The eighth and penultimate round of the 2025 BMKR club championships were held last weekend with the diminutive Bambinos racing on Saturday ahead of the other classes competing on Sunday.

Weather predictions for the day left the paddock guessing as to when the rain was to arrive and also as to how much it would affect the afternoon’s finals.

Bambinos.

Saturday’s weather was less of a worry for the 4 drivers and their parents as it remained dry and bright all day long. The four entries had a 50/50 split, with two Comer petrol and two electric battery powered karts.

Albie Houlihan’s Comer kart headed the quartet in the Pre Final winning by a very close 0.36s from Cooper Galloway, before Cooper’s electric kart reversed the positions in the main Final winning by an equally small margin of 0.37s from Albie.

Joshua Chung was less than 2s behind the duo ahead of him  in 3rd place, his electric kart heading Steve Austin in 4th, his Comer kart some 29s behind. Both Cooper and Albie set equal fastest laps at 1:.02.71s, with Albie setting it on lap 5 & Cooper on lap 7.

Honda Cadet 200.

Sunday’s rain arrived just as the Honda Cadet drivers were entering the assembly area, causing a bit of a panic as the mechanics set about changing to wet tyres and guessing the tyre pressures for the 10 lap race ahead.

The Pre Final had proven to be a close affair with Marcus Cooper & Jack Cope swapping positions at the head of the field throughout, with Cooper having led initially before a determined Cope annexed the lead on the last lap to take the victory and pole position for the Final.

Jenson Kulla and Felix Sheldon-Heywood finished 3rd and 4th to line up on the 2nd row of the Final grid. George Lilly led home a train of karts to take 5th, just ahead of Harrison Maxwell 6th, George Pickett 7th and Jenson Drummond in 8th, these four making up the 3rd and 4th rows.

With the drivers only having had the sighting lap to find a feel for the now wet conditions, the 14 drivers lined up on the grid. Cope and Cooper led the pack away and as the drivers scrambled around the opening lap, Pickett had a slip dropping to the back on the slick surface.

Cope led Cooper for 2 laps before Marcus usurped him, his Project One kart taking the lead. Cope settled into 2nd dropping away from the leader and now having Kulla’s black and green kart putting him under pressure.

Lilly couldn’t hold onto his early 4th position in the tricky conditions as first Maxwell and then Ellis Honey moved ahead, Sheldon-Heywood also dropping Lilly further back in the pack. As the rain shower intensified it caused havoc at the front as Cope spun, letting both Kulla and Maxwell through before he could recover.

As Cooper cruised across the finish line to take the win, Kulla some 6.4s behind took 2nd, Maxwell just managed to hold off a recovering Cope for 3rd & 4th, the two drivers virtually glued together across the line. Sheldon Heywood finished 5th ahead of Honey in 6th, Ollie Spooner-Green in 7th, Drummond in 8th, Eric Grzybek 9th and Lilly in 10th. Marcus Cooper set the fastest lap at 59.10s on the 9th lap of the race.

Honda Junior.

There was an air of anticipation around the circuit as the Honda Junior class rolled out for their inaugural Final. The circuit has always been keen to promote affordable karting and with the rising costs of tyres, engine rebuilds etc – they have now introduced a junior class which it hopes will one day be as successful as the now defunct Junior Subaru class, which helped many junior drivers progress further into motorsport, either by further participating in karts or also into cars.

The Pre Final was an exciting race as Rory Hamilton managed to beat Jack Wykes by 0.149s , the latter having previously dominated the morning’s Heat. Alexander Robertson wasn’t too far behind in 3rd ahead of Jayden in 4th, Tabitha Mellor 5th and Max Forbes the last of the runners in 6th.

The arrival of the afternoon’s rain had an effect on the running order, as Wykes ran away with the Final, taking the victory by nearly 4s from Hamilton, who couldn’t match his earlier pace. Robertson too struggled in the rain slipping back behind a fast-starting Jayden and Mellor who found that her kart had been transformed by the wet.

She was soon also ahead of Jayden to take 3rd, although now some way back from Hamilton in 2nd. Jayden’s early pace had diminished as he dropped away from Mellor, although he still had enough to hold off the struggling Robertson as the pair finished 4th & 5th. Forbes had a troubled race and was classified 2 laps down at the finish in 6th.  Hamilton set the fastest lap at 1:02.257s on lap 8 on what was a promising debut for the new class.

