The BMKR 2026 championship for owner/drivers began last weekend with a dry day for the Bambinos on Saturday, followed by non stop rain on Sunday for all of the other classes.
On Sunday, a break in the proceedings was required after the morning’s 1st Heats, for an attempt – by the circuit staff (and several parents) to clear the water that had collected in areas around the circuit. After what appeared to be an impossible task due to the incessant rainfall, the Pre Finals were dropped and the drivers went straight into their Finals after the break.
I have some doubt that the diminutive Bambinos would have been allowed to race on Sunday due to the adverse track conditions, on Saturday however the conditions were almost perfect.
Bambinos.
The 11 Bambino drivers ran a split grid with 6 Comer engined karts sharing with the 5 Electric battery powered versions. Joshua Chung and Jules Nash shared the front row of the Electric grid for the Final after the earlier qualifying races, with Steve Austin & Reuben Finch-West doing likewise for the Comer grid.
With Joshua taking the Heat win and Jules the Pre Final, the two again duked it out over the 8 lap Final. Touching speeds over 40 mph Joshua led the first 4 laps before Jules hit the front for the next 3, only for Joshua to claim the lead back on the last lap, winning by 0.46s from Jules in 2nd place. James Ferguson and Nicholas Ansah held 3rd and 4th throughout some 9s back to finish in those positions, Hedley Roycroft was classified 2 laps behind 5th in class.
Steve Austin led away the Comers from the class pole but was soon passed by Brody Pearless who was making up for a low point scoring Heat and proving that his Pre Final win wasn’t a fluke. Brody went on to take a clear win from Steve in 2nd, with Reuben Finch-West coming home in 3rd. Emerson Elia was next up in 4th, Max Oliver 5th and Yusen Yang 6th. Fastest Electric lap went to Joshua Chung with a 1:02.76s lap, with Brody Pearless setting a class fastest lap of 1:03.08s lap to be fastest of the Comers.
Cadet 200.
The largest grid of the day was for the Cadet 200 class with 24 entries for round 1 of the championship. Project One were well represented at their home circuit and on pole position for the final sat Mason Becker, who topped the times in qualifying and then took a 7.85s win in the morning Heat. Alongside him on the front row was George Lilley who was backing up his impressive performance at the BM plate event last month. George Pickett & new BM plate holder Jenson Drummond were on the 2nd row, from Kabir Singh & Ellis Honey on the 3rd row. Jenson Fathers and Alexander Mercer completed row 4 ahead of Jude Bartlett and Eric Grybek on the 5th.
Sunday’s rain had abated slightly for the first Final of the afternoon, although there was still standing water on the circuit for the drivers to be aware of. Becker led the huge grid away into turn 1 and down to the bottom hairpin in a huge ball of spray, thankfully all having made it safely through the opening corners. Over the opening laps the positions remained stagnant, possibly due to the debilitating spray affecting the driver’s visions. Becker managed to pull clear and then went on to win by 5.64s, taking the fastest lap at 59.78s on the 5th tour. Lilley finished 2nd, clear of Pickett in 3rd and Drummond in 4th. Singh held 5th throughout, with impressive top rookie Mercer moving up to 6th, just ahead of Honey in 7th. Fathers, Grzybek & Ralph Rider-Birch completed the top 10, after 10 tricky laps for the youngsters.
Honda Juniors.
Continuing with the 4 stroke theme to the start of the Finals the Honda Juniors were next to take on the still very wet conditions. An impressive 17 karts were entered for the first round of the fledgling class, with 14 Class A drivers and 3 in the heavier Class B division.
Jack Cope (Class A) was reveling in the conditions and swept all aside in the morning Heat, winning by nearly 10s, he continued his dominant wet weather prowess by taking victory in the final by a very impressive 16.286s, his previous Bambino & Cadet experience no doubt helping him onto such a commanding win.
Behind Cope the battle for 2nd place caught everyone’s attention as Gvidas Arys just held off Ronnie Deacon over the 10 laps to take the runner up position, Deacon did receive a 5s drop nose penalty post race, although he still held onto 3rd place in class.
Max Forbes moved up ahead of Deacon in the overall results as he took a clear win in Class B, ahead of Oscar Bridger and BM plate holder Jayden in 2nd & 3rd (6th & 7th overall). Alexander Roberston put in some quick laps in Class A as he moved up from his grid 10 spot, to finish 5th on the road and 4th in class A.
