Fascinating and successful karting festival closes 2022 season |10 November 2022
Bambino podium
The Seychelles Karting Association brought the 2023 racing season to a climax with the season-ending Liqui Moly-sponsored Grand Prix held at the Champions Park Raceway circuit as all drivers and categories in Seychelles raced on the same day.
With a large number of spectators, parents and supporters on hand, the drivers gave a good display of how kart racing can be both exciting, tense, dramatic and thoroughly enjoyable. Programmed for the day was the qualifying from early morning for all the classes which then led to the finals, where the top three finishers in each category received medals from Liqui Moly’s local agent representative from CSA Trading, followed by the presentation of this year’s national championship trophies and championship titles to the top drivers. A large number of parents and supporters were on hand for a barbecued lunch for all during the breaks.
The young guns
Bambino Class: The seven youngest drivers, 8–10-year-olds, drove in the first finals of the day, and in their first official race they showed how much they had learned this year. Joshua Cosgrow took the win with Noah Moulinie second and his sister Maya Moulinie third, Rocco Larue fourth, Hayden Leong Pon fifth, Hugo Patel sixth and Loïc Raoul seventh.
Loïc had a mechanical issue after the start but managed to get going again.
Joshua, son of Masters class racer Liza Rene-Cosgrow, set a fastest lap time of the day (FTD) of 43.574 seconds.
Cadets: The six young drivers aged 11 to 16+ years old ran the second final and Adam Ally took the win with Keenoh Leon Pon taking second and Rudolph Camille snatching third on the last lap from Julius Sinon who claimed fourth position. Lexcus Lui Chit Chon took fifth and Lannah Leong Pon was sixth.
Adam set the FTD of 42.258 seconds for this class.
Juniors: The regular Junior drivers were on hand to battle it out in this exciting race.
Enzo Lionnet took victory from his twin brother Delroy with Tamnay Raghwani taking a fine third place in his final appearance before going on overseas studies. Darrel Gabriel took fourth and in fifth place was Arth Shah, another driver leaving for overseas studies and he was unlucky on the day as with his speed in qualifying he was a good bet to take the win in this final, only to experience a misfiring engine after three laps.
Johan Cadeau was always in the mix but settled for sixth place. Delroy set the FTD of 42.511seconds.
The seniors
Intermediate class: With eight starters in this race, it was a race for bragging rights and Christian Bastienne took the honors as the Inter GP winner after controlling the race from pole position.
Denilson Melanie took second with a fine drive overtaking many to get this position with Eric Maillet third. Terence Anderson put up his best performance of the year with fourth place, Dean Maillet was fifth, Fabio William sixth, Carlos Quatre seventh and Jean-David Melanie eighth.
In this race Christian had opened a gap but it became more exciting at the end when he got caught up by the fast-charging Denilson and Eric but managed to hold them off.
Masters class: With the fastest karts in Seychelles taking to the track for the last time this year, the racing was going to be close and exciting.
Dave Rene won after starting on pole and led from the start, whilst Liza Rene-Cosgrow, Marc Delcy and Rennick Bonnelame challenged each other for second position in an exciting couple of laps after the start. Liza managed to take second place after her tyres warmed up due to not having done a warm up lap, with Marc third and Rennick fourth. Steven Rosalie got suck up in the battle after the start and slid off but regained control to claim fifth place. Marc was challenged by Rennick throughout but towards the end he had lost tyre pressure which led him to slide a lot.
Liza set the FTD of 34.014 seconds which was also the fastest lap time of the day.
Prize-giving ceremony
All drivers having finished on the podium during this year’s 10-round National Championship were awarded their trophies, with the champions for each class receiving the 2022 champions title. They were:
2022 Masters National champion ‒ Liza Rene-Cosgrow
2022 Intermediate Champion – Fabio Williams
2022 Junior champion – Darrel Gabriel
2022 Cadet champion – Adam Ally
2022 Bambino champion – Joshua Cosgrow
Special awards
In addition to the championship trophies, three special awards were presented.
2022 Best driver - Johan Cadeau from the Junior class
2022 Best newcomer – Adam Ally from the Academy Cadets class
2022 Best official - Tamnay Raghwani from the Junior class
Closing
Chairperson Liza Rene-Cosgrow made a closing speech to all present, thanking everyone for their support throughout this difficult post-Covid transition years, these included the members, parents, sponsors, the National Sports Council and the committee, for without them this would not be possible.
She encouraged the newcomers to take encouragement in what they have witnessed on the day in order for them to be better prepared in the coming season. She also emphasised that new sponsors were required so that the association can improve the quality and standard of equipment, the circuit and the surrounding premises mainly used as storage.
At the end of the day, it was noticeable that presently there is a lot of family involvement, support and even more so, members from the same families participating in karting, these include brother and sister Noah and Maya Moulinie; twin brothers Enzo and Delroy Lionnet; brothers Eric and Dean Maillet; Kennoh, Hayden and Lannah Leong Pon; Marc and Roland Delcy and the three generations of Renes ‒ Dave, daughter Liza and grandson Joshua.
The new season will open with the annual general meeting scheduled for the end of January 2022 where a new committee for the next three years will be elected, and in the meantime the present committee is preparing to continue work on putting some final touches to the circuit during the closed season.
Contributed
