The third round of the 2026 BMKR championships were held last weekend under sunny skies for the mid spring April event.

The popular Sittingbourne karting venue looked great in the sunshine with the various teams’ awnings lining the circuit’s perimeter, hosting just under 100 drivers over the weekend. The Bambino drivers were the first to line up on the grid for their races held on Saturday.

Bambinos.

Eight drivers competed during the day with 6 Comers and 2 Electric battery powered karts for this month’s meeting.

Joshua Chung had the legs over Jake Morely throughout the day in the electric karts, with Joshua setting a fastest lap at 1:1.07s in the final on his way to his victory.

Brody Pearless took the Comer Pre Final win from Steve Austin and Reuben Finch-West, however in the main Final, Reuben managed to pip Brody to victory by a mere 0.08s! Steve finished 3rd from Harry Green 4th, Yusen Yang 5th and Max Oliver 6th. The fastest Comer lap fell to winner Reuben with a 1:02.32s lap.

Honda Cadet 200.

There was another good grid of Honda Cadet karts this month with 18 drivers entered. Heading them all were Georges’ Pickett and Lilly, with Pickett topping qualifying and the morning’s Heat before Lilly came out on top of a close race in the Pre Final to take victory. This pair would line up at the front of the grid for the Final, with Kabir Singh and Dylan Burton behind them on row 2. Teddy Moreton and Ethan Hulbert were next up on row 3, heading Alfie Bi and Ollie Spooner-Green on row 4. Alexander Mercer and Ellis Honey completed the top 10 on row 5.

Lilly led the field away in the 9 min + 1 lap Final in his Ambition livered kart, although the Ambition team were away for the weekend, leaving Dad in charge (and doing a great job!).

Pickett tucked in behind at the wheel of his Project One kart as the pair fought a close race long duel, with Lilly just coming out on top of an enthralling race, winning by 0.18s at the end. Singh’s yellow and black kart held third before Burton overtook him with 3 laps to go to take third, punching the air in celebration as he did so. Behind Singh in 4th – Alfie Bi came out on top of a four-kart close fight to take 5th from Moreton, Hulbert and Spooner-Green in 6th, 7th & 8th. Honey took 9th and Oliver Jones 10th, with the fastest lap going to the winner Lilly on lap 11, with a time of 52.55s.

Honda Juniors.

There were more Honda powered karts out next as the Juniors ventured onto the circuit. Ronnie Deacon headed the 19-kart grid lining upon pole position after taking the win in the Pre Final from Thomas Dyer who would share the front row with him. On row 2 Gvidas Arys & Sebastien Barden headed Amanze Nwosu & Freddie Fordham on row 3. Ollie Gilbert-Childs & Alexander Robertson shared the 4th row ahead of Thomas Allen & Riley Taylor on the 5th.

A close race was expected with the karts in this class being so evenly matched and it didn’t disappoint. Deacon led the impressive snaking four stroke train away from pole position and despite the close attentions of both Dyer & Arys managed to drive a great race to lead every lap to taking the win by 0.429s. Arys had managed to pass Dyer just after midrace to take the runner up spot, with Dyer close behind in 3rd.

Robertson drove well to climb 3 places to finish 4th a little way off the trio ahead but clear of Barden in 5th and Fordham in 6th. Nwosu looked favorite to finish 7th until he lost 4 places on the last lap, eventually finishing down in 12th. Allen took 7th, just from Gilbert-Childs 8th, Leo Brobyn-Gillie 9th and Taylor in 10th. Dyer took the fastest lap of the race on the very last lap with a 53.464s lap, as he tried to find a way back past Arys. Jayden took the win in the heavy class, from Max Forbes and Oscar Bridger.

Junior Max Rookies.

We switched to Rotax power for the next Final as the Junior Max Rookies screamed out onto the track with the drivers eager to build some heat into their tyres on the rolling lap. Cody Crudgington was in fine form as he had topped qualifying and then took wins in both the Heat and Pre Final, he lined up on the pole heading the 16-kart entry. Brandon Swanwick shared the front row with the pole man ahead of Harry Wright & Ryan Bhagat on row 2. Next up were Alfie Burroughs and Finley Reid on row 3, Harrison McNealey & Leger Dimitriou on row 4. The top 10 were completed by Laila Fitzgerald & Nishaun Marshall on row 5.

The first attempt at starting the Final was pretty disastrous as Crudgington was nerfed wide, as was Swanwick who ended up going backwards on the grass, worse was to follow as a number of karts were caught up in an incident down at the bottom of the circuit! With the false start flag frantically waving the field regrouped for a restart and this time thankfully it was a clean one, with Swanwick leading the pack over the opening lap as he had driven around Crudgington at turn 1.

His lead didn’t last long though as Crudgington dove down the inside of him at turn 1 at the start of the 3rd lap. Wright held off an early challenge from Bhagat to run 3rd and a strong opening couple of laps by Marshall had brought him up to demote Bhagat further as Marshall ran 4th with Bhagat 5th. At the head of the field Crudgington had settled into a rhythm and pulled clear Swanwick as he went on to take the win by 2.28s. Wright usurped Swanwick for 2nd with 3 laps to go to take the runner up position at the end of the race, with Swanwick taking the final podium slot in 3rd. Marshall finished 4th on the road but a 5s nose fairing penalty dropped him down to 6th in the standings. Bhagat was out on lap 8 after a move on Burroughs ended up with him making contact with Fitzgerald, spinning her out and down through the field, although she eventually finished 13th.

