The penultimate round of the BMKR club championship was held last weekend at the Bayford Meadows circuit in Sittingbourne.
On Sunday the predicted rain arrived during the first round of morning Heats and then persisted throughout the afternoon, with some of the heavy deluges putting the hard-working circuit team under pressure to keep the meeting running.
A short afternoon break gave everyone the chance to reset, and the event successfully ran to the end, which was a commendable effort by all involved.
There was another healthy entry of over 100 karts for round 8 of the championships, with the club attracting competitors from France, Germany and even Brazil, adding a somewhat international feeling to the meeting.
Bambinos
The Bambino class held their races on Saturday with nine drivers entered for this month’s event. The two classes were split with four in MightyE electric battery class and five entered in the Comer powered class.
Benny Drake led home Harriet Jones, Jenson Mullin and Jake Morley in all three of the races, with the quartet recording the same results in the Heat, Pre Final and main Final. Harriet managed to finish just 0.45s behind Benny in the main Final, with Jenson and Jake some 21s behind in their battle for third place, the pair were separated by 1.81s at the finish of the 8-lap Final. Benny took the fastest lap time, with a 1:02.08s tour of the 1,100-metre circuit.
In the Comer class – Brody Pearless took wins in the Heat and Pre Final before going on to taste victory in the main Final too. Behind Brody in the main Final – the race for 2nd was hotting up as Rueben Finch-West slipped back from P2 at the start along with Bertie Cockill, leaving Chester Saunders and Thomas Maylam holding 2nd & 3rd over the opening laps.
Bertie recovered well to take 2nd from Chester on the 4th lap, going on to finish runner up behind Brody at the finish. Reuben also managed to overtake Chester to take 3rd, with Chester finishing 4th ahead of Thomas in 5th. Brody’s margin of victory was 7.33s and he also recorded the fastest lap at 1:01.67s.
Honda Cadet
18 drivers were entered in the Honda Cadet class for this month, and the competition was as close as ever. Dylan Burton took the Heat win from P5 on the grid, after overtaking Louie Whitcroft just after half distance, Whitcroft took the runner up spot from pole man George Pickett in 3rd. Pickett mixed things up in the Pre Final on a now sodden track by moving ahead of Whitcroft and Burton to take the win, in what was a close race with the top 6 covered by 2.5s.
Burton & Pickett would start the Final on the front row from Whitcroft & George Lilly on the second. Ethan Hulbert and Kabir Singh were next up on row 3 from Eric Gryzbek & Freddie Howell on the 4th. Completing the top 10 on row 5 were Jude Bartlett & Brandon Laczko.
From the start Burton was keen to get away from pole position and built up a good lead over the opening lap, leaving Pickett and Whitcroft squabbling over 2nd place, with the latter Whitcroft soon securing the position. Lilly was soon putting pressure on Pickett and was by him and into 3rd by the 5th lap.
Disaster struck the leader on the 6th lap as he inexplicably lost control in the horrendous conditions, spinning his way down to P7 and leaving Whitcroft comfortably out in the lead, ahead of Lilly who was determined not to lose his well-earned 2nd place from Pickett in 3rd. Whitcroft eventually guided his Evolution run kart to a very healthy 5.09s victory over Lilly in 2nd, who had Pickett breathing down his neck 0.20s behind in 3rd at the finish.
Grzybek did well to finish 4th from P7 on the grid, he had a great dice with Hulbert at the end of the race, with a recovering Burton getting between the pair as he took 5th, from Hulbert in 6th. Singh was in the mix for a top 4 finish for much of the race but ended up 7th from Bartlett in 8th. BM plate holder Jenson Drummond climbed 5 places to take 9th from Howell in 10th.
Whitcroft’s last lap proved to be the fastest of the race when he recorded a time of 59.38s.
Senior Max/177
The sound of high revving 2 strokes replaced the rumbling 4 stroke Cadets for the Senior Max/177 Final with Jack Pullen sat on pole position, he had climbed 6 grid places after qualifying to take the Heat win and then finished runner up to Ayda Sexton, who was flying in the wet conditions, in the Pre Final. Sexton, who finished 3rd behind Finlay Underwood in the Heat, would sit alongside Pullen on the front row.
Underwood (who was fastest in the morning’s qualifying session), would start 3rd on the grid, his Pre Final result of 5th not quite matching his 2nd place finish in the morning Heat. Josh Pullen would share row 2 with Underwood, he had taken 4th in both the Heat and Pre Finals, his below par qualifying position of 10th costing him dearly as he was embroiled in some fierce racing while trying to make places back up.
On the 3rd row sat Noah Janssen making another welcome return to the circuit and bang on the pace too, he had Matthew Angel for company next to him. Mollie Griffiths was keen to match her great result last month as she sat on the 4th row next to another visitor Frederic Lecomte, who always goes well through the twists of Bayford Meadows. Rhys Rutland would no doubt have liked to be further up from his row 5 start and he had Lecomte’s fellow countryman Agustin Boulet alongside him to complete the top 10.
