Sittingbourne’s Bayford Meadows circuit held its now annual Kent Cup, in honour of the late Project One owner Gerard Cox.

With the event now in its second year, the competitors had a good idea of what to expect for the two day event.  Practice sessions were held before two timed qualifying sessions on Saturday. On Sunday morning the different classes had Pre Finals before the all important main Finals in the afternoon.

Project One was well represented over the weekend with some of its drivers returning to Bayford Meadows from National competitions to compete for honours. One driver – Arjun Mehta even travelled from New York to race for his old team, which had left him with so many great memories over the years.

It was wonderful to see the spectator banks busy enjoying the racing throughout the day, under lovely sunny skies. The local Milton RC Rallycross club entertained during the lunch break with their diminutive racers using part of the circuit to woo the watching crowds and an auction for a snazzy BMX bike, raised some welcome funds for the KSS Air Ambulance.

The day was completed by a very popular charity race for friends of Gerard and Project One, using the circuit’s excellent hire karts.

The Bambino drivers kicked off the Cup winners when they raced on Saturday, with 2 Heats and a final for the 6 drivers. There was a split grid with 3 electric karts starting a little while after the Comer engined drivers. Jenson Drummond proved unbeatable in the Comer karts, finishing just under 10s ahead of Albie Houlihan in 2nd place and Jake Harris in 3rd. Elliot Hitch finished first of the three electric karts, clear of Cooper Galloway in 2nd and Joshua Chung in 3rd.

Jenson’s 1:00.99s lap proved to be the fastest of the Comer trio race and Elliot set a 1:00.97s lap to head the electric karts.

Honda Cadets.

Ten drivers were entered in the Honda Cadet class and it was no surprise to see Project One drivers topping both of Saturday’s qualifying sessions, Jack Wykes in Q1 and Mason Becker the all important Q2 which gave him the pole position for Sunday’s Pre Final. Wykes took 2nd from Marcus Cooper, Jack Cope and George Pickett.

The two Project One teammates battled it out in the Pre Final win with Wykes overcoming leader Becker at mid distance to take the victory. Cooper took 3rd from Cope in 4th, Pickett in 5th and Lenny Barton in 6th.

For the Final Wykes led the grid away and held sway over his teammate for the majority of the race, which was two laps longer than the Pre Final. Cope managed to head Cooper after the start and was doing a good job behind the battling leaders, until he tripped over back marker William Boswell on the 10th lap, unfortunately forcing Jack into retirement with a damaged kart.

Ahead of this drama Becker’s race long pressure on leader Wykes finally paid off also on the 10th lap, as he took a lead that he was to hold until the end of the race, going on to take victory by just 0.15s from a disappointed Wykes. Cooper was 5.84s back in 3rd , clear of Pickett in 4th, Barton in 5th with Harrison Maxwell close by in 6th. The remaining positions were filled by Ellis Honey 7th, Lola Holt-Brown 8th and Boswell in 9th. The fastest lap fell to Becker on the 13th lap, with a time of 51.73s.

Junior Max Rookies.

The Junior Max Rookie class qualifying was dominated by Oliver Peters, topping both sessions to line up on pole for the Pre Final. Harrison Matthews was just 0.07s behind in 2nd place sharing the front row with Oliver. On the 2nd row of the Pre Final grid sat Aston Tabb and Cody Crudgington, they were ahead of Lucas Knibbs and Bailey Doughty on the 3rd row. Parsa Tahmasvand and Finlay Strang completed the 4th row, although the latter did not run in Q2.

Pole man Peters dominated the pre Final winning by 2.29s from Tabb as Matthews’s outside grid slot cost him dearly at the start, slipping behind Aston and never being able to take the place back. Knibbs finished 4th, after Strang and Brandon Swanwick tangled on the infield, the latter out on the spot and Strang retiring a little later, Crudgington & Doughty finished 5th & 6th.

Peters nailed his start in the afternoon’s main Final and from there he controlled the pace, keeping his tyres alive over the longer 19 lap distance, to take the Kent Cup title for the Evolution team in his brand new race suit. Tabb kept him honest though finishing 1.74s behind, which was closer than he had been after the Pre Final. Matthews ran a clear 3rd ahead of Knibbs but was unable to challenge those ahead of him.

