Round 7 of the BMKR championships were held over the weekend of September 19 – 20th at the Bayford Meadows circuit, in almost perfect weather conditions after some overnight rain had cleared away.

The entry was bolstered by the continuing growth of the Honda classes, with the Juniors at 29 and the Seniors at 20 entries. The Juniors would require a B Final as only 20 karts would qualify for the A Final, with the drivers being split into three groups A,B & C for their two qualifying races.

The Bambinos held their races on Saturday as per the regular program format.

Bambinos.

The ten kart Bambino entry was split into two classes, with 4 Mighty E (battery) karts and 6 with the Comer engine, with Oscar Osbourne heading the Mighty E’s in qualifying and Reuben Finch-West the Comers.

Oscar also took the Heat win from Benny Drake and Jake Morely in the Mighty E class, however in the Pre Final it was Benny who took the win from Oscar and Jake with Jenson Mullin in 4th.

Benny then went on to lead Oscar (2nd) throughout in the main Final to win by 1.62s, with Jenson battling with Jake to take 3rd place at the finish with Jake 4th. Winner Benny took the class fastest lap at 1:02.63s in their 8 lap Final.

In the Comer class Reuben took the wins in the Heat and Pre Final from Brody Pearless and Bertie Cockill in 2nd and 3rd. In the main Final Reuben once again came out on top, also taking the fastest lap at 1:02.28s.

Brody dropped behind both Bertie and Max Oliver at start before climbing his way back up to 2nd by the finish. Bertie took 3rd from Max in 4th Yusen Yang in 5th, Leo Pruski did not start but was classified in 6th.

Honda Cadets.

On Sunday afternoon the Honda Cadets got the main Finals underway. Ollie Spooner-Green headed the times in qualifying and then also took the Heat win from Thomas Pregnall and Jenson Drummond. Things went wrong for Spooner-Green in the Pre Final as he dropped down to 6th by the finish, as Pregnall took the win from Drummond 2nd, Louie Whitcroft 3rd and George Lilly in 4th.

The top 4 finishers in the Pre Final dominated the main Final as Pregnall managed to build up a lead in his GMS Motorsport run kart over the opening laps, then going on to win by a cool 1.71s from Drummond, who was kept on his toes by Spooner-Green throughout the 12 lap distance, as this pair took 2nd and 3rd.

Whitcroft held 4th for much of the race managing to hold off the challenging Lilly right until the closing laps, when the Ambition kart of Lilly forged ahead to secure the place.

Whitcroft took 5th from George Pickett and Dylan Burton who were close behind in 6th & 7th, after a race long duel between the two. The top 10 was completed by Alfie Bi 8th, Eric Gryzbek 9th and Teddy Moreton 10th. Pregnall’s impressive form in the Final was capped off by taking the fastest lap at 52.19s.

Junior Rookie/Junior Max.

The combined Junior Final was next up with 7 Max class drivers mixing with the 17 Rookies. Harrison Matthews was in fine form as he headed qualifying and then took wins in the Heat and Pre Final, to line up on the pole for the main Final.

Alongside him on the grid sat Bluebrry’s Aston Tabb after a 4th and 2nd in the two qualifying races. On the 2nd row were John Reynolds and Sienna Chappell, the latter heading the Rookie class. Next up on the 3rd row sat Rookies Cody Crudgington and George Whiteman, they headed Oskar Doliniec and William Kidd-Glass on the 4th row. Completing the top 10 on the 5th row were Ashan Iqbal and Alfie Burroughs.

With a total of 24 starters everyone was hoping for a clean start to the race and it initially looked positive as everyone made it through the opening sequence of the lap, however the false start flags were being waved, so the eager teenagers had to form up for a restart.

Matthews and Tabb once again led the jostling field over the opening lap, further back there were karts off down at the bottom hairpin and then again on the infield with Iqbal’s kart sat on top of Whiteman’s and Leger Dimitriou also involved and out on the spot.

Matthews led at the end of the first lap and looked comfortable in his Nexgen Motorsports run kart. Tabb led Reynolds and Crudgington as Chappell dropped back into the pack. Doliniec was next up with Max drivers Jacob Jarman and Eden Salvidge,(both keen to make up for their lowly grid positions) right behind him.

