The weekend of the 28th/29th January was the dateline for the first round of the short BPKC Winter Series at Buckmore Park. Things didn’t look too promising on Friday when heavy snow began to settle on the track in the early evening. Although the snow ceased falling and the clouds parted, this only aggravated the situation by allowing a hard frost to put pay to any hopes of a rapid thaw. Saturday dawned bright and sunny though and the track was soon cleared and ready for open practice. With no more of the solidified precipitation in prospect, it looked safe to say the racing would go ahead on Sunday as planned. Indeed the morning brought another welcome burst of sunshine and despite a keen easterly wind it really was quite pleasant for late January.

TKM got the day under way and the first race found Jason Moore very much on form and Will Bullard leading the rest of the pack. Heat two found the duo switched around which always bodes well for an exciting final. As it happened Jason Moore certainly had the upper hand this time out and did the full lights to flag run and built a comfortable five second lead after twelve laps. The excitement was actually for the remaining class trophy. Here we saw Will Bullard dice with Steven Bartlett for a couple of laps before Joe Morrison came up through the pack to grab second at the halfway stage, a place he kept to the flag. Will Bullard came home for third place.

Junior TKM is a little more complicated running as it does in three sub classes. I’ll deal with the two smaller groups first for simplicity. In the standard class it was two heat wins for Dan Humphrey who was also right up at the sharp end of the final before beoming a dnf on lap eleven. This handed the class trophy to Ben Barker. Things were clearer cut in the Intermediate class where Elliot Burton dominated the day. Two heat wins, a comfortable lights to flag victory in the final and the fastest lap was his tally. Out of the trophies but second in class was George Dench. The biggest sub class this month was the rapidly growing 4 stroke category. Top dog here was certainly Rhys Jenkins who also led the order on each outing. Oliver Bourton was very competitive during the heats and the early couple of laps of the final before an early bath beckoned on lap two. Tom Truscott was not going to look this gift horse in the mouth and raced to a well deserved and very close second.

I have to confess to a certain bias in favour of the Mini Max class this month. The entry contained a more than generous smattering of my ex Sisley Kart School students and frankly, I wanted them all to win. Elliot Rice got the ball rolling with a win by four seconds from Tom Ingram in heat one. Ingram led the field in heat two though while Jack Saffery gave chase. The final was far less exciting than one would have hoped with most of the positional changes completed by lap two. Tom Ingram took the win with nearly four seconds to spare. Elliot Rice had a similar comfort zone from second place. Jack Vanderpump made the podium in third place, just ahead of Oliver Varney who as a driver so recently off his novice plates is beginning to impress. An old Junior Hire club contemporary of Oliver’s is Oliver Morris-Jones who collected the novice trophy.

It doesn’t seem to matter what time of the year it is, Rotax still produces bumper grids. Heat one belonged to Ed Cockill who beat James Park to the line. Ben Cruttenden led the pack home in the second race with Ed leading the rest. What an exciting final this evenly matched pack produced. For just over half the race Ed Cockill had the upper hand but it was on lap eight that Ben Cruttenden made his move and made it stick to the final flag. Ed Cockill came across the line a second later for second place with Brother Harry right behind and on the podium for bronze. Just a second adrift came the final recipient of the silverware this month, fourth placed James Park.

It’s funny how quick fortunes can change. In the Junior Max heats it was Harry Drysdale all the way with Robert Foster-Jones and Kenneth Andrews taking the runner up slots but in the race where it mattered, it was all change. Drysdale certainly had the upper hand for the first two thirds of the race but then lost out to Robert Foster-Jones and at the same time Kenneth Andrews slipped through for second. Drysdale had to accept a third place which put him just off the podium this month.

The remaining class was the mixed cadet entry where the Hondas outnumbered the Comers. For clarity, I’ll report the results as though they were running separately. Someone must have called the AA as it was Alexander Albon at the sharp end in each of the heats. Things can all go horribly wrong in the final but I’m pleased to report that it was a full twelve lap lights to flag charge for Alexander Albon and he also built a very impressive lead over Spencer Peacock who took the other trophy for second place. Jack Aitken took a very close third. Connor Mills picked up a trophy as the top novice of the day. In Comers it would have been tempting to back Sam Vanderpump as he won both the heats but he became a DNF on lap five and the class win and sole trophy went to Ashlee Whiteman.

Trophy Winners Today

TKM
1st Jason Moore (Venom)
2nd Joe Morrison (Nimrod)

TKM 4 Stroke
1st Ryan Fleming (MS)

Junior TKM
1st Ben Barker (?)

Junior TKM Intermediate
1st Elliot Burton (Venom)

Junior TKM 4 Stroke
1st Rhys Jenkins (Tal Ko)
2nd Tom Truscott (Raider)

Mini Max
1st Tom Ingram (Tonykart)
2nd Elliot Rice (Gillard)
3rd Jack Vanderpump (Intrepid)
Novice: Oliver Morris-Jones (?)

Rotax
1st Ben Cruttenden (Gillard)
2nd Edward Cockill (Cosmos)
3rd Harry Cockill (Cosmos)
4th James Park (Tonykart)

Honda Cadet
1st Alexander Albon (Zip)
2nd Spencer Peacock (Project One)
Novice: Connor Mills (Project One)

Comer Cadet
1st Ashlee Whiteman (Zip)

Courtesy of Alan Wood