Alneaimi, Rabie shine

Manama : Mishal Alneaimi and Chris Rabie each completed a clean sweep of their respective seasons, each of which came to a close this past weekend at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.

Alneaimi secured a fantastic double in the sixth and final round of the 2015/2016 Bahrain Superbike Championship to win all 12 races of the inaugural season.

Rabie, meanwhile, took the chequered flag in both races of the championship finale in the 2016 Bahrain Motorcycle Racing (BMR) 600.

Alneaimi was in a class of his own all season in the BSBK, in which all participants were competing on identical Ducati 899 Panigale sports bikes and regularly winning races by gaps of 10 seconds or more.

The Qatari captured pole position with a fastest lap of one minute 07.745 seconds and nearly two seconds quicker than his closest rival.

In race one, Alneaimi (12 minutes 48.023 seconds) was a comfortable winner and was 16.053 seconds ahead of runner-up and compatriot Fahad Al Suwaidi, while Ali Al Shammari (+22.825) made it an all-Qatari podium.

Rounding out the top eight were Ali Adiby (Bahrain, +34.772), Ibrahim Al Sharidah (Saudi Arabia, +34.787), Rayad Alemadi (Qatar, +36.171), Ian Charles (UK, +37.620) and Nasir Hussein (India, +1:05.392).

In race two, Alneaimi (12:52.738) continued his fine form cruising to first place overall, with the podium completed by Al Suwaidi (+9.979) in second and Al Shammari (+14.897) third.

Fourth to eight places went to Pearce (+23.691), Adiby, followed by Al Sharidah (+29.074), Alemadi (+29.566) and Charles (+40.321) respectively.

In the BMR 600, Rabie enjoyed his own impressive double after qualifying on pole with a best lap of 1 minute 18.100 seconds and clinched (14:32.120) the race ahead of Harry Johnston (+3.797) not far behind in second place with Martijn Heemskirk (+21.718) completing the podium places.

Rabie (14:40.222) completed the double in race two with a dominant victory over the 11 laps, well ahead of runner-up Heemskirk (+25.273), while David Wynne (+31.429) was third in the six-rider field.

The result earned Rabie eight victories from as many races to end his campaign in the 2015/2016 season, which was the second in the BMR 600.

Following all the races, the winners were awarded their respective trophies during a podium ceremony.