At the front Matthews looked serene out in the lead, steadily pulling clear of the rest before going on to take a comfortable 4.32s win. Behind a celebrating winner, the battle for 2nd place became pretty fraught at times, Tabb was forced wide onto the grass on the infield section, which resulted in his chain breaking, therefore out on the spot.

Salvidge had been charging hard and made it up to 2nd place at the finish before a couple of post-race penalties were applied, dropping him back to 12th overall and 5th in class. Reynolds kept his Roalf Racing kart clean amongst the frantic battling to take a well deserved 2nd place, once Salvidge had his penalties added, Jarman took 3rd after a stellar drive up 10 places from his lowly grid slot.

With the top 3 finishers running in the Max class, it was Grudgington who came through to take the Rookie win, shadowing the Max drivers in 4th overall.

Daniel Thomson finished 5th and 4th in the Max class, Doliniec took 6th and 2nd in the Rookie class, Andrew Thomson was next up in 7th and 3rd in the Rookie class, ahead of Burroughs in 8th and 4th in the Rookies. In 9th & 10th overall were Tyler Orridge & Ryan Bhagat – 5th & 6th in the Rookie class.

The fastest laps went to Salvidge in the Max class at 46.73s and Grudgington at 47.05s.

Honda Seniors.

The Honda Senior class is now really gathering momentum and for this month there was a season’s best of 20, with the usual entries being joined by some of the circuit’s regular visitors, who had come out of semi-retirement to join in.

The most notable of these was Paul Janes, a name synonymous with the Ambition kart team that has been associated with developing so many future karting stars.

Janes had very limited testing before deciding to race, but was in scintillating form on Sunday comfortably topping qualifying and then taking wins in the Heat and Pre Final, to line up on pole position for the Final. Class regular Jamie Bury sat alongside Janes

on the front row, after a 2nd & 3rd in the two point scoring qualifying races. Max Forbes and Declan Miles were next up on row 2, Miles having decided to join in the fun after sporadic appearances in the Senior Max class previously. On the third row Ronnie Chambers and Ryan Nicholas sat side by side, they were ahead of Charlie Bradstock & Gareth Scantlebury on the 4th row. Andrew Cole and Robert Bury shared the 5th row of the grid.

The two all black karts of Janes and Bury J led the Final away in glorious sunshine which now baked the circuit, with Janes already pulling out a gap after one tour of the Sittingbourne circuit.

Bury J was holding off a fierce fight for 3rd place between Forbes and Miles with Chambers and Bradstock next up in 5th & 6th, Nicholas was next up in 7th ahead of Cole in 8th. Janes continued to enjoy his ‘comeback’ drive out in the lead going on to win by 3.9s from Jamie Bury in 2nd proving that he had lost none of his past abilities.

Miles eventually managed to pass Forbes to take a delighted 3rd place also on his ‘comeback’. Forbes celebrated in 4th as Chambers came out on top from a race with Bradstock for 5th, with the latter taking 6th. Nicholas took 7th from Scantlebury in 8th the latter made up for a sluggish start to the race. Robert Bury took 9th from Cole in 10th and rather surprisingly it wasn’t Janes who took the fastest lap, as that honour fell to Forbes with a lap time of 54.963s on the 11th and final lap.

Senior Rotax/177.

The two Senior Rotax weight classes ran together again for this month, with three 177s & one Masters 177 driver joining the fourteen 162s entries. The Pullen brothers were separated by Mollie Griffiths in qualifying, with Jack first and Josh 3rd. Jack headed Josh in the morning Heat ahead of Kyle Dickens, Matthew Angel, Ayda Sexton and Griffiths in 6th.

The Pre Final win went to Josh Pullen after he had a better start over Jack, Griffiths took 3rd, from Dickens, Angel & Sexton. So the grid sheet for the Final had the Pullen siblings sharing an all Project One front row with Jack on the pole.

Dickens running with the new look Edg&sons sticker kit, sat in 3rd with Griffiths alongside him in 4th. On the third row was Angel & Sexton, they headed Hollie Bonner and Rhys Rutland on the 4th row. Next on the 5th row were William Chaplin and top 177 driver Lewis Deacon.

