap 2 which dropped him back to 9th as Shepherd, Jarman and a somewhat fortunate Crudgington, who had been caught up in the initial crash, now ran 7th.

On lap 3 Matthews thought that he saw a gap in Wall’s defenses down going into the bottom right-hand bend, but Wall was having nothing of it taking his normal line, contact was inevitable and both drivers ended up spun onto the grass with their chances of winning now over.

This promoted Shepherd, Jarman & Crudgington up to 3rd – 5th, with Growns behind them keen to make up the places he had lost earlier. The race for the lead had settled down with McVeigh controlling the pace and going on to win by an eventual 1.42s from Salvidge in 2nd place, Shepherd was clear in 3rd but in the race for 4th, Growns had recovered well passing both Jarman and Crudgington to take the place.

Crudgington managed to pass Jarman on the last lap to take 5th with Jarman in 6th, however a post race penalty for Crudgington revered the positions with Jarman now 5th. Behind Crudgington in 6th finished Esser 7th from Jack Brown 8th and Oliver Peters up 13 places to 9th after having had a nightmare meeting, Sienna Chappell completed the top 10. Matthews could only work his way back up to 14th, with Wall retiring, however he did take the fastest lap at 46.51s on the 14th tour.

Honda Junior.

There were 22 Honda Junior karts out for their Heat in the morning with returnee Jack Cope starting from pole position after starring in Q2, pipping Leo Brobyn-Gillie who had been quickest in Q1, making it an all Roalf racing front row.

Cope took the Heat win from Thomas Dyer and Brobyn-Gillie, Cope also took the Pre Final victory from Brobyn-Gillie with Ronnie Deacon finishing 3rd. Deacon missed Saturday’s qualifying due to other commitments, so had done exceptionally well to be up to 3rd in the Pre Final.

The grid was then set on points scored in both qualifying races so Cope sat imperious on the pole position, from teammate Brobyn-Gillie and on row 2 there were Team Edg & sons’ Riley Taylor & Gvidas Arys, with Deacon & Ollie Gilbert-Childs on row 3. On row 4 sat Finn Bayley & Tommy Casey, ahead of Freddie Fordham & Evie Stewart on row 5.

The Final was a dramatic affair although it all began relatively quietly, no doubt helped by the standing start, which is a sight to behold as the drivers bounce up and down in their seats trying to bring their 4-stroke engines to life! Cope, as expected, led after the first lap but he had a lot of hungry drivers behind him, he found this out at the bottom hairpin as he was pushed out wide, losing the lead. Things then got worse as going into the first infield hairpin he was squeezed into spin, his race seemingly done on the spot as he was now in 20th place!

Cope’s spin also caused chaos further back with several other drivers delayed. Out of this initial drama came Arys leading from Deacon, with Taylor & Brobyn-Gillie battling hard behind over 3rd. Dyer and Thomas Allen were next up in 5th & 6th. Deacon was soon becoming impatient with Ayrs and in a move very similar to the Wall/Matthews incident in the previous Junior Max Final, he lunged down the inside of Ayrs at the bottom right-hand bend.

He was launched over the inside kerbs and up onto the side of Gvidas Edg & son’s kart! Both appeared to have survived the drama until Deacon’s rear bumper had become detached, Ayrs was quick to point out the loose bumper as the duo drafted past the starline, however it had already been noted, and Deacon was forced to retire, his race over.

This left Ayrs leading with a fierce battle for 2nd raging right behind him as Brobyn-Gillie and Taylor were fighting tooth and nail for the position. Brobyn-Gillie was soon becoming frustrated with the leader’s defensive driving and this caught out Taylor as he clipped his teammate’s rear bumper, forcing Brobyn-Gillie into retirement due to a technical failure, a rear quarter of the bumper now pushed in. Taylor was now the one to take the fight to an increasingly stubborn Ayrs. After suffering a slow puncture in Q2, Taylor was showing his true pace, trying different lines to no avail to disrupt Ayrs and becoming increasingly frustrated as the laps ticked by.

As the last lap approached Taylor’s efforts took a dive as Cope had joined in the fight, working his way from 20th to 3rd, he was on a mega charge! On the last lap Ayrs managed to hold off Taylor’s challenges, but his slow defensive pace had played into Cope’s hands and as the trio rounded the 2nd of the infield hairpins, Taylor’s stymied kart was forced wide by Cope, dropping him to 3rd. Cope’s amazing challenge however ended there as Ayrs managed to prevent any further progress over the remainder of the lap, to take his first win in the class.

Just 0.257s covered the top 3 finishers after 15 hard fight laps, in 4th was Evie Stewart who put in a stellar drive from 10th on the grid as she marked herself out to be one to watch in the future. Thomas Allen climbed 8 places to take a rewarding 5th, from Thomas Dyer in 6th, Jayden took the heavy honours in 7th, from Oscar Bridger in 8th, James Blundell in 9th and a penalised Finn Bayley in 10th.

It had been a memorable race for many reasons, full of drama and excitement. I just wonder what Gerard would have made of it all?