Burroughs took 4th from Ashan Iqbal in 5th, in 7th behind the penalised Marshall finished McNealey after an incident packed day for the driver. Rafael Medina-Lorenzo was classified 8th, ahead of Jack Burke in 9th & a nose fairing penalised Sienna Chappell in 10th. The fastest lap of 46.64s went to the winner Crudgington on lap 12 of 13.

Honda Seniors.

Eleven Honda Senior drivers took their grid positions for the next Final of the day. Jamie Bury & Ronnie Chambers drove away from the rest of the 11-kart grid and there wasn’t much between them throughout the 11-lap race, with just 0.127s separating them at the finish.

Chambers set the fastest lap on the very last lap of the race at 54.962 as he pressed the eventual victor Bury, who had headed the top of the result sheets all day. Robert Bury ran in a comfortable 3rd all race to finish in that position. Gerry Poore took 4th after managing to pass Daniel Pickett right at the end of the race. Behind Pickett in 5th was Harvey Shoveller in 6th, John Nye in 7th, Stan Seaman in 8th, Daniel Rogers 9th and Gene Malcolm in 10th.

Junior Max.

With clashing events elsewhere, the Junior Max class suffered with only 6 entries for this month. The competition between the 6 drivers was pretty intense though with Freddie Wall heading qualifying and then taking the morning Heat win, before Aston Tabb won the Pre Final from Daniel Thomson and Louis Bishop.

From the rolling start Bishop managed to forge ahead of Tabb on the run to turn 1 although Tabb held his own into the corner before an oversteering moment cost him time and Bishop’s run around the outside then gave him the lead.

Tabb was soon under attack from a fast-starting Wall who had a good run down the inside into turn 1 on the next lap to take 2nd place. Bishop was soon starting to open a gap as Wall couldn’t stay with him as he was struggling with tyre wear and Tabb was soon back up to 2nd by the 5th lap.

Bishop’s commanding lead was soon whittled down by Tabb who was on the leader’s bumper by the end of the race. Bishop held on to take the win with Tabb almost pulling alongside as they crossed the finish line after 13 hard fought laps. Thomson also managed to find a way past Wall on his way to 3rd place, Wall slipped further back when Jacob Jarman passed him on the 9th lap as the pair finished 4th & 5th. John Rynolds took 6th and Tabb took the fastest lap as he chased down the leader on the 8th tour with a time of 46.28s.

Senior Rotax 177/Masters.

If you look at the results of the Senior 177 from the day, you would be led to believe that Adam Clark had been in a dominant mood all day, however just 0.06s separated him and Lewis Deacon after qualifying. And then Clark’s wins in both the Heat and Pre Final were just 0.37s & 0.30s.

In the Final Deacon was jumped by Gareth Scantlebury at the start and took a lap to move back into 2nd place, once he was there he closed in on Clark, pressurising him over the remaining laps, although ultimately he was unable to make a move for the lead, failing to do so by 0.36s, winner Clark later said that he had to work hard to keep the very keen Deacon behind him. Scantlebury finished some 4s back in 3rd after 13 laps. In the battle for 4th, Mark Goodwin had a great opening lap to run 4th, before he tumbled down to 6th as Jason Mills and Dennis Trzeciak found their way past to finish 4th & 5th.

Jason Grove ran well earlier in the day but retired to the pits after 7 laps in the Final. Trzeciak took the Masters win with his 5th place overall and Clark set the fastest lap at 46.40 on the 10th tour.

Senior Max.

The last race of the day was for the Senior Max class with 19 drivers entered for this month. The Pullen brothers once again headed the sharp end of the grid, with Josh taking the pole from Jack for a Project One front row lock out.

Caitlin May was having a very competitive day as she lined up her Blueberry Motorsport kart up on the inside of row 2 from her GMS Motorsport rival Mollie Griffiths. Rhys Rutland and Kyle Dickens were next up on row 3 from Finlay Underwood and Felix Dymant on row 4. Presley Walker and James Cannon completed the top 10 on row 5.

Jack had beaten his elder sibling to take the Heat win and then led the opening laps of the Pre final before Josh re-established his earlier qualifying pace by taking the win, so we were in anticipation of a good race between the two in the Final.

From the start Jack was once again keen to take the lead over his brother and did so over the opening couple of laps, with May leading Griffiths too initially, Rutland headed a pack of drivers fighting over 5th, which was pretty heated over the opening lap or so, with parts of the track that are usually out of bounds being used!

It didn’t take long before Josh Pullen’s superior pace advantage allowed him to pull a move on Jack going into turn 1, to lead with the two pulling clear of the rest, both settling down over the remaining laps to finish an impressive Pullen sibling 1 – 2. May didn’t appear to have the pace that she had shown earlier in the day as Griffiths was past her on lap 3, the latter (Griffiths) then holding the place behind the Project One duo until race end to take a fine 3rd for her & GMS. May in 4th was now having to fend off a feisty Rutland as they swapped positions over several laps before a charging Ayda Sexton came up from 13th on the grid, to pass them both (although it took several laps to clear a stubborn Rutland) to take a stellar 4th at the finish, no doubt delighting her hard working number one mechanic and father.

Presley Walker moved ahead of Underwood and then May and Rutland to finish 5th, from Rutland and Underwood, the latter who was struggling on old tyres in 6th & 7th. May ended up a disappointing 8th from Cannon in 9th and Matthew Angel in 10th. The fastest lap of the race fell on lap 5, to Josh Pullen at 45.56s.

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

Round 4 of the BMKR championships will be held over May 16th – 17th.