SUPERKART CHAT by Gary James, Freelance Superkart Reporter & Commentator
CADWELL PARK 5TH & 6TH JULY 2025
BSRC SUPER SERIES ROUNDS 10, 11 & 12 PLUS THE SUPER CUPS
MORLEY MARCHES ON
Liam Morley extended his lead at the top of the Division 1 BSRC Super Series with two wins at Cadwell Park in differing race conditions. Great for ducks, not for Superkarts. Paul Platt and Lee Plain shared the victories in F250 Mono class.
Superkart qualifying on Saturday was over 12 minutes with a disappointing entry of 29 drivers looking for a clear piece of track. Liam Morley was quickly into the groove and on his first flying lap set a 1m 24.003s which was over a second quicker than anyone else. From then on it was a case of how quick the #24 Superkart could go. On the next 3 laps Liam reduced his time on each lap to eventually post a 1m 22.380s before pitting with 2m 30s left on the clock. A quick check of the TSL Timing page on his dad’s phone allowed Liam to step of the kart. Job done and pole position. “I was a bit down on top speed as the wind had changed direction” but Liam was confident of getting into the low 1m 21s. An ominous sign for the opposition. Due to a delay in a shipment of Dunlop tyres, Dave Harvey decided to put his MS Kart chassis drivers onto Hoosiers at this round. Jack Tritton chipped away at his times, getting used to the grip levels, and recorded a 1m 23.257s to secure the other place on the front row. The gap to Morley was still 0.877s. Ross Allen was quickly into the 23s and wound up with a 1m 23.33s lap, the quickest that the Jade chassis had been around the Cadwell Park circuit. The team were pleased with the progress made on the chassis as he headed row 2. Lee Harpham couldn’t get switched on with his Hoosier tyres and struggled to get out of the 25s. On his penultimate lap the Grimsby driver did manage to get a 1m 24.046s to complete the second row. Andy Gulliford had been second quickest in the free practice session in the morning and was hoping to replicate that later in the day. He marginally improved his time to 1m 24.421s but dropped three places to wind up fifth on the grid and a place on row 3. Tom Hatfield was making his first Superkart appearance since September last year and posted a respectable 1m 24.777s to complete row 3. He was just ahead of fellow Parker Motorsport driver Kosta Kyritsis who headed row 4 and joined by Sam Moss. The Wakefield driver was still trying to get the best carburation set up on his VM but was confident that the team were making progress.
In the F250 Mono class Paul Platt was never headed and was quickest on 1m 26.211s for 9th overall. After an off at Hall Bends on the first lap of free practice, Samantha Hempshall gathered it all together in qualifying. She was fortunate to see Platt a couple of seconds ahead as a marker and managed a 1m 27.167s for second in class and 12th overall. Her time was nearly a second quicker than Lee Plain. Jack Bliss was fourth in class but ended the session early when his Honda seized. Ben Ardern didn’t get past Mansfield on lap 2 when he went off, fortunately without damage but Mark Edwards on the third Division 1 MS Kart wasn’t so lucky. He took avoiding action and was clipped by Paul von Gerard. Edwards weekend was going from bad to worse after he had sustained serious damage when hit by Michael Goff in testing the day before. An overnight rebuild by Dave Harvey and Lee Harpham to get a usable MS chassis was thwarted again. Paul von Gerard ended up with a bent Jade chassis and a damaged sidepod but did manage to post a time for 12th in the Division 1 class.
