Buckmore Park Kart Circuit

Buckmore Park Karting Circuit
Location Kent, England
Major events MSA Race meetings, National Championships, Bambino Club meetings, Junior Club meetings, Grand Prix League, Elite Series, Iron Man, Man of Steel
International Circuit
Turns 12[1]
Lap record 0:37.82 (DD2) (Amanda Lassu, Year, 2007)

Buckmore Park Kart Circuit is an MSA approved outdoor kart racing circuit located just off junction 3 of the M2 in Chatham, Kent, England. It is owned by John Surtees, the only person to have won world Grand Prix championships in both Formula One car racing and Grand Prix motorcycle racing.

Situated in a woodland setting between the M2 and M20 motorways directly above High Speed 1, its proximity to London makes it Britain's busiest circuit.[2] With seven different fleets of kart the circuit offers karting experiences for all ages and experience levels. The circuit also hosts monthly MSA race meetings for owner/drivers and hosts National series annually.

Buckmore Park is a circuit where many current and past Formula One drivers learned their trade, including Johnny Herbert and Formula 1 champions Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, who was originally discovered by Ron Dennis in the 1996 Champions of the Future Event held at Buckmore Park.[3]

Although Buckmore Park is primarily a race circuit, it also has on-site conference facilities and a large fleet of hire karts, quad bikes and Powerturn buggies as well as Laser Warfare activities in the surrounding woodland.

Sisley Kart Racing School

Buckmore Park is also home of the Sisley Kart Racing School which trains 6-16 year olds during the school holidays.[4] A UK motorsport academy is planned.[5]

Types of Hire Event

Buckmore Park is well known for its Hire Kart Club which regularly hosts events for its members. One type of event is 'Sprint' style racing, where competitors compete in a series of heats and finals. Starting positions for heats place each driver at the front, middle and rear of the grid for one race, whereas finals are decided by points acquired from finishing positions in heats.

Sprint events at Buckmore include the Grand Prix League, National Sprint, International Sprint and the two Junior Kart Club classes.

Some individual competitors prefer 'Endurance' races, where grid positions are decided by a short qualifying session, leading to the fastest driver starting on pole. Races are then usually an hour long and include the Solo 30 enduro, Solo 45enduro, Man Of Steel and the Iron Man.

Team races are also popular, and work in the same way as Endurance races but include fuel stops and driver changes.

Popular team events include the 3 hour (3 hours using RX390cc karts for 2-4 drivers) and the 6 hour team endurance.

Buckmore Elite

To accommodate the drivers at the top of the hire karting ladder, the Elite series' was added to the roster of events. Drivers must be a holder of an elite permit before being granted a race entry.

These events make use of 115cc Club100 karts which lap significantly faster than the standard fleet of karts.

In 2013 the Elite offer three formats.

The Elite Endurance event is a two hour race with each team required to make three pit stops during allotted time windows. Team 'CFM'won the championship in both 2009 and 2010 and 'It Wasn't Us took the crown in 2011 and 2012.

The Elite Solo is a 45 Solo Endurance which is run in two weight categories. Introduced in 2011 this has proved to be a very exciting addition to the Elite family.

The best 6 of 8 rounds count towards the final points score allowing each driver to drop their score from one round.

Star Pupil

At the end of each hire season, Buckmore hosts an annual 'Star Pupil' day, for the top drivers in all of its hire kart categories. The drivers participate in a mix of endurance and sprint events.

Two guest judges will decide the winner based not only on track performance but also on their punctuality to race briefings, courtesy and general behaviour off of the track.

Carl Tebbutt won the event in 2006 with Simon Rudd winning the following year. Jack Harding won in 2008, Terry Waller in 2009 and most recently in the 2010 star pupil, Matt Jones was judged the winner. Terry Waller was again the winner in 2011. Simon Rudd returned as the winner in the 2012 competition. In 2013, the event was won by Paul Janes. The 2014 event was sponsored by MINI Challenge and was won by Piers Prior.

Buckmore have now added Rookie of the Year and both Junior and Bambino Star Pupil events.

History

The circuit saw its inception in the early 1960s when local businessman Cecil Whitehead, a keen supporter of the Scouts, saw the opportunity to allow them to participate in the fast growing pastime of kart racing by developing a track at the woodland site that the local scouts were leasing at the top of Bluebell Hill, Buckmore Park Scout Centre.[6] Whitehead consulted with the designer of the Rye House Kart Circuit, Doug Jest, the local Rochester Motor Club and Camberley Kart Club to design the 400m circuit. Whitehead then approached the Royal School of Military Engineering in nearby Chatham and persuaded them to build the circuit as an engineering training exercise. The circuit subsequently opened in 1963 at no cost to the scouts.[6][7]

During the 1970s the track was used by the scouts, visitors to the park and the Rochester Motor Club but had fallen into disrepair by the 1980s due to the scouts not having enough money to maintain it.[6][8] Whitehead was about to close the circuit due to safety concerns when, in 1985, new owners were found and redevelopment of the track began with their priority being to gain an MSA competition circuit licence in order to make the circuit commercially viable. After extensive restoration and resurfacing, the circuit began staging events again, with the first RACMSA event taking place in 1989. The circuit staged its first national championship in 1992 and in 1994 the track was extended to 900m.[6] The track length was extended again in 1999 to bring it up to full international length and around the same time the unmade access road was replaced with a tarmac road.[6] In 2003 a new £1.25m clubhouse was opened by Stirling Moss, Bernie Ecclestone and circuit part-owner John Surtees.[9][10]

Surtees, already the landowner of the circuit, bought out other interests and took full commercial control of the circuit for an undisclosed sum in April 2015.[11]

Lap records

http://www.buckmoreparkkartclub.co.uk/results-reports/lap-records/

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Buckmore karting circuit guide and track layout". motorsportcircuits.co.uk. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  2. ↑ "Motorsport icon John Surtees buys leading Kent race track where Lewis Hamilton learned his trade". Kent and Sussex Courier (wayback machine: Local World). 14 April 2015. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  3. ↑ "Sunday Times article". Timesonline.co.uk. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  4. ↑ "The Sisley Kart Racing School". Buckmore.co.uk. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  5. ↑ "UK motorsport academy unveiled". BBC News. 3 September 2003. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "50 years of Buckmore Park kart circuit 1963-2013". Karting Magazine. 1 November 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  7. ↑ "Buckmore Park celebrating 50th anniversary". Kent News. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  8. ↑ "Buckmore Park". Buckmore.co.uk. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  9. ↑ "2003 Buckmore Park Clubhouse Launch". stirlingmoss.com. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  10. ↑ "Surtees backing Buckmore scheme". Kent Online. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  11. ↑ "John Surtees buys Buckmore Park, Chatham, where Formula 1 champions Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button raced as boys". Kent Online. Retrieved 16 October 2015.

External links

Coordinates: 51°20′35″N 0°30′5″E / 51.34306°N 0.50139°E / 51.34306; 0.50139

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