Knibbs was also comfortably clear of Doughty in 5th, who had the race long attention of John Reynolds 6th and Harrison Page 7th, as the three ran together throughout.Tahmasvand finished 8th ahead of Swanwick who had made his way up from 16th but was to receive penalty post race dropping him to 11th overall. This elevated Ashton Pinnoy to 9th and Spike Ward to 10th. Tabb would have been very pleased to have taken the fastest lap, on the 11th tour at 46.51s.

Junior Max.

The Junior Max class followed on from the Rookies and qualifying saw a stand out performance for Evolution racing’s Callum Sims, as he topped both sessions, his Q2 advantage being 0.22s over Ollie Orteu. Blueberry’s Orteu had only just scraped though Q1 in 8th (with the top 8 progressing through from Q1), but put in a good performance to take the outside front row position for the Pre Final.

Jack Pullen led the Project One onslaught on the class by lining up next in 3rd, ahead of teammates George Cole and Fletcher Growns in 4th & 5th. Ayda Sexton was next up in 6th, with Daniel Butcher and Freddie Leppenwell in 7th and 8th.

Sims led away the Pre Final from a fast starting Pullen, who pressed the leader over the opening lap. Orteu dropped to 5th early on behind Growns and Cole, before recovering to 3rd by the 4th lap.

Once the leader Sims found his groove he gapped Pullen, who had the pace to head Growns, but could not hold off a charging Orteu over the closing laps, with the latter taking 2nd and Growns also slipping past to take 3rd, leaving Pullen in 4th. Butcher worked his way up to 5th ahead of Sexton (6th) and Cole (7th) who had had a spirited dice at the end of the race.

Freddie Wall who hadn’t progressed through Q1 managed to pass Leppenwell for 8th right at the end of the race, Leppenwell taking 9th from another who failed to progress to Q2 Wall’s Roalf racing’s teammate Kieron Hammond in 10th.

With 20 laps ahead of them there was no doubt the drivers were considering tyre wear before the start of the race and what the consequences of pushing them too hard would be. This didn’t seem to affect Sims as he was quick away from the start and soon pulled a gap over Orteu in 2nd place, who had managed to make his outside grid slot work this time.

Pullen was on Orteu’s tail early on before he started to fall away, behind him Butcher had overcome teammate Growns to run 4th, with Growns in 5th. Wall had taken advantage of Sexton having had an early spin to jump from 8th to 6th, before he started to struggle for pace.

Cole and Laurie McVeigh were fighting over 7th with Hammond soon joining in too. Back at the front Sims built on his lead setting the fastest lap on lap 8 (46.31) before going on to take an emphatic win over Orteu, with 4.34s covering them and the rest of the field by the end of the race. Orteu was well clear of a tense battle for 3rd as Pullen had fallen away and had a hungry group of drivers who were keen to take the final podium position.

Butcher applied maximum pressure, moving past at one point before a stubborn Pullen took the place back. McVeigh briefly took advantage of Butcher’s failed attempt to run 4th, until Butcher reversed the positions on the following lap. Pullen’s defence of 3rd pace proved successful, as he crossed the finish line just ahead of Butcher in 4th.

McVeigh crossed the line in 5th, although a post race penalty soon dropped his hard earned position to 11th. With the penalty in place Hammond had worked his way up to 5th and Growns in 6th. Sexton did well to recover to 7th ahead of a very disappointed Wall in 8th, who was soon to discover that his clutch drum was about to fall off as he entered the pitlane! There was no doubt that this was a cause for his lack of pace after his competitive opening laps.

Cole took 9th, not what he was hoping for after starting 7th, Zac Jennings steadily improved to take 10th overall in what was a very competitive grid.

Senior Max.

There were 13 drivers entered in the Senior Max class with 12 taking part in the two qualifying sessions, as Emma Stoner didn’t appear. The top 7 who progressed from Q1 fought it out for pole position in the Pre Final and it was Ciaron Edgson who managed to find a mere extra 0.05s to annex the top spot.

Behind him in 2nd was Project One returnee Arjun Mehta, who had travelled from New York to take part in the event honoring his old friend Gerard. Ryan Welsh did a great job for the Blueberry team by taking 3rd ahead of Josh Pullen in 4th, Joshua Pattrick in 5th, Reuben Mamelok in 6th and Caitlin May in 7th.

The Pre Final was halted on the opening lap as a first corner crash took out several drivers, Welsh, Mamelok and Matthew Angel. At the restart Edgson made the most of his starting position to lead Pattrick over the opening lap, who had passed Mehta who now ran 3rd. May’s GMS kart made a great start to run 4th for two laps before Pullen driving for the Project One team usurped her.