Behind Bridger and Jayden in 8th finished Freddie Fordham (5th in Class A), Thomas Dyer (6th in Class A) and Tommy Casey (7th in Class A). Fastest laps fell to Cope in Class A at 1:04.487s and in Class B to Forbes with a 1:06.169s.
Junior Rookies.
After two clean standing starts for the first two Finals of the afternoon, it was a rolling start for the 17 Junior Rookies. Cody Crudgington was starting from the pole after topping the qualifying times and taking the win in the morning Heat, alongside him sat Nishaun Marshall on the front row. Ryan Bhagat and Myles Harrison were next up on row two ahead of Alfie Burroughs and BM plate holder Ashan Iqbal on row 3. On rows 4 & 5 were Jack Burke, Laila Fitzgerald, Sean Gill and Ashton Pinnoy.
The still sodden track was creating a lot of spray at the start and the first attempt to get the race underway was aborted with the grid out of position, on the second attempt Crudgington led the rookies away, but through the spray there was chaos towards the back of the pack, with several karts colliding. Sean Gill was ejected from his kart after hitting the tyres on the outside of the straight, this brought out a red flag while he was attended to while lying prone on the grass. Thankfully he was soon back up and on his feet, before climbing up the bank and away from the waiting ambulance that was on the circuit.
Once the circuit was cleared the race was restarted and Crudgington was again away well with Marshall running around his outside at turn 1, although he was to lose places at the bottom hairpin dropping to 5th, behind Harrison, Bhagat and a fast starting Iqbal, Fitzgerald was up to 6th, Burroughs 7th and Harrison McNealey 8th up from 12th on the grid. The race soon fell apart for the leader as he lost a front wheel on lap 2, putting him out of the race on the spot, Marshall too had pulled over and stopped, his day too was done.
It was great to see the two consoling each other by the side of the track, after their promising days had come to such an abrupt end. This drama left Harrison leading with Bhagat soon to be passed by a hard charging Iqbal for 2nd place. Fitzgerald was now 4th and had McNealey on her bumper as he was keen to make up for a messy morning Heat performance, Brandon Swanwick was now 6th ahead of Burroughs in 7th. Iqbal’s charge soon had him ahead of Harrison and he then controlled the pace at the front to take the win, only to receive a drop nose 5s penalty post race.
This promoted Harrison to 1st as he took his first win at the circuit, from Bhagat in 2nd, an impressive McNealey 3rd and an equally impressive Fitzgerald in 4th, as she made up for her disappointing outing last month. Iqbal’s penalty dropped him to 5th overall, although he should be pleased with the pace he showed and the fact that he took the fastest lap at 56.01s. Swanwick and Burroughs took 6th & 7th and the top 10 was completed by Pinnoy 8th, Andrew Thomson 9th and Harry Wright in 10th.
Senior Max.
The conditions were at their worst for the Senior Max Heat and that caught out one or two drivers as they tried to cope with the standing water on the circuit. Through it all Jack Pullen nailed the win, as he made the most of not having to contend with any spray ahead of him, he would then be on the pole for the Final. Kajus Zygmanta took to the conditions well as he finished 2nd booking a place on the front row alongside Pullen. Third on the grid was Ayda Sexton as she managed to pass Josh Pullen on the last lap of the Heat, having started 10th. Behind Sexton & Pullen on row 3 sat James Cannon & Byron Sly Hewitt, they were ahead of Hollie Bonner & Felix Dymant on row 4. The top 10 was completed by Presley Walker and Kyle Dickens.
As with the previous Final the conditions didn’t help with the rolling start, as several attempts were required before the race was underway. Jack Pullen led Zygmanta into turn 1 but was soon out onto the run off area, rejoining behind Zygmanta and ahead of his sibling Josh, with Sexton in 4th. As the 17 karts bundled in a ball of spray into the bottom hairpin, Jack Pullen made a move on Zygmanta, keen to take the lead back, this caused the two to make contact forcing them both out wide and slightly delaying Josh Pullen too, this gave Sexton the advantage to lead and with a clear view ahead. Cannon ran 3rd ahead of Dymant in 4th and briefly Hewitt ahead of the delayed Jack Pullen.
