Karting: Round 6 |24 August 2023
The Intermediate ‘A’ class race
Major shake-up in championship standings after six rounds
There have been some major changes in the championship race to the title this year in many classes after the completion of six of the scheduled eight rounds.
Moreover, with only the best six results to be counted at the end of the season, dropped points will now be coming into force from the coming rounds and this will be crucial to those who are vying for the top positions.
Racing on the short circuit for a change, last Sunday saw the Masters and the Intermediate ‘A’ class contest their sixth round and at the end of the day the championship table looked completely different.
In the Masters class, Dave Rene took another victory over Marc Delcy in second place and Steven Rosalie in third. In what was expected to be a tight race with a lot of overtaking due to the short nature of the old circuit, turned out just the opposite after Liza Rene-Cosgrow, who was clearly the fastest in qualifying, could not get her engine to fire up for the pre-final and without enough time to get it rectified had to sit out the final too.
Rennick Bonnelame who had finished third in the pre-final, also dropped out for the final after suspecting that his motor was not going to finish the 12-lap final, whilst Fabio Williams ran into further mechanical issues soon after qualifying.
With this result Dave took the victory and the fastest lap of the day of 26.662 seconds and thus extended his lead to 40 points over Liza (100) who still holds second place. Delcy is third on 76 points, followed by Bonnelame on 52, and both Rosalie and Williams on 14 each.
In the Intermediate ‘A’ class, Denilson Melanie showed that he is the master of this class when it comes to the short circuit, as he dominated the qualifiers, pre-finals and final to take a popular victory.
Christian Bastienne had no answer and had to settle for second best but the points gained elevated him to the top of the championship table, whilst Carlos Quatre put up another good performance to claim third place.
The eight-kart race stood up to the script of being tight and close as nearly all the karts raced bumper to bumper for the entire 12-lap final, however there were no drama as the runners did not take any risk in trying any overtaking moves.
Behind the top three was Eric Maillet in fourth and he also clocked the fastest lap time of 36.087 seconds for his class. Mitra Labrosse was fifth, Jean-David Melanie sixth, Dean Maillet seventh and Terence Anderson eighth.
Bastienne has now taken the championship lead (94) but just by one point ahead of Eric Maillet (93) with Quatre third on 86, Denilson Melanie on 85, Labrosse on 69, Jean-David Melanie on 63, Dean Maillet on 60 and Anderson on 30.
Contributed