The top 5 positions remained the same to the finish, setting the grid for the main Final in the afternoon. Hollie Bonner had run 6th until the 7th lap when Emma Stoner moved ahead to take the position. Oliver Sutton, Kate Broadbent and James Cannon completed the top 10.

As with the other classes the drivers and teams had to plan for the extra race distance and the father and son – Team Edgson were sure that they had the right plan in place. Pattrick had looked very threatening in the Pre Final and GMS also have a wealth of experience at the circuit, so they were to be expected to be one of the favourites. The same could be said for Pullen and Project One, so we all looked forward to an exciting Final.

At the starting lights Edgson blasted away from the rolling start with Pattrick glued to his outside all the way through turn 1. As they came into the infield – Edgson had the all important lead and now had the tricky job of preserving his tyres while waiting for a keen Pattrick to make a move.

Pullen initially kept the pair in front honest before he started to drop away a little, although well clear of Mehta in 4th and May in 5th. Much further back both Welsh & Angel were on fire over the opening laps, with Welsh incredibly jumping up to 5th in 3 laps, his Blueberry kart using its slightly fresher tyres well, Angel too was taking advantage after missing the Pre Final to rise up to 7th.

The tense race at the front eventually fizzled out after Pattrick had a lunge at the tight left handed infield corner firmly rebuffed by Edgson, who drove a very clever race to have the pace at the end to take the Kent Cup by just 0.36s from Pattrick. Indeed it was Pattrick’s 15th tour that proved the fastest of the race (45.55s) as he challenged Edgson in vain. Pullen had a great view of the battle in front, finishing 3rd just 0.86s behind Pattrick.

Welsh’s initial pace may have taken a little too much out of his tyres as he finished a creditable 4th after starting 11th, 1.3s behind Pullen in 3rd. Mehta had a solid race in 5th, well clear of Angel and May in 6th & 7th. Sutton headed both Stoner and Bonner for 8th up until the 17th lap when Stoner’s determined efforts eventually paid off as she demoted Sutton to 9th. Bonner resisted the temptation to attack Sutton as she had her eye on finishing top independent driver in 10th. Broadbent finished 11th from Cannon in 12th, with Mamelok retiring early in the race.

Senior Max 177s.

There were just 8 drivers entered for the 177 classes this month, 2 of those running in the Masters category. Dan Wright who has recently returned from Australia was driving for the C.H.D.D team and found that this kart was set up perfectly for his style of driving. He lit the circuit up in Q2 finishing 0.32s ahead of Adam Clark, Doug Jenner and Matt Wardale.

Wright, Clark & Jenner then ran 1st, 2nd & 3rd for the full race distance in the Pre Final, setting the top 3 grid positions for the main Final. Vito Dacres took 4th from Wardale 5th towards the end of the race, Andy Locke took 6th ahead of the Masters duo of Colin Walker and Gerry Poore.

Wright blasted away from the start in the Final as Jenner briefly led Clark before the places were reversed. The second lap saw the demise of Dacres after contact with another kart broke his chassis, leaving him with no steering on approach to an infield hairpin, a hairy moment ensued as Dacres innocently collected Locke who was trying to pass him.

Dacres was reluctantly out on the spot as Locke then recovered to rejoin the race. Wright counted down the laps leading comfortably from Clark, eventually going on to win by 3.89s and taking the fastest lap, a 47.77s on the 17th of 19 laps. Clark was well clear of Wardale in 3rd, after Jenner had retired, Walker finished 4th, the BM plate winner some 8.32s ahead of Masters rival Poore in 6th as Locke finished in-between both in 5th.

FP4

The FP4 UK class acted as guests for the day and as usual put on a splendid display of racing, with the circuit appearing to be full of the colourful and raucous sounding 4 stroke karts.The drivers had 3 Heats throughout the day before Adam Pearless fought off the 19 other entrants to take the win in the Final, this after Michael Marrison had led early on in the race. Behind Marrison in 3rd finished Angus Waddell, Sam Lukes took 4th from Gavin McGill in 5th and Ryan Dell in 6th.

And so the 2025 Kent Cup came to an end and it was the time for the charity race, with many of the competitors and spectators staying behind to cheer them on in the late afternoon sunshine, a fine way to remember Gerard.

The full results from the 2025 Kent Cup can be found here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/e/308468