The weather was cloudy and dry for Race 1 on late Saturday afternoon. There were some worries about finishing before the curfew as proceedings had been halted to allow the air ambulance to take an injured motorcycle rider to hospital. Twenty-eight karts lined up on the dummy grid with the unfortunate Edwards a non-starter due to a faulty boss on his quick release steering wheel. In the end the race got underway at 6.12 over the allotted 12 minute schedule. When the lights went out Morley made the perfect start from pole position to lead up through Coppice while Harpham chopped across Tritton to take second spot with Allen in close attendance. Through Charlie’s Allen had got the Jade chassis planted and took Harpham as they went onto the Park Straight for the first time. Harpham wasn’t about to allow Morley to get away on the opening lap and dived inside Allen as they exited Park Corner and around Chris Curve but washed out a bit through the long right hander pushing the Jade kart onto the grass. Harpham continued his chase of Morley but Allen dropped back to the midfield. At the end of the opening lap Morley led Harpham by 0.187s with Tritton 1.51s behind in third spot. Gulliford held off Moss for 4th, then a gap before Riley, Kyritsis, Hatfield and Hulme were nose to tail. Platt led the Mono class in 10th overall just ahead of Goff and a recovering Allen. But then disaster for the Jade driver. The rear axle failed at 120mph on the approach to Coppice and he spun in a huge cloud of tyre smoke and bodywork flying off. Fortunately, he wasn’t collected by the following pack of Hempshall, Bliss and Cattermole who were 2nd to 4th in the Mono class and parked the red machine just past the entry to the first corner. Scary. Up at the front Morley still had his hands full keeping Harpham at bay, but each lap he was able to eke out a couple of tenths. On lap 5 Liam set the fastest lap of 1m 21.434s, only 4/10ths outside the record of Sam Moss, as he extended his lead to 1.674s. Harpham did his best to hang on as they started to encounter backmarkers but the lead continued to increase. After 9 laps Morley took the flag to win by 3.621s and extend his lead in the Super Series with Harpham once again having to settle for second spot, his eighth of the season. Jack Tritton had no answer to the pair ahead and came home a distant third, just over 7s adrift of Harpham. Moss had made some more tweaks to the carburation of his VM but was then hampered by a broken powervalve. Nevertheless, he was able to get a promising result with 4th. Gulliford dropped away from Moss after being passed on lap 2 and secured a lonely fifth spot safely clear of Kyritsis. Riley passed Hatfield on the last lap for 7th with Hulme completing the top nine.
In the F250 Mono class Platt was untroubled and with a fist in the air took the class win by 10.33s. Second place looked to be shaping up into a nice battle between Hempshall, Bliss and Cattermole. After avoiding the spinning Jade kart at the end of lap 1, they ran nose to tail until lap 4 when Bliss had his Honda engine seize again and Cattermole stopped with a fuel pump issue. That allowed Hempshall a free run to the flag for second in class and such much needed points after problems at Donington. Ben Ardern had started on row 13 and made up a lot of places on the opening lap to hold 6th place in class. After passing Super Series rival John Busby on lap 2, he pulled clear and when Bliss and Cattermole dropped out he completed the Mono class podium. Lee Plain was tagged at the bottom of the mountain on the opening lap and dropped to the back of the field. He fought his way back up the order to claim fourth in class. Richard Connick took the win in the Mono Cup by 1.034s from Chris Balderson who was hampered by a popped reed and a broken castor bar.
Race 1 Results
1st Liam Morley Anderson VM
2nd Lee Harpham MS Kart Harvey VM
3rd Jack Tritton MS Kart Harvey VM
4th Sam Moss Anderson VM
5th Andy Gulliford Anderson VM
6th Kosta Kyritsis Anderson VM
10th Paul Platt PVP Gas Gas (F250 Mono class winner)
16th Richard Connick Jade Honda (F250 Mono Cup winner)
What a difference a day makes. The threatened bad weather hit Lincolnshire early Sunday morning and steady rain preceded Race 2. With grid positions determined by the previous day’s fastest laps, Morley was on pole with Harpham alongside. Tritton and Moss were on row 2 ahead of Kyritsis and Gulliford. Hulme had already decided that track conditions were not conducive to Superkart racing and gave up his slot on row 5, leaving Platt on his own as the lead Mono driver just in front of Hempshall and Plain. Ardern was a non-starter with a gear selector problem as were Allen and Edwards after problems the day before. The pace car took the field round in worsening conditions and only did one lap before peeling off into the pitlane. As the field appeared out of Barn Corner, Morley was not in pole position and headed into the pitlane. The RTD box was full of water. When the lights went out Harpham led Tritton and the rest in a ball of spray and red rain lights into Coppice for the first time. Platt was a bit cautious due to his inability to see and Plain swept past on the run to the first corner followed by Hempshall and Cattermole. Riley dived into the pits as he hadn’t taped up the radiator and Faulkner pulled off with a waterlogged FPE engine. Up at the front Moss had taken over the lead down the Park Straight with Harpham tucked in behind and held it to the hairpin until the MS Kart slipped past. Harpham crossed the line at the end of lap 1 in horrendous conditions with Moss and Tritton trying to stay with him. Cattermole led the Monos from Plain, Hempshall and Platt with everyone trying to keep the karts pointing in the right direction particularly along the start/finish where there was a lot of standing water. Tony Keele was unfortunate to aquaplane on the standing water and spun backwards against the barrier before Coppice. Hempshall spun on the exit of the hairpin on lap 2 relinquishing second place in class. Johnny West also hit the same patch of water as Keele had done on the previous lap, but this time with more serious consequences. He careered backwards into the driverless Keele kart and the impact brought both karts back across the track. The red flags were thrown immediately as the track was blocked and Johnny was able to hop out before the leaders came round. The TSL screens showed 2 laps completed by everyone, but the race was abandoned due to the amount of water on the track and no result declared.
