Karting - Dave Rene strikes back in Masters, Christian Bastienne wins to extend Intermediate lead |12 April 2022

Last Sunday’s round 2 of the Masters (SF1) and Intermediate (SF2) class karting championship produced some very interesting racing in both the senior categories at the Champions Park Raceway, Roche Caïman.

In the Masters class, Dave Rene struck back to win the final after coming under the usual pressure of Liza Rene-Cosgrow who had started on pole position. Liza was swamped by Dave as the lights went out at the start and got by at the first right hander.

Putting on constant pressure on Dave, Liza was just unable to pass and only a mistake could have helped but it never happened and she settled for second position.

Behind them Marc Delcy had to deal with the constant challenge of Rennick Bonnelame from lap one until the final lap. As the race developed, Rennick, who started in fourth place, crept closer to Marc and at one point came level to overtake but with his tyres overheating and losing grip he just could not make that decisive move. This went on till the final lap where Marc grabbed third position with Rennick fourth.

Steven Rosalie decided not the start the final after his kart developed brake problems and some other minor technical issues.

Dave ended the day with the fastest lap time (FTD) of 33.050 seconds.

In the Intermediate class, Christian Bastienne dominated the field by opening such a big margin that he could relax in the end to let his two rivals finish close to him across the line.

Eric Maillet drove well to take second place whilst his main challenger was his brother Dean Maillet who took third position. Both drivers challenged each other the course of the 10-lap final but kept it clean between them throughout.

Behind them there was a tight battle between Fabio Williams, Jean-David Melanie and Mitra Labrosse. Here the more experienced Mitra calmy got past the boys before the end to claim fourth place, with Jean-David fifth and Fabio sixth. Further back, Terence Anderson moved up to seventh place and Loïc Scharfenberg eighthh whilst the luckless Denilson Melanie who was moving up in the beginning of the race had to drop out with a puncture.

Jean-David Melanie set the fastest Intermediates time of the day of 44.350 seconds.

The championship is now giving the driver from each category extra bonus point for setting the fastest time of the day (FTD) in the finals at each round.

The championship table after round 2 is as follows in Masters class, both Dave Rene and Liza Rene-Cosgrow have 44 points, followed by Marc on 28, Rennick on 24 and Steven with 0. In the Intermediate class, Christian leads with 43 points, Loïc has 30, Dean 28, Eric 22, Fabio 18, Jean-David 17, Mitra and Carlos Renaud on 12 each, Denilson 10 and Terence 8.

The next round for the seniors is scheduled for Sunday April 24.

Contributed