Karting |30 June 2023

Masters podium (Photo: Contributed)

Rene, Bastienne win senior round 4 races

Dave Rene (Masters) and Christian Bastienne (Intermediate A) took victory in round four of the seniors karting championship last Sunday at the Champions Park Raceway, Roche Caïman.

In the Masters class, Dave Rene (OTK Tony Kart) took a decisive victory to put him back at the top of the championship table. In the final, and having started from pole position, he had a massive task of holding back both Liza Rene-Cosgrow (OTK Kosmic) and Marc Decly (Van Kart) especially after the pre-final when both drivers got ahead of him and he had to fight it out to win. With tyre wear becoming a serious problem due to the bad condition of the track surface, grip level began to decrease as the race got on. Liza harried Dave for the whole 10-lap final but with no grip, she could not make a pass and took second place, whilst Marc also had the same problem and he had to fend off Rennick Bonnelame (SPRINT F93) to claim third place. Rennick put up some fast times to claim fourth place, but he too had to ease off towards the end to conserve his tyres.

Dave set the fastest Masters lap time of the day of 35:240 seconds and now leads the table with 88 points followed by Liza with 82, Marc with 44, Rennick with 40 and the absent Fabio Williams with 14.

In the Intermediate A class, Christian Bastienne (BIZ) took a convincing victory which propelled him from last place in the championship table to third. He dominated both the qualifying and pre-final and only a mistake would have ruled him out for victory on the day.

Behind him a close race had developed between Mitra Labrosse, Carlos Quatre and Eric Maillet with the three trying to make passes at every corner. Eric was the fastest of them all and he moved up the field from a lowly starting grid position by overtaking other drivers at every lap, however having got past Carlos for third place he could not manage to get past Mitra, who in turn held her nerves to take second place, with Eric third, and in the process setting the fastest final lap time for the Intermediate A class of 44:169 seconds.

Carlos settled for fourth position with Jean-David Melanie, another of the fastest drivers on the day, taking fifth place, Dean Maillet was sixth, Denilson Melanie seventh and Terence Anderson eighth.

Eric now leads the table for the first time with 68 points, followed by Carlos with 66, both Mitra and Christian on 51, Denilson on 50, Jean-David on 40, Dean on 36 and Terence on 22.

It is all very close and as the season moves into the second half it is expected that the racing will be more intense leading to the Super Final in November.

Contributed