Karting |18 July 2023

Dave Rene and Christian Bastienne claim Round 5

With the senior classes having reached half-way through the 2023 karting championship season last Sunday at the Champions Park Raceway, Roche Caïman, the racing is now becoming more intense and at times very cagey too.

In last Sunday’s round, Dave Rene (OTK Tony Kart) in the Masters and Christian Bastienne (SKA BIZ) in the Intermediate ‘A’ class took victory which has put them both in a solid position going into the second half of their respective championships.

In the Masters class, Liza Rene-Cosgrow (OTK Kosmic) proved to be the fastest in qualifying and won the pre-final with Dave close behind, while Marc Delcy (Van Kart) had an unavoidable clash with Rennick Bonnelamme (Sprint F93) on the opening lap which cost both of them time even if they got going again, with Marc finishing third and Rennick fourth.

With Liza starting on pole position for the final and Dave taking up P2, Marc P3 and Rennick P4, the grid got off to a late start to the line by Liza which gave Dave a quicker getaway as he dived into the inside of the first corners after Liza drifted wide after missing her braking point and though made slight contact, took the lead, whilst behind Marc and Rennick also tried to dive into the same space with Marc heading off Rennick.

Liza responded by hounded Dave right through the 10-lap final, but with her tyre grip level falling off towards the last part she could not make the move to repass but made a near photo finish as they crossed the line with Dave slightly ahead. Marc settled for third, but Rennick had a high-speed spin into the hairpin complex and stalled his kart, but with the aid of his pit crew got going again to finish fourth. Dave set the fastest lap time of the day of 35.618 seconds and with this win he now leads the table (114 pts) and has a healthy 14-point lead over Liza with 100, Marc with 58, Rennick with 52 and the absent Fabio Williams with 14. These points will however change as each driver will have to drop points before the season ends.

In the Intermediate ‘A’ class Christian Bastienne (SKA BIZ) made his intention known as early as qualifying, where he was fastest and also won the pre-final.

The only other drivers to challenge him were the Maillet brothers ̵ Eric and Dean.

Therefore, he started on pole position and made a good start but had Dean on his bumper all the way round the first laps with Eric doing the same to Denilson Melanie. However, after the first half of the race, Jean-David Melanie suddenly came alive and started overtaking those in front of him to move up to third by the end. At the back of the field, Terence Anderson gave Carlos Quatre a masterclass of overtaking and then being repassed for nearly every lap of the entire 10-lap final, but in the end, Carlos slipped ahead of him just before the line to take seventh with Terence eighth. But at the head of the field, Christian went on to take a well-celebrated victory, with Dean second and Jean-David third. Eric could not get past the speedy Jean-David and settled for fourth, with Denilson fifth, Mitra Labrosse sixth overall. It was not surprising to see that Jean-David had clocked the fastest Intermediate lap time of the day of 44:619 seconds.

Eric (80) leads the Inter ‘A’ table with just 4 points ahead of Christian on 76, with Carlos on 72, Denilson on 60, Mitra on 59, Jean-David on 55, Dean on 54, and Terence on 26. In this class with the points being very close and also with dropped points by the end of the season, the championship is very much wide open.

Contributed