The BMKR held round four of their 2026 championships last weekend with the May event held annually in memory of past circuit and club friend Lee Wood. Another good entry across the majority of classes and some unexpected dry weather set us up for a great day’s racing at the Sittingbourne circuit.

Bambinos

The weekend’s racing began on Saturday with the Bambino class taking to the circuit, with the nine entered drivers split between the two classes for Comer and Electric battery power units.

Of the three Electric battery powered drivers, Joshua Chung & Teddy Wesolowski battled it out over 8 laps with Teddy just taking the win by 0.16s from Joshua who had won the earlier Pre Final. Joshua, who led all bar the important final tour, took the fastest lap at 1:01.43s. A little way back in 3rd place was Jenson Mullin.

In the Comer class Brody Pearless and Matthew Pearson had a good battle with the former Brody also taking the lead from Matthew on the last lap, to take the win by a whisker. Reuben Finch-West took 3rd from Bertie Cockill in 4th, Max Oliver 5th and Yusen Yang in 6th. Matthew Pearson set the fastest Comer class lap at 1:01.49 s.

Honda Cadet 200s.

There were an impressive 24 drivers entered for the Honda Cadet class on Sunday for their Qualifying, Heat, Pre Final and then the main Final in the afternoon. The current BM plate holder Jenson Drummond made his return to the circuit where he won the title earlier in the year and was in impressive form, having topped the times in qualifying and then taking wins in the Heat and Pre Final, putting his kart on the pole position for the main Final. Ollie Spooner-Green managed to keep Drummond within reach in the Pre Final, finishing 2nd and therefore completing the front row of the grid.

On row 2 sat last month’s winner George Lilly and novice Dylan Burton. Reggie Dufficy had a good run from 6th to 3rd in the Pre Final, but his points tally left him 5th on the grid sharing the 3rd row with Kabir Singh. Next up on the 4th row were George Pickett and Max Skilton, completing the top 10 – Teddy Moreton & Eric Cryzbek shared the 5th row.

The grid marshals did a great job with lining 23 drivers onto the grid, as Thomas Pregnall sadly broke down on the warming up lap, he avidly watched on from the sidelines. The huge grid snaked back around the final turn as they left the grid from their standing start. Drummond, from pole, immediately got his head down, the JSF driver setting a blistering pace over the opening laps. Spooner-Green couldn’t stay with the leader this time around and soon had a keen Lilly moving ahead of him with his Ambition teammate Dufficy following George through into 3rd place. Further back there was chaos at the first infield hairpin as Ellis Honey was launched over several karts ahead of him under braking, thankfully unperturbed, he soon had his feet slotted back in the kart and was back underway. All the karts made it safely around the opening tour with Drummond starting to break free of the race for the remaining podium placings. Lilly came under further pressure from Dufficy before losing out in the battle for 2nd place.

At the finish Drummond’s consistent pace over the 12-lap distance rewarded him with a cool 1.05s win from Dufficy and Lilly, who was a couple of seconds back in 3rd place. Both Spooner-Green and Burton lost positions in the intense jostling over the opening laps and struggled to regain them as Singh took 4th from Pickett in 5th, leaving them in 6th (Spooner-Green) & 7th (Burton) as they crossed the finish line virtually side by side. The next group of 5 battling over a top 10 placing ended with Ethan Hulbert in 8th, Louie Whitcroft in 9th and Ralph Rider-Birch in 10th. The fastest lap at 52.69s went to 2nd placed man Dufficy on the 6th lap.

Honda Juniors.

Continuing with the Honda theme, the Juniors were the next to line up on the grid. 19 karts rolled out this month with the battle for honours now really hotting up in this class, with the karts so evenly matched. Having said that Ronnie Deacon continued his recent winning ways, taking wins in the Heat and Pre Final, he didn’t have it his own way, however, as he was hard pressed by Gvidas Arys in the Heat and then Thomas Dyer in the Pre Final. The grid for the Final saw Deacon on the pole from Riley Taylor, after a tie-on points left him and Arys separated by the aforementioned Taylor’s faster lap in the Pre Final. Arys shared the 2nd row with Dyer; they sat ahead of the 3rd row incumbents Leo Brobyn-Gillie and Sebastian Barden. On the 4th row were Freddie Fordham and Evie Stewart, completing the 5th row and top 10 were Tommy Casey and leading class B runner Jayden.

Deacon led away the thundering 4 strokes over the opening lap as the drivers settled into the race, many who were keen to work together to stay with the leader. Taylor offered the biggest threat to Deacon over early stages and was set to make a move when Arys pounced and decided that it was his turn to put pressure on the leader instead! Dyer ran 4th throughout not quite managing to pass the three ahead, he was clear of the battle for 5th with Brobyn-Gillie losing out to Barden but managing to hold off Fordham.