This season has seen the Pullen siblings prove to be the ones to beat on a Sunday afternoon, with Josh more often coming across the finish line ahead, however on Sunday Jack looked very comfortable in his kart and it showed, as after losing out to Josh at the start, he was soon ready to reverse the positions as he dove down the inside of his elder brother at the start of the 2nd lap and then despite Josh’s best efforts managed to control the race from the front, winning by 0.5s and taking the fastest lap at 45.68s.

Behind the dominant pairing the battle for third was pretty tense from the start to the finish. Rutland initially held the position before Griffiths in her GMS kart claimed the position for the majority of the race, holding back the threats from both Dickens and Sexton in 4th and 5th.

Rutland now in 6th slipped back further as Bonner and Angel scrapped over 6th before Caitlin May stormed her way through from 11th on the grid past this duo. Third place eventually went to Dickens who found a way past Griffiths near the end as did Sexton, as this pair finished 3rd & 4th ahead of Griffiths in 5th. Independent driver Bonner finished 7th behind the charging May up in 6th. Rutland won the fight for 8th from James

Cannon in 9th, who was up from P16 on the grid and Angel in 10th. In the 177 class, Jason Mills managed to catch and pass early leader Deacon to take the win, with Goodwin finishing 3rd. Mills took the fastest 177 class lap at 46.64s.

Honda Juniors.

The Honda Juniors wrapped up the days racing with their much anticipated Final. With the qualifying races split into the 3 groups the wins went to Ronnie Deacon, Riley Taylor and Jack Cope, however there was contact between Taylor and Cope in the first Heat, which left the two rivals (and friends), in the back third of grid for the Final giving both a lot of work to do.

Deacon sat on the pole from Sebastien Barden alongside him, the pair being the highest point scorers after their respective Heats. Last month’s winner Gvidas Ayrs and Thomas Dyer were next up on the 2nd row ahead of Finn Bayley and Leo Brobyn-Gillie on the 3rd. Thomas Allen and Ollie Gilbert-Childs shared the 4th row from Alexander Robertson and Jackson Burge on the 5th.

An eventful B Final was won by Evie Stewart as she dramatically made her way up to the front from P10, after 8 of the 9 lap race. In a somewhat scruffy race at times, the other qualifiers who progressed to the A Final were Danny Dowling, James Blundell and George Gentle.

From the standing start for the A Final, the now familiar bouncing up and down was prevalent across the grid, as the young drivers tried to coax their Honda engines into life going into turn 1.

Deacon has the knack mastered as he headed the field in his Edg&sons livered kart over the opening lap. Ayrs, Barden and Dyer settled into 2nd – 4th as Bayley ran 5th until his retirement at the end of the 3rd lap.

So Broyben-Gille and Gilbert-Childs were up into 5th & 6th from Cope & Taylor who had worked their way up into the top 10, although their progress was proving difficult, such is the competitiveness of the class.

After a relatively quiet race at the front, leader Deacon, found that he had been reeled in by Ayrs with Barden not far behind. Ayrs then managed to pass Deacon with just two laps to go, although it didn’t take long for Deacon to retaliate with a pass on the infield which forced Ayrs out wide and onto the grass, delaying both.

Barden saw the opportunity to pounce and took the lead as they headed around the mound section. So going into the last lap Barden was leading, but must have known an attack was coming from behind him and sure enough both Deacon & Ayrs were through ahead of the red and yellow kart of Barden.

The trio were super close as they crossed the finish line with Deacon coming out on top, with both Ayrs and Barden right on his rear bumper, their heads tucked in. It had been a fraught last couple of laps which Dyer in 4th must have had a good view of.

Cope made his way up to 5th but was to have been judged to have gained an unfair advantage, so was penalised dropping himself back to 12th. Brobyn-Gillie took 5th from Taylor who had climbed up 7 places from P13 in 6th, Allen took 7th from Gilbert-Childs in 8th, Robertson in 9th and Burge in 10th. Jayden was the only driver in the heavy class, he finished 16th overall.

The fastest lap fell to Cope at 53.60s on his ultimately unrewarding charge up through the field.

Round 8 of the BMKR championships will be held on October 17-18th.

Full results from round 7 can be found on Alpha timing here –

https://www.alpharacehub.com/bmkr/event/349922