On the weekend that saw "The Diving Bell and the Buttefly" win the Best Director award for Julian Schnabel at the Cannes Film Festival, the film's title would have been an apt description of Sunday's racing on the Essonne track. Indeed, a team of deep sea divers might have come in handy during the first round of the 2007 French Minime/Cadet class championship that took place under a deluge in Angerville. But the foul weather didn't prevent Julie's pink butterflies from settling on the karts of a good half of the young drivers' who entered the event.

In the Minime category, more than half the girls who were racing had the famous butterfly decals either on their kart or on their helmet, which shows just how appreciative they are of Julie's story and of the action of the Julie Tonelli Children's Foundation. Lucile Cypriano was the quickest young lady of the day, finishing 13th in the final, with Séphora Lorenzo not far behind, whereas Ingrid Girard, Cécile Martini and Charlotte Morelli just missed the cut in qualifying. Anthoine Hubert was the jury's choice for courage prize. After battling like a trooper against the elements and his rivals he fell victim to a spluttering engine in the final laps of the final race. He was managing to hold everyone off and might have hung on to 3rd place had the engine not given out just 100 metres from the flag. Cheered on by the crowd in the main stand, he pushed his kart the rest of the way over the line. It pays to persevere! The award for best decor went to Thomas Ferrando. He must have spent hours with his team to get his kart decorated with a beautiful montage made from dozens of fragments of Julie stickers. The result of this painstaking work was a breathtakingly artistic design. In the Cadet class, drivers who were in the running for victory, such as Nelson De Carvalho, the 2006 Minime champion, and Pascal Belmaaziz, 2nd in the 2006 Bridgestone Cup, went out in the 1st lap of the final. After having been in the lead for much of the race, Mathieu Jaminet took the chequered flag in 2nd place and stays in the lead in the championship standings thanks to a win in his prefinal.

On the same programme as the Minime/Cadet championships, the Auto Sport Academy was out in force in Angerville for round 5 of the 7-race Formule Kart season. The Auto Sport Academy has been supporting the Julie Tonelli Children's Foundation since last April. This season all Formula Campus karts are sporting a small fluorescent pink butterfly on their rear view mirror. For the first time at Angerville, it was the turn of the Auto Sport Academy karts to join the movement by sporting Julie's colours. The news that this respected sports organisation is supporting the Julie Tonelli Children's Fund is an endorsement of which we are proud. Over and above the sporting aspects of its work, the Auto Sport Academy sets out to promote a sense of values in the young drivers it trains for Formula Kart racing. According to kart sports director Frédéric Champagnac, integrity, human skills, a serious approach and professional behaviour are items to which as much attention must be given as pure driving skills. Fifteen French drivers, a Russian and a Bermudan, make up a cosmopolitan team for 2006/2007. Clément Sudre currently leads the championships ahead of Yann Zimmer and Jeoffrey Rouchy.

News from the other side of the world: Tonelli drivers at the World Cup for KF1, in Suzuka, Japan. Five times world champion Davide Fore' was 3rd fastest in the time trials and came 4th in both the prefinal and final races. Belgian hopeful Benjamin Bailly came 3rd in the prefinal but had to make do with 7th place in the final. Finally, an honourable mention for a valiant Nathanaël Berthon, the only French driver to make the trip, and who is working so hard with the Braun Racing team in order to tame the new 2007 propulsion units.