Junior Rookies

There was another strong entry in the Junior Rookie class, with 19 drivers appearing in the popular class. Jacob Smith was keen to make up for last week’s disappointment at Buckmore Park and this was confirmed, as he topped qualifying before going onto win the morning’s Heat.

He had to work harder in the Pre Final though as both Aston Tabb and Rhys Rutland took turns in leading before Smith ultimately took the win by just 0.48s from Rutland, Oliver Peters was a similar distance behind in 3rd, with Eden Salvidge in 4th. John Reynolds finished 5th with Tabb eventually taking 6th. The top 10 and completing the first 5 rows of the Final grid were Brandon Swanwick 7th, Oskar Doliniec 8th, Jamie Riches 9th & Ryan Bhagat in 10th.

At the start of the Final Rutland was out of position and soon had his hand up as Salvidge moved past and tried to feed in behind Smith & Peters who were on the inside into turn 1. Lucas Knibbs caused some drama midpack at turn 1 with a half spin, before managing to recover and not lose any positions.

Down at the bottom hairpin however the tricky slick conditions caught out several drivers, Salvidge had driven around the outside of Peters to take 2nd, Reynolds too managed to slide inside of Peters to run 3rd, with Tabb 5th behind Peters as they headed towards the 2nd infield hairpin. Rutland’s day got worse as he was off the road at the bottom hairpin along with Swanwick.

At the end of a dramatic opening, Smith’s Blueberry kart led the Nexgen kart of Salvidge, with a small gap back to Reynolds and Peters in 3rd & 4th, Tabb next up in 5th. A fast starting Doliniec was 6th ahead of a keen Harrison Matthews who had rocketed up from 13th on the opening lap, he was soon also ahead of Doliniec and homing in on Tabb.

Knibbs was next up on the road and racing Ryan Bhagat over 7th & 8th, this duo soon had a recovering Rutland joining them. Although the top 4 positions remained stagnant for the majority of the race the gaps between the drivers varied. Salvidge edged ever closer to leader Smith setting the fastest lap as he did so (at 55.42s), ultimately though without being able to challenge for the lead, with Smith eventually winning by 0.58s.

In third place Reynold’s Roalf racing kart had to work hard to hold back both Peters and the hard charging Matthews, who had jumped ahead of Tabb on the 4th lap. Reynolds eventually succeeded but was then hit with a 5s nose drop penalty, dropping him 2 spots (behind Peters 3rd and Matthews 4th) to 5th overall.

Behind this trio both Knibbs and Rutland salvaged their earlier opening lap moments by recovering to 6th & 7th, although Rutland was also hit with a 5s nose drop which left him behind Tabb in the final results to 8th. Aaron Clark-Nixon and Bhagat rounded out the top 10 after 11 laps of hard racing.

Senior Max.

The rain had eased by the time the 16 kart Senior Max class appeared on a sodden track. Joshua Pattrick had proven fastest in qualifying, while Josh Pullen took a clear win in the Heat. In the Pre Final Pullen lost out on the opening lap, slipping to 4th as Pattrick took the win from Ciaron Edgson and Pullen who had recovered to 3rd passing Joe Gethen who had run 2nd earlier in the race.

These four occupied the first two rows of the Final grid and it was tough to pick a winner from the quartet. Finlay Underwood, on a rare appearance at the circuit, jumped from 15th to 5th in the Pre Final to start on the inside of the 3rd road, alongside him was Jemima Wooley who had run as high as 3rd before ending up 6th in the Pre Final. Connor Tubby and Emma Stoner were next up on the 4th row from Hollie Bonner and Jamie Tiley-Gooden on the 5th row.

From the start of the Final Pattrick led the grid away into turn 1, however by the time they had passed through the tricky bottom hairpin, Edgson had grabbed the lead and it was soon quite clear to see that he had extreme confidence in his kart in the conditions.

Patrick ran 2nd from Pullen in 3rd and a fast starting Tubby in 4th, Underwood 5th and Gethen in 6th, although the last two positions soon reversed as Gethen’s GMS kart was up to 5th before usurping Tubby within a lap to run 4th. Behind the top 5 Oliver Sutton was up to 7th from 11th on the grid, ahead of Bonner in 8th, Tiley-Gooden 9th and Matthew Angel in 10th.

The positions at the front remained stable throughout the rest of the race as Edgson pulled clear, eventually winning by an emphatic 7.15s, securing the fastest lap too at 54.41s on lap 8 of 11. Patrick took the runner up spot, with a frustrated Pullen behind who just could not mount an attack with his Project One kart that was struggling on both turn in and bottom end power.

