Mattar, Alsaie steer to victory in karting

Manama : Batelco Drag 965 Racing tandem Mohammed Mattar and Khalid Alsaie eked out a narrow victory on Saturday night in the first round of the 2016/2017 Bahrain Endurance SWS Championship (BESWS) at Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC) in Sakhir.

The star pairing teamed up to win the opening three-hour challenge of the series, which featured a packed grid of 31 teams.

Mattar and Alsaie (+0.513 seconds) captured the chequered flag ahead of sister squad Batelco Drag 965 Mechanics, who were made up of Ali Baslar and Abdulla Buhindi. Zain Dangerous duo Khalid Abdulla and Essa Al Kooheji (+4.511) clinched the final podium spot.

All three leading teams completed 127 laps on the night but Batelco Racing were the quickest of the field. They had also started from pole position, after registering a best lap in qualifying of one minute 12.279 seconds, just 0.102s quicker than the Mechanics.

Racing was held along BIKC’s 1.414-kilometre Commission Internationale de Karting (CIK) track. Teams were out on track in identical 390cc RT9 Sodikarts.

Aside from overall victory, Mattar and Alsaie were also triumphant in the race’s Pro class. Baslar and Buhindi were then also winners in the Nations class, while BBK Racing’s Faisal Al Shafei and Osama Albuflasa were the winners in the Corporate category.

Completing the Pro class podium were Zain Racing’s Raed Raffii and Khalifa Al Yaqoobi in second, and Al Najma Karting Team’s Ahmed Ebrahim and Mohammed Ameen in third.

Meanwhile, Zain Dangerous’ Abdulla and Al Kooheji added to their overall podium coming second in the Nations’ category. Behind them were Batelco Drag 965 Juniors drivers Rashid Al Muammari and Hussain Hasan.

In the Corporate class, winners BBK were followed by Omantel Ozone’s Mohammed Al Kabani and Mazin Al Salmi. Third place went to BBK’s sister team BBK Online, who were composed of Nasser Al Alawi, Hamad Mattar and Ahmed Naqi. The second round of the BESWS will be another three-hour race on December 3.