The weather did start to improve as Sunday morning wore on. With Bemsee doing their best to make up for lost time, races were shortened and the lunch break was postponed as more bad weather was on the way. The grid would be the same as for race 2 with Morley and Harpham on the front row. However, there were several drivers that weren’t taking part. Kosta Kyritsis had a VM engine with only one cylinder intact after the other one had turned to confetti. Carl Hulme had decided that conditions were too bad as had Rob Randall and Mark Edwards. The latter not wanting to risk further damage ahead of Assen in 5 weeks’ time. Johnny West, Tony Keele and Ross Allen all had damaged karts. The remaining drivers were given 2 warm-up laps for the delayed Race 3 on a track that was still wet in places but a lot better than earlier. Unfortunately, Chris Balderson pulled off on the warm-up lap so 21 drivers were left for the revised 10 minute duration.
When the lights went out Harpham made the best start and led through Coppice and onto the Park Straight for the first time followed by Morley. They were separated by 0.398s at the end of lap 1 with Moss in third ahead of Tritton, Hatfield and Riley. Platt was next through leading the Mono class with Hempshall tucked in behind and Plain, Cattermole and Bliss in close attendance.. Gulliford had spun and dropped to 17th while von Gerard was at the back of the field still struggling with a bent chassis from qualifying the day before. It became a three way fight for the lead on the next lap when Moss closed the gap, but Harpham still held the advantage. Just. The front two shared near identical lap times. Was Harpham going to get his first win of the season. Over the mountain for the fifth time Morley got slightly better traction and was alongside into the first part of Hall Bends looking to take the shortest route for the next left. With nowhere to go Harpham was squeezed onto the grass and across the wet kerb spinning in the process. Morley completed lap 5 just over a second clear of Moss with Harpham down in 16th place. Over the final two laps Moss started to close in on Morley and set the FL of the race on the final lap. But at the flag the gap was still 0.721s as Morley took his 10th win of the season and collected the S plate as the Super Cup winner. Moss was pleased with his runner-up spot and glad to be free of the carburation issues that have plagued his season so far. Tritton had a lonely race to third spot, 14s behind Morley and the same distance ahead of Hatfield in fifth. Gulliford had pulled through to fifth in class at the flag, with Riley picking up his best result of the season in 6th spot. Harpham was lapping at the same pace in the closing stages as he had done before the spin but was only able to gain one place in class by passing John Faulkner for 7th spot on the last lap.
In the Mono class we had a five kart train for the first 3 laps with Plain now leading the way from Platt, Cattermole, Hempshall and Bliss. Plain managed to pull away as they caught and passed Riley and when Gulliford made up ground the group became split up. Plain stretched his lead and took the class win by 4.049s to pick up the S1 plate and Super Cup for the Mono class. Platt had to be content with second but knew he had increased his Super Series lead by 5 points over the two days. Hempshall had her best weekend of the season by claiming third place 1.157s behind Platt. Bliss finally got his Honda engine to work and took the win in the Mono Cup when Cattermole dropped back with deteriorating tyres as the track was drying towards the end. With some good fortune the Superkarts were back in the paddock when the heavens opened again and the track became waterlogged. If it had come 10 minutes earlier the officials would have had no choice but to red flag the race.
Race 3 Results
1st Liam Morley Anderson VM
2nd Sam Moss Anderson VM
3rd Jack Tritton MS Kart Harvey VM
4th Tom Hatfield Anderson VM
5th Lee Plain Anderson DEA (F250 Mono class winner)
6th Paul Platt PVP Gas Gas
10th Jack Bliss Raider Honda (F250 Mono Cup winner)
Thanks to Charlie Fox of CF Photos for supplying the images.