IT was a night of close and intense racing in some quarters as the First round of the GT Motorsports Georgetown Grand Prix took place on Saturday evening.
A constant battle ensued throughout the evening with several newcomers staking their claim to the various championship titles early.

One such competitor is Gianni Carpenter, 125cc first round Champion driver and current leader. Carpenter’s 52 points is one more than current second placed Faraud Mohamed, with Rayden Persaud further back in third with 47 points. Elan Rahaman and John Phang are tied on 40 points for fourth with last year’s winner Mikhail Persaud yet to score a point.
In the first junior race, it was a battle to the first hairpin and a tangle of karts. Elan Rahaman emerged winner ahead of Mohamed and Carpenter. Race two saw the usual reverse 50% inverted grid which meant that Carpenter started on pole which he carefully converted into his first win of the night ahead of Mohamed and Persaud. The final race of the night for that class was where things were hottest with Rahaman leading for most of the way before kart failure saw him relinquish the lead. The race was eventually won by Persaud with Pure Racing’s John Phang picking up his first podium of the night ahead of Mohamed.

In the Senior 125cc, the battle was even more intense with Persaud, Phang and Rahaman each elevating themselves to match the touring posse of Trinidad’s Zachary Boodram and Kristian Boodhoosingh. Starting from Pole, Persaud was untouched in this race, racing from flag to flag untouched with Kristian Boodhoosingh second and Zachary Boodram third. Race two saw the inverted grid and Boodoosingh pull off a blistering launch to take the second ahead of Jhon Phang and his brother Matthew, sponsored by First Global Money. Race three, however, belonged to Persaud, ahead of Boodram and Matthew after race leader Boodhoosingh, benefitting from a tremendous start, did not finish the race due to a racing incident.

After Saturday’s round, Persaud, who picked up the class champion for the round, leads with 50 points, ahead of Boodram (45), Boodhoosingh (43), John Phang (39), Matthew Phang (33), Raymond Baksh and Elan Rahaman (18).

In the Masters 125cc class, a win a piece for Shan Seejattan and Haniff Mohamed in races one and two meant that race three would be the decider and champion driver of the night, Seejattan shone. A crisp under–over move through the final section of the track was how he took the lead from Mohamed and never looked back; winning the final race. He now leads the newly instituted championship with 68 points to Mohamed’s 61 and Mahendra Boodhoo’s 30.

Easy Cup Super was the Stefan Jeffrey show as he picked up two wins from three races to take the Champion Driver trophy and the championship lead with 60 Points. Steven Nobrega, finding himself on the second step of the podium on all three occasions, is second with 54 points, with third place in the championship being held by Brian Ten Pow (42). Ten Pow picked up two third place finishes on the night. The other winner, Dharmendra Dharmo is fourth in the standings with (37), his competition number as well, with newcomer Sachin Narine on 25 points, Rameez Mohamed on 16, Mike Gonzales on 8 and Nirmal Sukhram on 6.

In the Sunburst 60cc Kids cup, the rivalry was between Jeremy Ten Pow and Nathan Rahaman, both having scored wins in the first and second races respectively. The final race would be the decider of the championship honours for the night and Jeremy took off like a rocket, driving like a man possessed to put distance between himself and Rahaman. While he managed to have some amount of comfort, his kart failed to go the distance, falling out on the last race and leaving Rahaman to an easy win and the championship. Nathan leads with 68 points to Jeremy’s 53, with Justin Ten Pow, who picked up a third and second place on the night, on 45 points. Paige Mendonca who picked up two thirds is fourth in the standings on 42 points with Josh Khan, who joined the fray this year on 32 points.

In the 60cc baby cup, it was Nicholas Sawh who stole the show and the hearts of those watching when he picked up two wins on the night. In a race where the winner was decided on the fastest lap rather than the first across the line manner, it was Sawh who was able to go quickest on two occasions with Ben Phang winning the other. Caleb Paul picked up two second and one third place finish. Sawh’s 65 points leads the championship with Phang on 58 and Paul on 51.