Manzur misses out on French title after contentious official decisions

British karting ace Kazeem Manzur became Vice Champion of the 2007 French Championship Elite Class (KF1), narrowly losing out on the overall title in contentious circumstances to Frenchman Anthony Abbasse.

Sixteen year old Kazeem went into the final round of the the French KF1 Karting Championship, held at an extremely hot Lyon, with a slender lead over his rivals in the title standings. The omens for a trouble-free weekend did not look good when during Friday free practise, parts of the circuit’s tarmac began breaking up. The championship officials halted practise in the early afternoon to minimise damage to the circuit, which hindered Kazeem as he had neither seen nor driven the circuit before.

Thankfully the organisers repaired the damaged sections of the track overnight and the meeting went ahead as planned. Sensationally Kazeem put his kart on pole position during qualifying on Saturday morning and in Heat 1 he capitalized on his pole position to win the race. Heat 2 would be altogether more dramatic. After being shoved wide by a competitor early in the race, Kazeem charged magnificently through the field to lie in fifth position. Battling for fourth, Kazeem looked to have made a clean move up the inside of the fourth placed runner, who decided to close the door into the corner. Kazeem escaped unscathed but the other competitor span off the track.

To the dismay of Kazeem and his Zanardi team, the officials saw fit to exclude him from the heat, which seemed extremely harsh given the nature of the incident and the Championship circumstances. Undeterred, Kazeem battled through to finish second in the third and final heat, aided by some canny set-up changes made by the team to allow for the characteristics of some corners having changed dramatically by the freshly laid tarmac.

Rather than the pole that Kazeem would likely have enjoyed had he not been excluded from Heat 2, the young Brit started from fifth in the Pre Final and was punted off the circuit on the opening lap by championship rival Anthony Abbasse’s team mate Florian Alfano. Dead last at the end of the opening lap, Kazeem displayed his insatiable competitiveness by storming through the field at an astonishing rate to finish in second position.

With a slender two point championship lead over Pre Final winner Abbasse, Kazeem knew nothing less than victory would guarantee the title. Unbelievably, lightning struck twice on Kazeem in the Main Final, for after making a great start from the disadvantageous second position grid slot, he was pushed off the circuit again on the opening lap and wound up last! His tenacious spirit still unbroken, Kazeem drove heroically once again through the field all the way back up to second position. His valiant efforts however would be in vain as rival Abbasse had established a comfortable lead in the race to ultimately win the Final and the title by eight points (255 V 247).

Kazeem has little time to dwell on the controversial decisions of the French Officials in Lyon as he focuses his attentions on the final round of the European Karting Championships this weekend (03-05 August) before testing extensively ahead of the World Championship in Mariembourg, Belgium, on September 23rd 2007.

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