Over the opening laps Sexton controlled the pace with Josh Pullen sitting right behind her, by lap 5 Jack Pullen had recovered to 3rd dropping Cannon to 4th. On the 6th lap Josh Pullen’s patience was running short after a previous attempt at passing the leader had been denied – he had a run to the inside of Sexton into the first infield hairpin and the two made inevitable contact, as Sexton was now sideways with Pullen going through to lead, Jack Pullen also took the opportunity to pass the stricken Sexton to run 2nd.
The brothers then headed the field as they did last month, however this time Jack had the pace over his older sibling and was soon past and leading the race, Josh settling for 2nd but significantly not matching Jack’s pace, this would prove costly as a post race nose drop penalty would drop him behind Sexton in the results. For Sexton, 2nd place is a great result as she settles into the Senior class.
Cannon drove a clean race to take 4th behind the penalised Josh Pullen, finishing ahead of Zygmanta in 5th, who had dropped as low as 12th after his 1st lap clash to recover well. Caitlin May claimed the most positions in the race taking 6th after starting 16th on the grid, Presley Walker took 7th from Matthew Angel in 8th, Charlie Lombardi 9th and Hollie Bonner in 10th, with nose drop penalties affecting several other drivers post race. The fastest lap by some margin went to Jack Pullen with a time of 53.93s.
Junior Max.
In the Junior Max class, the morning Heat had seen drama some as Harrison Matthews who was leading over the opening laps, hit one of the flooded areas a bit too hard, forcing his Nassau panel to come loose and lift up in front of him, leading to retirement, this left Louis Bishop to splash his way victory from Freddie Wall who had started back in 10th on the grid. These two would then renew their rivalry from last month from the front row of the Final grid. Noah Clare and Jacob Jarman would be starting from row 2 ahead of Daniel Thomson and Aston Tabb on row 3. John Reynolds and Eden Salvidge were next up on row 4 ahead of Ethan Okoro & Lucas Knibbs on row 5.
With the rain finally easing Bishop led the 12 kart field into turn 1 with Wall slotting in behind in 2nd place. Thomson was up to 3rd heading a fast starting Salvidge in 4th, Clare 5th and Reynolds in 6th. Bishop, leading, controlled the pace over Wall throughout the race, never allowing the Roalf driver the chance to make a move and eventually bringing his GMS Motorsport kart home 1.48s ahead to take a well deserved win.
Wall was content with 2nd place, no doubt happy to start his championship campaign with some good points, Thomson held off a threat from Clare to take a good 3rd, Clare was penalised for a dropped nose but didn’t lose 4th place. Salvidge crossed the line ahead of Knibbs in 5th & 6th before both were penalised 5s for nose drops, leaving them 7th & 8th behind Matthews, up from last to 5th and Jarman in 6th. John Reynolds and Ethan Okoro completed the top 10 finishers in 9th & 10th.
The fastest lap went to Clare with a time of 54.72s.
Senior 177/Masters.
The numbers were down for the opening round of the 177/Masters class with just 6 drivers taking part. Jason Mills controlled the pace to take the win by 3.95s, he headed Gareth Scantlebury and Soloman Willams in 2nd & 3rd, the pairing having run close throughout the race. Mark Goodwin spun out of 4th place when he lost a rear wheel, which left Dennis Trzeciak, who himself had a spin, finishing 4th ahead of Colin Walker in 5th. Trzeciak set the fastest lap on the 7th tour at 55.88s.
Honda Seniors.
The Honda Seniors joined the Sunday race day for this month and had a grid of 7 drivers. Much to the delight of many who are involved with Bayford Meadows, Gerry Poore took the win in the class, after a tardy get away briefly let Harvey Shoveller lead down to the bottom hairpin before Poore found hs way past. Poore’s eventual margin of victory was 13.097s ahead of Shoveller in 2nd, Stan Seaman finished 3rd ahead of Daniel Pickett in 4th. Ryan Nicholas had held 3rd until the 7th lap before dropping to 5th by the finish, ahead of Gene Malcolm in 6th and Daniel Rogers in 7th. The race’s fastest lap was set by Poore at 1:04.505s.
The full results from round 1 can be found here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/e/352839
Round 2 will be held on March 14/15th.