The 2025 Bayford Meadows owner/driver nine round championship concluded at the Sittingbourne kart circuit last weekend, November 15/16th.

Class winning honours were up for grabs after nine weekends of hard fought racing around the twisty 1100m circuit, which is set in a spacious 12 acre landscaped site within the Eurolink Industrial estate.

The weather forecast had predicted changeable weather conditions over the weekend and proved to be the case as it helped spice up the racing on Sunday.

Bambinos.

Cooper in control of E class.

On Saturday the young Bambino class drivers took to the circuit for their races, with four competing in the electric class, as the Comer powered entries were absent for the final round. Cooper Galloway held off a strong challenge from Joshua Chung, who had earlier tasted victory over Cooper in the Pre Final.

Just 0.21s separated the two in the main Final with Copper also taking the fastest lap of the race, set on lap 6 at 1:15.73 on a very damp and greasy surface. Jake Tulip finished 3rd from Harriet Jones in 4th.

The electric Bambino championship was won by Cooper from Joshua in 2nd, Sonny Higgins took 3rd, Harriet 4th and Jake in 5th.

In the Comer class Jenson Drummond, took first from Lenny Barton 2nd, Albie Houlihan 3rd, William Boswell 4th,Tymon Pecak 5th and Alfie Bi 6th.

Honda Cadet.

Jack flashes to Honda title.

The first Final on Sunday afternoon was for the Honda Cadet class, with championship leader Jack Cope sitting on pole position. Cope had struggled in the early morning wet qualifying session only managing the 6th fastest time, but then recovered well to take wins in both the following Heat and Pre Final.

Felix Sheldon Heywood sat next to Cope on the front row, ahead of George Lilly and Marcus Cooper on row 2. Reggie Dufficy and George Pickett were next up on row 3 and behind this duo were Harrison Maxwell and Lola Holt-Brown on row 4.

The circuit was now dry although still greasy, so the 15 kart grid was wisely given an extra warm up lap, as many of the drivers were on unscrubbed new slicks. The grid then took a little while to be correctly formed for their standing start, before the race got underway.

Cope made a great getaway and attacked the opening lap to lead, Sheldon Heywood swerved to the right from his outside grid slot at the start to block off Lilly, only to find that George was already in front and chasing after leader Cope into turn 1. Cooper was 4th behind Sheldon Heywood at the end of lap 1 with Dufficy 5th, Maxwell 6th, Pickett 7th and Comer Bambino champion Jenson Drummond in 8th. Leader Cope was driving at his best and soon built a gap over the race for

2nd, as Cooper had moved ahead Sheldon Heywood and then after 4 laps Lilly too. Cooper did indeed set the race’s fastest lap (52.52s) during his ultimately unsuccessful attempt to chase down a victorious Cope, who had also wrapped up the class championship too.

Behind the first two finishers Lilly fought valiantly to hold on the last podium position, until he succumbed to a charging Maxwell up from 7th, with 2 laps to go. Behind Both Maxwell and Lilly in 3rd & 4th was Pickett (5th), who was ahead of Sheldon Heywood, although the latter had received a 5s nose fairing penalty dropping him to 8th overall. Dufficy inherited 6th and Drummond 7th, with Nico Wesolowski 9th and Holt-Brown in 10th.

With Cope taking the Championship honours, Cooper took 2nd, Lilly 3rd, Ollie Spooner-Green 4th, Pickett 5th and Alexander Robertson 6th.

Honda Juniors.

Jayden in full control of Honda Juniors.

The nascent Honda Junior class took to the circuit next with 4 entries turning out for the 2nd event for the class. Jayden topped the quartet in the wet morning Heat and then finished 2nd to Alexander Robertson who had shone in the Pre Final to take his first win at the circuit. Jack Burke finished 3rd in the Pre Final ahead of Max Forbes in 4th.

Pole position man Roberston led into the first turn, after that his chances of winning slipped away as both a fast starting Jayden and Burke passed him on the opening lap. Jayden then managed to pull clear of a near race long duel between Burke and Robertson as the two swapped positions until Robertson eventually made a pass stick on lap 7 of 11.

By this time however Jayden was a long way up the road and even by setting fastest laps Roberston was unable to catch him, Jayden eventually winning by 3.39s. Robertson’s fastest lap of 54.75s had brought him closer to the winner by the finish and some way clear of Burke in 3rd and Forbes in 4th.

The future of the class is looking promising for the future with a lot of interest being shown for 2026, which offers a great introduction to owner driver racing on a budget.

Junior Max Rookies.

Fast starting Tabb beaten by champion Smith.

The highly competitive Junior Max Rookies class this year has been dominated by two drivers, Jacob Smith and Oliver Peters, with usually one driver or the other having the edge on race day as the year progressed. On Sunday it was Peters who appeared to have that edge in the greasy morning conditions, however as the circuit dried Smith gained the edge and by the end of the Pre Final it was the number 174 kart that headed the 24 drivers to start on pole for the Final.

