National Racing Day begins

Manama: Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir hosts tomorrow an exciting edition of National Racing Day, featuring three of Bahrain’s top motor racing championships - the BIC 2,000cc Challenge, the Bahrain Superbike Championship (BSBK) and the Bahrain Motorcycle Racing (BMR) 600.

The meeting has been organised by BIC in cooperation with the Bahrain Motor Federation.

Racing gets underway at 3.35pm with a BSBK Practice, followed at 4.20pm by the BMR 600 Practice and at 4.45pm by the 2,000cc Practice. Qualifying for BSBK is set for 5.25pm followed by Qualifying at 5.50pm for the BMR 600 and Qualifying for the BIC 2,000cc at 6.15pm.

Race 1 for the BSBK is at 7.15pm and Race 2 at 8.55pm. The BMR 600, Race 1 is at 7.44pm and Race 2 at 9.24pm. Races in both the BSBK and BMR 600 will be held over 11 laps.

In the BIC 2,000cc Challenge, Race 1 is set for 8.15pm and Race 2 at 9.55pm as the final event of the night. The 2,000cc sprints are both over 12 laps.

The 2,000cc Challenge will be the seventh and penultimate round of its 2015/2016 season, while BSBK will be staging the fourth meeting of its current debut season and the BMR 600 holding round two of its 2016 campaign. The BIC 2,000cc Challenge is a professionally run, low-cost championship that features some of the top racers in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Gulf competing in two-litre cars and allowed only minimal modifications to ensure a level playing field.

Former champion Shaikh Salman bin Isa bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa (Honda CIVIC) (239 points) leads the standings with 239 points after winning six of 12 races and is followed by Alex Longden (BMW 3 Series) (188) in second and Hussain Karimi (Honda CRX) (163) third, who are expected to lead a strong field tomorrow. In the BSBK, dominating has been Qatari rider Mishal Alneaimi who has won all six races so far against 15 other riders from Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, the UK and Bahrain.

The BSBK is the first organised motorcycle championship in Bahrain. Riders compete on identical Ducati 899 Panigale sports bikes.

In the BMR 600, Chris Rabie will be hoping to continue from where he left off in the previous round – on top of the podium celebrating a double victory.

Gates open at 1pm and all are welcome with tickets available at the gate, BD2 adults and BD1 for children.