With Boulet and Rob lofting not making the start of the Final, 20 karts disappeared from the grid over the opening lap in a huge ball of spray. Jack Pullen had been worried about the pace of Sexton in the Pre Final, but he didn’t show any of that at the start, as he led Sexton over the first lap.
Underwood was next up in 3rd as Josh Pullen was spun into the tyres at the outside of turn 1, contact from behind delaying him and putting him back into a jostling pack. Janssen was pushing on from the start and soon moved ahead of Underwood, who had felt that some set up changes were not quite paying off. Griffiths was next in 5th having avoided the problems that were to befall Pullen (Josh), Angel, Lecomte and Rutland over a frantic opening tour. It was James Cannon, Kyle Dickens and Freddie Green that ran 6th – 8th in the early laps.
At the head of the field Jack Pullen was pulling clear of any threat from Sexton as she fell into the clutches of Janssen, who then passed her with 2 laps to go. Underwood was doing his best to hold onto the top 3 in 4th and Griffiths was in a comfortable 5th, but unable to make any further progress. Over the closing laps Jack Pullen stretched away from the rest to take a cool 8.76s win and the fastest lap at 54.49s as he closed in on his brother’s championship lead. Janssen led Sexton & Underwood over the line as the trio finished 2nd – 4th, Griffiths took 5th from Josh Pullen who recovered from his early spin to take 6th.
Dickens was bumped down a place by the charging Pullen (Josh) at the end to finish 7th, up 8 places from his grid slot, Hollie Bonner also had a good drive climbing 9 places to take 8th, after having suffered earlier incidents in the two qualifying races. Freddie Green had looked to be taking a season’s best result in 8th, until he was bumped down towards the end, finishing down in 17th – after a nose fairing drop penalty was applied. Cannon had a combative race going from 6th to 10th before recovering to 9th ahead of Lecomte in 10th.
In the 177 class Jason Mills held the upper hand over Lewis Deacon throughout the day to take the class honours and Mark Goodwin suffered from set up and engine problems to take the Masters category and 2026 championship.
Honda Senior
The rain continued to pour as the Honda Senior drivers made their way out onto the circuit for the next Final of the afternoon. There was another healthy 20 kart entry for round 8 of the championship, with the class proving to be an attractive and cheaper option to the Rotax classes.
The Heat win went to Declan Miles, who had also headed the qualifying times earlier in the morning. For the Pre Final the circuit was considerably wetter where Max Forbes looked at home, with his animated style suiting the pretty horrendous conditions perfectly, as he took the win from Charlie Bradstock and Miles, with Gerry Poore, Andrew Cole and Michael Ashby completing the top 6.
In the Final, Forbes and Miles swapped positions early on before Forbes settled down in the lead with Miles watching on from close behind. Jamie Bury somehow climbed up from 11th to 3rd over the opening lap, as Poore and David Weaver, who was starting P6 slipped back into the pack. Cole ran 4th from Gareth Scantlebury early on from Ashby in 6th, Bradstock & Jordan Forbes battling over 7th & 8th.
As the race reached its climax, Miles was on a charge challenging Forbes as they both went into the bottom hairpin, Forbes was having none of it however and repelled the challenge of Miles to hold onto the lead and going on to take the win, using an animated front crawl action as he crossed the finish line! Miles felt that he had ‘bottled’ a last lap overtake, however it was better for him to finish with the fastest lap at 1:04.377s, than not finish at all with an attempt possibly going wrong.
Bury, Cole and Scantlebury ran close together in an entertaining race for 3rd, with the trio finishing in that order. Ashby ran alone to take 6th, from Poore who recovered well to take 7th, although a post-race nose fairing penalty for the unlucky Ashby, saw their finishing positions reversed in the results. Bradstock eventually finished 8th, from Gene Malcolm in 9th and Jordan Forbes in 10th.
Junior Max/Junior Rookie
The Junior Max/Rookies had 23 entries this month, the two categories running together once again, with 6 drivers in the Max class and 17 in the Rookies. The Heat race was quite a messy affair with 10 drivers suffering 5sec nose fairing penalties, through it all, Jude Puddefoot took the win in the Max class with Cody Crudgington taking the win in the Rookies. Puddefoot also took the class win in the Pre Final as Harrison McNealey took a welcome win in the Rookies, his first in the class as Crudgington suffered from a frustrating retirement.
Puddefoot and McNealey were to start the Final from the front row, with Jacob Jarman (Max) & Aston Tabb (Max) on the 2nd row. On the 3rd row were Daniel Thomson (Max) & Lewis Chesney (Rookie), they sat ahead of Rookies James Malcolm and Crudgington on the 4th row. Fellow Rookies William Spencer & Sienna Chappell completed the top 10 on the 5th row.
