Karting - Ladies take the limelight of the Mid-Season GP |05 August 2019

The winners in a souvenir photo

This year’s Mid-Season Kart Grand Prix made history in the ladies’ category, the Seychelles Formula Women class, with a full grid of eight drivers competing, a number that was never achieved in the past. This show that there are more women taking to the sport, and it is hoped the championship will be highly competitive in the near future.

With all the drivers arriving at the circuit nervously looking up into the skies after close to two previous cancellations due to bad weather, they were happy to see perfect weather for racing.

The SFW class took centre stage on the day, where together with the regular women drivers, four new young lady drivers who were in training since early this year made their debut, and they did not disappoint.

In the grand final of 12 laps, Liza Rene-Cosgrow completed a perfect score of four wins from four to take victory. She was followed by Mitra Labrosse in second place, Louisa Lafortune was third and Philippa Samson fourth. Behind them came the newcomers with Kerry-Anne Bonte fifth, Steffi Sopa sixth, Rosemary Marguerite seventh and Jasmine Hoareau eighth.

As the race got underway with Liza on pole, Mitra in second challenged her for the first five laps, but as they started battling past the lapped karts the gap between the two grew, whilst Louisa now in third, started closing up. Philippa who was making ground in fourth was severely delayed with back markers and some late calls from the flag marshals which put her under pressure from Kerry-Anne, but her experience paid off in the end. Steffi and Rosemary battled together, whilst Jasmine had a couple of spins to drop her down. In the end it was a “win-win” situation for all the ladies in this class that produced a thrilling race.

In the junior SF5 class, Dhruvil Vadhrodia, starting from pole position, took victory ahead of Graig Laporte, with Ronan Varsani third.

In the SF6 class, Art Shah took the win with Tamnay Ragwani second and Marcus Samson third.

In the senior SF4 class, Cedric Ah-Time won from another newcomer Carlos Renaud with Lopez Anacoura third. Carlos is another who has been training since early this year, and this was a marvelous debut for him. There will be another newcomer entering the class soon.

In the SF3 division, Denilson Melanie won with Philippa Samson taking second place and Loïc Scharfenberg third.

In SF2, Damian Bonnelame beat his brother Rennick for first place, while Dean Germain took third.

In the premier class SF1, Dave Rene was given a hard time to fend off Liza’s challenge to win the final, with Roland Delcy taking third place.

Prizes were presented at the end to all the podium finishers in a Formula 1 style presentation, something the SKA is going to perfect once it’s viewing pavilion and podium is completed.

In all it was a perfect day, where the ladies could say that they were all winners.

Contributed