His nemesis Peters sat alongside him on the front row of the grid, with Aston Tabb and Harrison Matthews on the 2nd row. Cody Crudgington was also quick in the wet Heat finishing 2nd to Peters, he sat on the inside of the 3rd row and alongside him was Daniel Thomson. Bertie Hodgson and Harry Wright shared the 4th row and behind them completing the top 10 sat Eden Salvidge and William Kidd Glass.

The combination of cold track temperatures and new tyres caused both Smith and Peters to run wide at turn 1 from the start as the rest of the busy grid barrelled into the slippy right hander, Tabb saw a gap and went for it on the rundown to the bottom hairpin to grab the lead. Behind these – Salvidge, Wright and Harrison McNealey were amongst several that were caught out and delayed on a frantic opening lap.

Matthews ran 4th with Hodgson soon up to 5th ahead of Crudgington & Thomson in 6th & 7th, followed by Rhys Rutland who was keen to make up for a lowly grid start in 9th and Kidd Glass in 10th. It took Smith 7 laps to hunt down and pass early leader Tabb, once he did, he held on to take another win in what had been a great championship winning year for him.

Tabb kept his teammate in sight but was hit with a 5s nose fairing penalty post race, dropping behind Peters to 3rd place. Peters also secured a deserved 2nd in the championship and I’m sure will look forward to taking the fight to Smith again next season. Behind a peanalised Tabb in 4th was Hodgson who had slipped ahead of Matthews at the end of the race.

Thomson headed Crudgington as the pair finished 6th and 7th, in 8th was Brandon Swanwick up from 12th, next up was Kidd Glass in 9th and John Reynolds in 10th, after 3 drivers ahead of him were hit with nose fairing penalties. Peters set the fastest lap at 46.85s on the penultimate lap of the race.

In the championship standings Salvidge proved to be the best of the rest, with the BM plate holder taking 3rd place ahead of Rutland in 4th and Matthews in 5th. An absent Bailey Doughty took 6th from Swanwick in 7th, Tabb in 8th, Ricardo Rodrigues 9th and Jacob Jarman in 10th.

Senior Max.

Heartbreak for Edgson as Pullen takes triple crown.

There was an air of anticipation around the circuit as the Senior Max drivers headed onto the circuit for their Final, as Ciaron Edgson held a points advantage over double championship winner Josh Pullen, who sat on the pole for the Final, Edgson only needing to finish in the top 5 to break Pullen’s apparent hold on the class, with his recent consecutive championship wins.

Pullen had looked imperious in qualifying, the morning Heat and Pre final by topping all three. Finlay Underwood started the day by facing backwards at the first corner of the morning Heat, to then storm his way up to 2nd in the Pre Final taking the outside front grid slot ahead of Edgson in 3rd.

Mollie Griffiths had a great run in the Pre Final to line up 4th ahead of Archie Tillett who had rocketed up from 17th to 5th and Emma Stoner in 6th. Joseph Gethen started 7th and had Hollie Bonner sat alongside him in 8th. 9th and 10th on the grid were Joshua Pattrick and Augustin Boulet, the former having finished 5th in the Pre Final before being penalised for a dropped nose fairing.

The 18 kart grid rolled up slowly to the start and then as they accelerated hard towards turn 1 Edgson was glued onto Pullen’s rear bumper, Underwood then had no choice but to try and run around the outside, as Stoner squeezed her kart in front of Tillett, with Griffiths squeezed out of the line in front of Pattrick & Gethen.

On the exit of the corner, Edgson had a great run down the inside into the bottom hairpin and braved it out side by side with Pullen to emerge in the lead. Underwood followed the pair ahead as he settled into driving on the (new to him )Mojo tyres, Stoner and Griffiths came unstuck through the infield hairpins dropping the pair back and promoting both Pattrick & Gethen. Matthew Angel was next ahead Boulet and Frederic Lecomte who had jumped up from 18th on the grid to head a delayed Stoner.

Back at the front Edgson was controlling the pace and heading towards that first championship win, although he had Pullen crawling all over him and Underwood keeping watch as the three circulated together. And then just as the tension was building it was all over !

A mechanical flag board was handed out to the leader, after he had apparently lost his chain guard, which had been possibly dislodged as he ran over something on the circuit. He begrudgingly pulled to the left as he completed the 5th lap to let Pullen and Underwood through, his chance of taking the championship gone through no fault of his own, as he coasted discontently into the pits.

From then on Pullen cruised to his third championship title, no doubt in disbelief in what had just unfolded in front of him. Underwood, with his radiator bolt broken, followed the new champion over the line just 0.62s behind, setting the fastest lap at 45.38s as he did so, a great effort for the independent driver.

Gethen moved ahead of his teammate Pattrick and also Tillett to take 3rd and also 3rd in the championship too. Pattrick also usurped Tillett to finish 4th in the race and also in the championship, Angel was next in 5th behind Tillett in 4th, with Angel taking 5th in the championship.

Boulet and Lecomte finished 6th & 7th, before Boulet dropped to 11th with a post-race nose fairing penalty, giving 7th to Lecomte and 8th to Kyle Dickens who had made up 8 places during the race. 9th & 10th fell to Stoner and James Cannon.

