ULTON ENCOURAGES!

BKMS Racing Make Positive Start To British Superkart Campaign BKMS Racing fielded only one driver at the first round of the British Superkart Series at Oulton Park on Bank Holiday Monday, following Paul Kennings’ collar bone injury mid-week (see www.bkmsracing.com for further details). This meant that Neil Bagley could benefit from the full focus of the team as he started his campaign with his new engine upgrades.

The team set up camp on the Friday night in preparation for Saturday Free-Practice. Neil and Bill had put in
a lot of work in the off-season and the BKMS / Firestopit Superkart was looking stunning. His new FPE
cylinders and PFP exhausts looked fast and much was expected.

Saturday’s first free practice was intended as an installation session for bedding in new brakes, engine parts
etc. but Neil looked like he was enjoying himself! He lacked no commitment on getting on the power
through Old Hall and the engine sounded nice. The initial signs were good.

Neil’s next session also went very well. Watching him through Druid’s showed he had no fears through this
difficult high speed corner and he was looking quite competitive. The chassis modifications that had been
made were helping the stability and this showed in Neil’s confidence.

There were some minor tweaks required for the qualifying session and these were carried-out on the
Sunday as there was no on-track action owing to Oulton Park’s planning restrictions for Sunday running. A
track walk around the Oulton Park Island circuit gave Neil a few more ideas to improve his pace too.
So it was onto race day on Monday. Qualifying didn’t go very well for Neil, managing only 3 full laps before
an error at the Island hairpin saw him off the road with some minor bodywork damage. Amongst the front
runners, Dave Harvey (Redspeed) had an engine problem which curtailed his session. Steve McAdam (Salad
Fayre) posted a solid time for 3rd on the grid. Local hero Carl Hulme (Porcelanosa / Cheshire Wellness) took
2nd on the grid but quickest was Mark Owens (Shift / DEA). Both the front row drivers were fresh from good
European Championship races at the Lausitzring DTM event the previous weekend, Owens almost beating
Elkmann to win there. As both drivers were carrying good form, a close high quality battle was promised.
In qualifying for the mono-cylinder MSA Championship races, Jason Dredge (JPD Motorsport) took pole
from Gavin Bennett (GB Racing / Bennett’s Coaches) and James O’Reilly (Barker Racing).

Following minor repairs, Neil lined up for Race 1 hoping for a better outcome than in qualifying. The race
started ½ a lap behind the MSA mono-cylinder race. Neil had a good start through Old Hall but then
disaster struck – he attempted an ambitious move around the outside of Simon Holloway (Redspeed) at
Cascades but just edged out too wide and landed in the kitty litter. It appeared that his race was over.
However, a crash in the MSA race brought out the red flag, which meant that the race would be re-started
over 8 laps. The fortunate Neil was able to take the re-start. Unfortunately, however, the red flag resulted in
an injury to Lee Shepherd. He broke his leg in several places. BKMS hope to see Lee back in the kart as soon
as possible, he’s a great competitor and the scene will be poorer in his absence.

At the re-start it was clear that something was wrong with Neil’s Superkart. He was almost last off the start
but kept going. His lap times were 3 seconds of his normal pace so something was a-miss - it later emerged
that he’d oiled a plug. At the head of the race Carl Hulme and Mark Owens were having a tight battle, each
driver breaking the lap record in turn. We were robbed of a grandstand finish, however, when another red
flag halted proceedings. This time it was Kevin Busby who crashed. Sadly, he too sustained injuries. A broken
ankle and foot as a result of hitting the tyre wall exiting Cascades. Kevin had been involved in the start line
pileup at the Lausitzring the previous week but only sustained minor bruising there. However, this time he
was not so lucky. Again, BKMS Racing hope to see him recovered as soon as possible.

So, Race 1’s result was declared at 6 laps from 8 and it was Carl Hulme (best lap 1m22.564sec) who took the
win but 2nd placed Mark Owens took the lap record at 1m22.546sec. In the MSA mono-cylinder race, Jason
Dredge maintained his 100% record by winning ahead of Don Kennedy (Kennedy Motors) and Gavin
Bennett, the European Champion setting a new lap record of 1m24.567s.

Race 2 started well for Neil and he settled into a nice rhythm. Up front Carl Hulme lead Mark Owens by a
very slight margin. Dave Harvey held 3rd from a very close Steve McAdam. Neil held 5th spot. Soon though,
Owens and McAdam were out and Neil suddenly found himself in 3rd! However, towards the end of the
race, his pace started to drop and he was demoted to 5th in quick succession by Simon Holloway and Carl
Kinsey. Encouraging to find Neil has good pace but disappointing final result. That’s racing though and he’ll
be back for a second bite of the cherry!

The race was won by Carl Hulme and he just nudged that lap record further out of reach – 1m 22.530s is the
new benchmark. Gavin Bennett won the mono-cylinder race by some margin ahead of Don Kennedy and
Dean Hawley (Team Viper Racing UK).

The team’s next event will be the MSA British Superkart GP (19-20th July) where Paul hopes to return to the
championship and Neil looks to implement the learning from an encouraging Oulton event.