Just like in 2006, the circuit of the Grand Ouest-Pays d'Essay had the honour of hosting the closing meeting of the FFSA showcase series. An interesting and technical track, excellent drivers, hard-fighting teams, a lot of entertainment, exciting races and the perfect organisation provided by Club K61: all the ingredients were there to make a great success of this last GPO (Grand Prix Open Karting FFSA) round. It was necessary to wait until the end of the meeting to know the name of the French KF2 Champion, Pascal Belmaaziz. Thomas Mich in KZ2 and Esteban Ocon in KF3 came to the Orne region as the favourites to the title, and indeed they left the meeting wearing the champions' crowns. As for Gabriel Aubry, Guillaume De Ridder and Anthony Abbasse, they made it a point of honour to conclude their season with a victory.

KZ2: Victory to Abbasse, Title to Mich
At Essay, Anthony Abbasse (Sodi-Maxter) displayed again his legendary determination by making the perfect weekend. During the two racing days, the 2010 French champion did not let anyone come close to the two pole positions, the two pre-finals as well as the two finals. Under constant pressure from Thomas Mich (Birel-TM) on Saturday, his performances further improved on Sunday. "During warm-up we tested a set up that paid off and I won with a pretty comfortable lead", commented Anthony, who also secured the vice champion title. In this context, Mich tried a game of bluff by not attending the pre-final, in order to preserve his tyres. Then he offered a great show by climbing his way back up to 2nd place and celebrating with style his new French champion crown.
With one of the most beautiful performances in his career, Maxime Roy (Tony-TM) completed the podium on Saturday, a result also achieved by Pierre Ragues (Sodi-Maxter), always very satisfied with his mixed programme: karting + cars at the Le Mans Series. The fight for the 3rd place in the Championship final classification between Mathieu Gaillard (Energy-TM) and Charles Fiault (Sodi-Maxter) turned to the advantage of the former. Alexandre Baron (Sodi-Maxter) was another of the great protagonists of the weekend.

KF2: Pascal Belmaaziz Won His Duels
Some infighting took place among future car racing hopefuls. It must be said that the title was at stake, so drivers were pushed to give their maximum. Already on Saturday, Pascal Belmaaziz (DR-Parilla) showed some excellent performances by going for victory in the second to last bend of the final. Waiting in ambush, he intelligently took advantage of the fight between Anthoine Hubert (Sodi-Parilla) and the Belgian Guillaume De Ridder (Kosmic-Vortex). The following day, Belmaaziz conquered a place of honour, which was enough for him to win his second national title, two years after the one conquered in KF3. This time, De Ridder confirmed he was the fastest of the overall meeting and won ahead of Léo Roussel (Sodi-Parilla), who had recovered well after his mistake on Saturday. Denis Dupont (Tony-Vortex), another Belgian driver, completed this last podium of 2011, a result achieved by Rémy Deguffroy (Tony-Vortex) on Saturday. Victor Sendin (Tony-Vortex), who was the leader before this meeting, was the big loser of this Normandy round, falling down to third in the final classification behind Belmaaziz and De Ridder.

KF3: Aubry Surprises, Ocon Confirms
After passing from Cadet to KF3 just a few weeks ago, Gabriel Aubry (Birel-TM) came to Essay with a priority goal: preparing for his 2012 season. And he left with a double victory! These two victories did not just happen by accident, considering that he was the fastest on the track. After driving magnificently on Saturday (pole position, victories in the pre-final and final), he was under pressure from excellent drivers such as Esteban Ocon (FA Kart-Vortex), Jérémy Demarque (Sodi-Parilla), and Valentin Naud (Tony-Vortex) on Sunday. But he did not feel intimidated when he had this talented trio behind him and went brilliantly for his second victory.
Esteban Ocon added two second places to his stunning 2011 list of achievements and logically conquered his third French champion title. It is indeed an awesome result at just 15! This round also saw Bryan Elpitiya (Zanard-Parilla) on Saturday and then François Becamel (Kosmic-Parilla) celebrate their first GPO podium. Though less powerful than he was in August at Laval, Etienne Mordret (Zanardi-Parilla) scored enough points to conclude 2nd in the Championship classification, ahead of the two Sodi-Parilla karts driven by Paolo Besancenez and Hubert Petit. Dorian Boccolacci (Birel-TM) and Valentin Moineault (Sodi-Parilla) had a more difficult end of championship.