After a couple of laps trying to find a way back past Arys for 2nd place, Taylor succeeded but now Deacon was a little way ahead and even with a push from Arys could not catch the dominant Deacon, who crossed the line celebrating in style winning by 0.426s. The battling duo of Taylor and Arys crossed the line together with Taylor just ahead of Arys in 3rd, who took the fastest lap at 53.841s on the very last lap of the 11-lap race.

In the race for 5th Barden was clear and running alone of Ollie Gilbert-Childs who climbed 6 places from his grid slot to take 6th from Brobyn-Gillie in 7th, Fordham 8th, Stewart 9th and Thomas Allen in 10th. Jayden took the win in class B finishing 12th overall ahead of Oscar Bridger who was 2nd in class B and 14th overall.

Junior Max Rookies.

Next up on the program was the Junior Max Rookies, who had been proven somewhat rowdy earlier in the day. Cody Crudgington was the man to beat last month and so it proved again for this month, as he took his Evolution run kart to wins in the Heat, Pre Final and then the main Final too. Such was his dominance in the class that he won by 5.77s, taking the race’s fastest lap too on the 6th of 13 tours, at 47.11s. Harrison McNealey had managed to keep Crudgington within sight in the morning Heat and Pre Final, but was unceremoniously bumped out wide by the chasing pack at the first infield hairpin on the 1st lap of the Final.

His challenge for a top placing effectively over on the spot, although he was later to tangle with Rafael Medina-Lorenzo with Rafael unable to continue. Harry Wright took up the chase of Crudgington over the opening lap and finished 2nd, clear of a very feisty battle for 3rd place, which Brandon Swanwick headed although his robust driving cost him a 5s penalty dropping him down to 11th place in the final standings. Ashan Iqbal therefore took 3rd from Laila Fitzgerald in 4th who put in a courageous drive after a nasty looking crash befell her earlier in the day. Nishaun Marshall managed to overtake Leger Dimitriou on the penultimate lap to take 5th, with Dimitriou finishing 6th. Sienna Chappell was right in the fight for 6th by the end as he finished a close 7th, ahead of Ryan Bhagat 7th, Andrew Thomson 9th and Alfie Burroughs 10th.

Honda Seniors.

It was back to the 4 strokes for the next race as the Honda Seniors were next on the schedule. There was drama on the warmup lap for the 13 entries as pole position man Jamie Bury came to a stop down at the bottom of the circuit. The drivers were then held on the grid while Jamie managed to fix his recalcitrant kart after a quick run to the sidelines for help!

Once that Bury had managed to rejoin the grid the drivers were given a further warming up lap, with Bury now starting from the rear of the grid. This had to be one of the closest races of the day with the evenly matched drivers and karts putting on a great display of racing. Coming out on the top after 11 frantic laps was Ryan Nichols, this was after Robert Bury initially led before Max Forbes had a 4 lap spell out in front, with Nichols taking the lead with just one lap to go. Robert Bury took 3rd as he managed to hold off challenges from both Ronnie Chambers and the recovering Jamie Bury in 4th and 5th.

Thomas Wall held off a challenge from Gerry Poore as the pair finished 6th & 7th, completing the top 10 were Stan Seaman and Daniel Pickett. There was some confusion at the end with a faltering startline light leaving some drivers thinking that they were still racing, which we all wouldn’t have minded at all! Jamie Bury set the fastest lap at 54.973 on the 4th lap of 11.

Junior Max.

The entries were down again this month in the Junior Max class with just 7 drivers; however, the racing was again highly competitive. Noah Clare took the win in the morning’s Heat after proving to be the fastest in the earlier qualifying session. The Pre Final was won by Jacob Jarman with only 6 karts starting due to Freddie Wall pulling out, this after a first corner clash with the turn1 tyre barrier in the earlier Heat, had damaged his ribs, making it too painful for him to drive. So, Jarman would start from the pole position in the main Final with Aston Tabb alongside him on the front row. Clare and John Reynolds would share the 2nd row ahead of Daniel Thomson and BM plate holder Harrison Matthews.

The 6 managed to charge cleanly through turn 1 in grid order but down at the bottom hairpin there was contact and Clare came off the worse, dropping to the tail of the field. Jarman led over the opening lap with a fast-starting Reynolds up to 2nd and Tabb in 3rd, Matthews 4th and Thomson 5th. Tabb was soon on a charge and passed Reynolds into 2nd and set off after Jarman ahead.

Matthews also found a way past the fast-starting Reynolds and was up to 3rd, seemingly finding pace that he didn’t have in the earlier races. Jarman got his head down and managed to pull clear of the early threat from Tabb, as the latter dropped away and had Matthews crawling all over him, who eventually found his way past and into 2nd on the very last lap. Jarman won by just over a second from the somewhat inspired Matthews in 2nd. Tabb took 3rd from Thomson in 4th and the recovering Clare in 5th, who had made up one place by passing Reynolds on the 8th of 13 laps. Clare set the fastest lap at 46.54s on the 10th tour.