A clean start saw Puddefoot and McNealey lead the field away down into the bottom hairpin, that wasn’t the way that they exited the hairpin through, as the pair were loaded up under braking for the ever-tightening right-handed turn.
It was Tabb, Jarman & Thomson that were to lead into the infield, with Eden Salvidge up from P12 in 4th (after having been comfortably ahead the morning Heat only to retire due to losing his chain guard). Puddefoot & McNealey now ran 5th & 6th, ahead of Chesney 7th & Malcolm 8th with Iqbal next up in 9th. Back at the front Salvidge continued his amazing charge and was soon challenging and passing Tabb for the lead, he then drove away from the rest to take a 7.18s win over just 9 laps, with his fastest lap at 55.68s someway clear of the next fastest lap of the race.
Tabb took a well-deserved 2nd after his disappointing retirement last month ahead of Jarman in 3rd. Tabb had dropped to P4 at one stage of the race behind Puddefoot and Jarman, but a nose fairing penalty dropped Puddefoot back to 5th and Tabb managed then managed to usurp Jarman on the last lap to seal the runner up spot. Thomson finished ahead of the penalised Puddefoot in 4th, John Reynolds had a stellar drive up 11 places to take 6th, to back up his great result from last month.
The top Rookie finished 7th overall and that went to McNealey, who thoroughly deserved the class win after a tough year for the young Blueberry driver. Winning in front of his father who had just returned from racing motorbikes at Brands Hatch brought a smile to all that were watching and even a shy young Harrison was seen smiling on the podium afterwards!
Next up and 2nd in the Rookie class was Crudgington in 8th, Chesney finished 9th and 3rd in Rookies, in 10th was Brandon Swanwick who was 4th in the Rookies. Andrew Thomson took the fastest Rookie lap at 56.18s.
Junior Honda
The large 30 kart entry of Honda Juniors once again was split into three groups – A,B & C for their two Heats. There was plenty of drama in the opening Heat (A v B) when the heavens opened during the race, with the majority of the drivers on slicks, it was those few that chose the wets that had prevailed, with Bernado Serafim taking a somewhat surprising win from George Cunningham and Class B runner Jayden. In the B v C Heat, Ronnie Deacon took the win from Leo Brobyn-Gillie and Ollie Gilbert-Childs. The last A v C Heat had Tommy Casey taking the win from Gvidas Arys and Freddie Fordham.
In the 14 kart B Final the top 4 qualifiers through to the A Final were – Freddie Fordham, Alexander Roberston, Oscar Bridger (Class B) and Amanze Nwosu.
The rain had abated for the last race of the day as the Honda Juniors took to the grid, although the track surface remained very wet. Deacon and Brobyn-Gillie sat on the front row from, Gilbert-Childs and Arys on row 2. Next up on row 3 were Gunningham and Casey, with Finn Bayley and Jayden on row 4. The top 10 on the grid were completed by Thomas Allen & Rafael Medina-Lorenzo.
Deacon led the field away as the grid fell into an orderly single file through turn 1 and all the way down to the bottom of the circuit. Arys was keen to move up onto Deacon’s rear bumper, and he did so as the drivers worked their way through the infield, with each driver exploring the grip that they had at each turn. At the end of the opening lap, Arys had the lead ahead of Casey, this pairing appeared to have their karts working better than the rest at this stage of the race. Deacon was now 3rd ahead of Brobyn-Gillie who was soon to be passed by Riley Taylor for 4th. Bayley held 6th from a fast-starting Medina-Lorenzo in 7th.
The top four places then remained stagnant as Arys edged away from Casey to take a comfortable 3.89s win from the GMS kart of Casey in 2nd, both drivers celebrating as they crossed the finish line after an adventurous day’s racing in the adverse conditions. Taylor was gradually closing in on his Team Edg&son teammate Deacon but ran out of laps to mount a challenge as Deacon took 3rd and also the 2026 Honda Junior championship as he crossed the finish line.
Taylor was pleased with 4th after a difficult start to the day and Broybyn-Gillie took a clear 5th place ahead of a group of four karts, with Bayley taking 6th, Medina-Lorenzo 7th, Jackson Burge 8th and B Final winner up 8 places – Fordham in 9th, with Roberston also climbing 8 spots to finish 10th. There was a close battle for class B honours with Oscar Bridger just holding off Jayden to take the win over the finish line.
The winner Arys also set a stunning lap at 1:01.94s to take the fastest lap, somewhat clear of the next fastest lap of Casey’s at a 1:02.70s.
The full results of the meeting can be found here on the alpha timing website – https://www.alpharacehub.com/bmkr/event/349924
The final round of the championships will be held over the weekend of November 14th 15th.