Porsche GT3 Cup, MRF Challenge to open new seasons

Manama : The highly anticipated Bahrain Motorsport Festival, taking place from November 17 to 19 at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), will include the season-opening rounds of two acclaimed supporting championships.

Kick starting the 2016/2017 campaigns as part of the festival’s packed racing programme are the regionally popular one-make series, the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East, and the India-based single-seater championship, the MRF Challenge. In the Porsche GT3 Cup, top names from across the region and beyond will be battling it out in identical Porsche GT3 Cup cars.

The season-opener will be the first of three race weekends in the new season scheduled to be held in Bahrain. Round five will be back in Sakhir in March of next year and followed by the season-finale in April in support of the F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.

BIC is also staging a pre-season test this Friday and Saturday. Aside from Sakhir, the championship will also visit other top GCC tracks such as Dubai Autodrome for rounds two and three in December and January, and Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi for round four in February.

In the MRF Challenge, the field will be competing in one of Asia’s fastest racing cars, the MRF F2000, which has been redesigned for the new season. The car is powered by a two-litre Mountune Duratec engine with a max power of 250bhp.

Bahrain is the first of four rounds in the MRF’s 2016/2017 campaign, with Round two in Dubai in December, round three in New Delhi and the season finale in Chennai in February.

The Bahrain Motorsport Festival will be headlined by the FIA World Endurance Championship’s (WEC) Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain and the CIK-FIA Karting World Championship and CIK-FIA Karting Junior World Championship.