Report: May Bont Rally Sprint

Our first Sprint weekend of 2022 took place on May 21/22 and it was a bit of a cracker. The event was run over two days with one stage layout per day with crews attempting to achieve their best time with unlimited runs throughout the day. If you missed our May event, we run our next Sprint Weekend at Bont on July 23^rd/24^th and entries are now open.

The weekend was dominated by the newly announced Class D for bike powered vehicles where no less than 12 Cross Karts from a range of manufacturers jumped on boats from Ireland to attend the event in Mid Wales. The weather was kind to us all weekend with only a brief shower on the Saturday. A host of media attended including CPe_Foto taking fantastic images which you can by high resolution versions and prints on their website. We also had NPK Media and British Rally media on site taking some stunning footage. We are always pleased to have RAB Timing along with their professional team and equipment usually reserved for events such as the Jim Clarke and Goodwood Festival of Speed.

David Kane returned in an attempt to better his times from last season but this time in a Cas-Kart having moved from an MV Pro Buggy. Kane instantly set blistering pace on Saturday managing to break the clockwise lap record on just his 2^nd attempt with a 2:09.9, David only required 8 runs all day to achieve a final overall and Class lap record of 2:04.9 over the 2.2-mile loop.

James Grant was the only other machine to come close with a 2:10.1 in his CrossCar Kart whilst Neil Leslie in his Labase buggy and James Lahart in his Speed Car Kart took 3^rd spot together with identical times of 2:12.2.

Local lad Lyn Morgan briefly took it too the karts on Saturday using his 2000cc car engine Westfield taking 11^th overall and top honours for Class A with a 2:21.4 but his weekend end early when engine failure stopped play. Lee Clarke took top spot in Class A+ for over 1901cc Forced induction cars in his Impreza STi RA only to blow the gearbox late in the day stopping him from competing on the Sunday. Despite a few short stoppages some crews managed as many as 16 runs on Saturday.

On Sunday David Kane proved slightly faster on the anti-clockwise layout pushing out an amazing 2:03.8! That’s nearly a 65mph average on the twisty tarmac stage. James Grant took another 2^nd overall and in class with a 2:08.3 with Stephen Reynolds taking the 3^rd step on the podium with a 2:12.8. The pace of these Cross Karts has to be seen in person to be believed.

It was local driver Graham Davies’ turn to take it to the karts in his Class A 3000cc powered Darrien taking the class honours with a 2:28.3 with a whole host of Class A Escorts following in his wake. Justin Pounder in his Mk2 and Ricci Weller in his Renault Clio were just a tenth apart by end of play. Steven Reid took Class A+ in his Impreza and Kyle Hughes took Class C in his Nissan Micra.

A big thanks to all who attended the event especially our dedicated team of staff and marshals who worked hard to keep the event running smoothly. It was fantastic to get all the karts on the mountain Sunday lunchtime to honour Johnny Treanor who sadly passed away in April but was on our entry list and often competed alongside many who attended. If you took part why not leave us a review on the websites event page and let others know what its like to compete. We had great feedback and people are always impressed at how much seat time they get at a timed event for just £105 per day. We hope to fill all classes with some stunning machinery for the July dates and we already have a Quattro and Escort F2 Kit Car on the list as well as JWRC driver, Jon Armstrong entered in a Cas-Kart. What are you waiting for? Come and join in on a fantastic weekend of competition.