Senior Max 177/Masters.

Another class that was down in numbers this month was the Senior 177/Masters, with just 5 drivers entered. Adam Clark looked to be following on from last month’s win after being quickest in qualifying and then led the morning Heat until the wheels literally fell off of his wagon, when a rear wheel spectacularly flew off as he came over the rise at the last corner! Lewis Deacon was close behind at the time but managed to avoid the spinning Clark to go on and take the win from Jason Mills. Deacon also took the win in the Pre Final with Clark working his way up to 2nd by the end from Mills in 3rd, Gareth Scantlebury 4th and Dennis Trzeciak in 5th.

In the main Final, Deacon and Mills led the away the 5 karts over the opening lap and it wasn’t long before Clark pounced from the 2nd row of the grid by leading at the end of the lap! Deacon felt that some set up changes to his kart had gone the wrong way as he dropped away from Clark and also behind Mills on lap 8, who then set off after the flying Clark ahead. Scantlebury and Trzeciak had a good battle before they ended up trying to share the same piece of tarmac, with Trezicak’s kart suffering too much damage from the resulting collision to be able to continue.

As the laps counted down Clark appeared to be controlling the pace at the head of the field, eventually winning although Mills in 2nd place had kept him honest, just 0.57s behind. Deacon was a little way back in 3rd from Masters winner Scantlebury in 4th. The fastest lap went to Mills on the 4th tour with a time of 46.53s.

Senior Max.

The last race of the day was for the Senior Max class, and this was one that a lot of people had been looking forward to. Joseph Gethen was making a rare appearance back in a GMS seat for the weekend and showed that he still has a lot to give out on track around Bayford Meadows. He topped qualifying and then took wins in the Heat and Pre Final, therefore securing pole position for the main Final.

Josh Pullen finished 2nd both times and would line up alongside Gethen on the outside of the front row. Callum Sims and Jack Pullen had finished 3rd in the two earlier races; they would share the 2nd row with Ciaron Edgson (another who would be making a rare appearance) and Freddie Leppenwell on the third row. James Cannon and Presley Walker were on the 4th row from Rhys Rutland and Ayda Sexton on the 5th.

The 18 grid was tightly formed as they came up to start the Final, with Pullen keenly matching Gethen’s as they took the start, knowing that the outside grid position would go against him going through turn 1. As the karts screamed their way down to the bottom hairpin, Sims was all over the back of Gethen’s kart with Pullen losing out to a keen Edgson in the battle for 3rd.

Jack Pullen too lost out to Cannon although he was soon back up to 5th behind his brother. Sims grabbed the lead from Gethen on the 2nd lap but this didn’t last long as a stubborn Gethen squeezed his way through while going through the tight infield section, this caused Edgson & Josh Pullen to brake hard behind them, which led Jack Pullen’s demise as he had to stamp on the brake pedal to avoid his brother – almost stalling his engine and leaving him then him tumbling back down through the pack. Gethen was now back in the lead with Sims once again trying to find a way past, glued to his rear bumper.

 It took Josh Pullen 6 laps to find a way past Edgson who couldn’t quite live with the two ahead of him. Rutland, Cannon, Leppenwell and Hollie Bonner ran ahead of the recovering Jack Pullen down in 10th, as he tried to make up for his earlier mishap. As the laps ticked by both Sims and Josh Pullen became equally frustrated of not being able to do anything about Gethen ahead of them, who was doing nothing wrong but tellingly could not pull a gap over his pursuers. With just two laps to go Josh Pullen found an opening in Sim’s defences and going onto the last lap closed in on Gethen ahead.

It seemed an impossible task for the Project One driver as the leaders went into the last half of the final lap, however Pullen wasn’t giving up and as they rounded the mound, he somehow got his nose fairing inside of Gethen forcing him offline and inheriting the lead. Sims too was through on Gethen as he was now offline and up into 2nd. So, as they crossed the finish line, Pullen was celebrating a dramatic win on his birthday, Sims followed him home in 2nd with a naturally disappointed Gethen in 3rd.

A post-race review of the last lap move did not result in a change of positions, so the result stood as they finished.

Edgson crossed the line in 4th with Cannon right behind him in 5th. An entertaining battle for 6th ended with Jack Pullen managing to gain back some of the positions that he had lost earlier, Ayda Sexton took 7th up 3 places from her grid slot and Hollie Bonner put in her most competitive race yet with a stellar 8th place, up 6 positions from her starting slot. Rhys Rutland and Presley Walker finished in 9th & 10th place. The fastest lap at 45.70s was set on the 7th lap by the winner Josh Pullen.

The next round of the BMKR championship will be held on the weekend of June 20th – 21st.

The full results can be found on the Alpha racehub website here – https://www.alpharacehub.com/bmkr/event/349914