Gethen was less than a second behind in 4th, clear of Underwood (top independent) 4s behind in 5th, Tubby had been running in 5th before agonisingly losing his chain with 2 laps to go. Angel recovered from his lowly grid slot to take 6th with his Clark Motorsport run kart. Tiley-Gooden and Wooley took 7th & 8th but both had picked nose drop penalties during their fight for positions, leaving them 9th & 10th behind Sutton and Bonner in 7th & 8th.

Junior Max.

Following on from the Senior Max class was the Junior Max, with 8 drivers entered this month. Keen to follow on from last month’s win Jack Pullen headed qualifying and then won the morning’s Heat. He wasn’t so lucky in the Pre Final however as a tardy start left him on a recovery drive to 2nd place.

An exciting opening lap of the Pre Final had seen Roalf racing’s Kieron Hammond and Freddie Wall leading the race, with Wall pulling off a wall of death move around the outside of turn 1 to go from 6th to 2nd. Hammond proceeded to look perfectly at ease leading the race to take a comfortable win and start from the pole in the Final.

Wall had shadowed his teammate during the race before Pullen passed him, leaving him 3rd on the grid for the Final. Ayda Sexton was next up starting in 4th, from Fletcher Growns in 5th and Jacob Jarman in 6th. On the 4th row sat Louis Bishop and Nikolaos Gourzoulidis.

Hammond led away from pole before finding a wet turn 1 very slippy as he oversteered wide taking Pullen with him, he did manage to hold onto the lead until the bottom hairpin where Sexton appeared to have more grip, moving ahead and into the lead with Hammond 2nd and Pullen recovering from running wide in 3rd.

By the end of the first lap the positions had been turned on their head as Pullen pulled off a two for one move in his Project One kart to lead over the line from Sexton, Hammond, Wall, Jarman and Growns. Pullen then settled into a rhythm pulling clear of the rest to eventually win by just under 9s, his 7th lap proving to be the fastest of the race at 54.61s, a time that proved to be even quicker than that of his sibling rival Josh, had recorded in the previous Senior race!

Sexton took a stellar 2nd, clear of Hammond in 3rd, who took a good result but may well have wished for the Final to have been dry. Wall couldn’t hold off Growns in their battle for 4th place but gained the position back when Growns had a post race nose drop penalty dropping him to 6th behind Bishop in 5th. Jarman was the last of the runners in 7th as Gourzoulidis retired with just 6 of the 11 laps completed.

Senior Max 177/ Senior Max Masters.

The Senior 177 karts was the last to hit the track in a program that had been pulled forward slightly due to the weather conditions. Finley Cross had used his GMS CKR kart to its maximum in taking the Heat and Pre Final wins to start from the pole position. Alongside him was Adam Clark with next up Vito Dacres on the inside of row 2 in third. Lewis Deacon had a 2nd in the morning Heat before finishing 4th in the PreFinal to start from the outside of row 2.

On row 3 sat Jayden Miles and first of the Masters drivers Doug Thomson.Fellow Masters drivers – Dennis Trzeciak and Gerry Poore lined up on the 4th row ahead of David Ives and Mark Goodwin.

Just 8 of the 9 drivers started the Final as John Nye did not start, possibly due to the adverse conditions.

Cross immediately opened a gap over Clark and the rest over the opening lap, Dacres and Miles ran in 3rd & 4th ahead of Deacon in 5th and then the Masters drivers headed by Thomson. The worsening conditions were to play their part as various drivers suffered from half spins during the race, Clark in 2nd suffered the worst as a spin on an infield hairpin cost him 6 positions and a long race ahead trying to recover.

Cross charged ahead stretching his lead and going onto eventually win by 9.54s, taking the fastest lap too at 55.43s set on the 7th lap. A good race for 2nd eventually went to Miles after he found a way to pass Dacres’ well driven all black kart. Deacon led home Clark to 4th and 5th ahead of the race for Masters honours, which was taken by Trzeciak who had passed Thomson on the 4th lap just as Clark had overtaken them both during his recovery.

The remaining Masters drivers all had various adventures during the closing laps, which left Goodwin breathing down Thomson’s neck at the finish in 7th & 8th (2nd & 3rd in class) after a brief spin and Poore passing Ives on the last lap after the former had had a quick pit stop to fix a loose HT cap and Ives had suffered a late race half spin.

The full results from the day can be found here – https://results.alphatiming.co.uk/bmkr/e/326584

The next and final round of the 2025 BMKR championships will be held over 15th & 16th November.