THE 2002 karting season came to an end last Sunday at the Champions Park Raceway, Roche Caiman, with the season-ending nine-race Grand Prix sponsored by communications company Airtel.

As expected, the competition attracted a good number of drivers and the day was filled with good and fast driving.

With the Cadet and Formula A titles having already been sewn up by Marcus Dubignon and Dave Rene respectively, only the Junior class awaited its winner.

Rene, a six-time Formula A champion in as many years but who wasn't lucky in the last two races as his engine blew up on both occasions, was a par above the rest of field in Sunday's 25-lap final, clocking 11 minutes 56.71 seconds to win the Formula A category.

"Like I have said before, I was competing against time because I had remained unchallenged throughout the whole race. But I am very happy that for the sixth consecutive year, I have been able to win the Formula A championship,” said Rene who also recorded the fastest lap of the day with an impressive clocking of 27.72 seconds.

John Simon followed Rene in second position in 12 minutes 12.34 seconds, while young and talented Joel Lau-Tee had to settle for third position with 12 minutes 29.61 seconds.

Nelwyn Pierre, who has made a lot of improvement during the year, won the Junior category race which attracted only four drivers. Pierre’s time at the finish line was 5 minutes 55.29 seconds, 2.33 seconds faster than that of Peter Fred who took a surprising second place in 5 minutes 57.62 seconds.

Third position went to steady female driver Samantha Matombé in 6 minutes 18.01 seconds.

As for outright favourite Alex Chang-Sam, who at the start of the day was in the driver’s seat of the championship table and needed just one point to claim his second consecutive title, he was unable to complete the 10 laps after encountering problems with his chain just before the final lap.

Because Chang-Sam had completed nine of the 10 laps at the time the incident happened and with a good lead over the other drivers, he was given enough points to achieve his feat of lifting the title a second consecutive time.

Up-and-coming Rudy Joseph dominated the Cadet category after newly-crowned Cadet champion Marcus Dubignon had to abandon the race because of a mechanical problem.

Joseph took 6 minutes 10.72 seconds to complete the race. Stephen Emmanuel (6 minutes 11.32 seconds) and Daniel Cétoupe (6: 11.32)  took second and third positions respectively.

Joshua Gopal was voted best driver of the day while Rudy Joseph clinched the prize for the best newcomer.

The prize-giving ceremony took place right after the Grand Prix and all podium finishers for the 2002 season received a trophy presented by Mr Xavier Chang-Sam, representative of Airtel.