Behind Pullen, Edgson, Gethen, Pattrick and Angel in the championship was Jemina Woolley 6th, Griffiths 7th, Connor Tubby 8th, Hollie Bonner (top independent) 9th and Caitlin May in 10th.

After the race Pullen, although delighted at taking three straight championships, was full of praise for his rival Edgson, who post race said that he wouldn’t be back next year, instead concentrating on different circuits, although he said that his eponymous family team would be back supporting the championship with other drivers.

Pullen himself may be soon taking a step back although the thought of racing against his sibling Jack, may prove to be something that he cannot resist.

Junior Max.

Bishop wins as Pullen seals first title.

The numbers were up in the Junior Max class this month with some new & old faces adding to the grid. One regular who was keen to end the season with his first championship win, was Jack Pullen.

He had aced the morning qualifying and then the Heat before doing the same in the Pre Final, to line up on the pole position for the Final. Alongside him on the front row was Freddie Wall who had had a great Pre Final rising up from 7th to 2nd. Fletcher Growns was next with Daniel Adomatis alongside him on the 2nd row.

On the 3rd row was Louis Bishop and Kieron Hammond, who were both hoping to end their year on a high. Ayda Sexton and Harrison Page completed the 4th row from the older Page sibling – Ethan and Noah Clare on the 5th row.

Chaos reigned at the first corner of the Final, as the drivers discovered that their slicks were not quite up to temperature, pole man Pullen got crossed up sliding wide, following him wide and half spinning onto the grass were Growns and Hammond. This left Bishop the surprise leader

from Wall in 2nd and Jacob Jarman up from 11th on the grid ! Teammates Harrison Page and Daniel Butcher were next up tussling over 4th and 5th with the places behind changing at virtually every corner ! Before long Pullen had gotten his tyres at a working temperature and was scything his way up through the field and by lap 4 he was in 3rd place.

Wall had fought off a challenge from Jarman and still held onto 2nd, while Jarman came under attack from Butcher until the two tangled at the bottom hairpin, delaying Jarman and forcing Butcher into the pits and out.

Bishop was driving faultlessly at the front pulling away from Wall who held onto lap 7 before Pullen swept past him, the champion elect however had left it too late to mount a challenge for the lead, as Bishop was home and dry out in front, taking the win by 3.92s and his fastest lap matching that of Pullen’s at 46.73s.

Wall just lost out on a podium finish as Sexton managed to pass him on the last lap, behind this pairing was Harrison Page in 5th and Adomatis in 6th. Ethan Page did finish behind his sibling but a nose fairing penalty dropped him down to 9th overall. 7th & 8th were Growns and Clare and in 10th was Hammond.

Champion Jack Pullen will now make the jump up into Seniors for 2026 with the prospect of racing his elder sibling Josh. Bishop’s fine win sealed him 2nd place in the championship from Sexton in 3rd, Wall in 4th and Hammond in 5th.

Growns took 6th from absent drivers Callum Sims and Leon Knight in 7th & 8th. Also absent were 9th & 10th place finishers Jasmine Keepax & Dexter Collins.

Senior Max 177/Masters.

Cross untouchable once again as he cruises to championship title.

Goodwin’s Masters champion as Trzeciak wins.

It has been a season of almost total domination for Finley Cross in the Senior Max 177 class this year and he continued that theme on Sunday by taking a clean sweep in qualifying and then wins in the Heat, Pre Final and main Final, the latter by 6.4s, with the fastest lap to boot at 47.73s.

Lewis Deacon fought his way up from 8th on the grid to come home in 2nd place, after finding that his slicks worked better on a dry track than they had on a wet one in the Pre Final! Jayden Miles couldn’t match Deacon’s storming pace in the Final, although he did manage to pass Vito Dacres for 3rd place by the finish, Dacres had his best race day to date by running 2nd for 6 laps before slipping to 4th at the end.

Reece Anscombe returned from a 4 month break from racing to finish 5th, he had run higher up in the earlier races in the wet conditions.

In the Masters class it was Dennis Trzeciak who once again took top honours in the class from Mark Goodwin in 2nd, who had his work cut out trying to find a way past an on form David Ives.

Ives had recovered from a big shunt into the tyres in the Pre Final, although his hastily repaired kart had suffered a dropped nose fairing penalty during the race, which placed him behind Gerry Poore in the final standings in 4th place. Colin Walker finished 5th, while Doug Thomson had to retire when his rear bumper worked loose while dicing with Poore.

Cross finished a clear first in the championship from a close finish for 2nd with Deacon just beating Miles in the points standings. Dacres took 4th from Anscombe in 5th, and absent drivers Adam Clark in 6th, Andy Locke in 7th, Dan Wright in 8th, Jason Mills in 9th and Michael Gibbons in 10th.

In the Masters class the championship went to Mark Goodwin, from David Ives 2nd, Doug Thomson 3rd, Gerry Poore in 4th, Dennis Trzeciak 5th, John Nye 6th, Michael Ashby 7th and Colin Walker in 10th.

Full race results and championship positions can be found here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr

Owner driver racing will return to Bayford Meadows for the non championship ‘BM’ plate meeting at the end of January 2026.