Drag racing season kicks off tonight

Manama : The world-class quarter-mile drag strip at BIC in Sakhir comes alive tonight as the 2016-17 Bahrain Drag Racing Championships gets underway with the first of five rounds of heated competition.

This is the 12th season of the region’s most competitive and highly sought-after drag racing series and as a member of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Worldwide Network, BIC’s hosting of the championship allows it to fly the prestigious NHRA banner.

It also awards champion drivers a “Wally” trophy, which is a major accomplishment given only to competitors who are winners in NHRA-sanctioned events.

Two new categories have been added for the new year to bring the total number of competition classes to 15. They are the Index 8.50 and Index 9.50, and their inclusion makes it 11 categories for cars and four for bikes.

The other cars classes include the Street 4 and 6, the Outlaw Front-Wheel-Drive (FWD), the Super Street 6-Cylinder, the Outlaw 6-Cylinder, the Street V8, the Super Street V8, the Outlaw 10.5, the Pro Mod and the Index 10.50 and the bikes classes include the Street Bike 9.50, Street Bike, Super Street Bike and Pro Bike.

Fahad Taqi BDRC president commented ahead of the upcoming season-opener: “We are greatly looking forward to this new campaign and we have a lot of international names taking part this year to go along with some of the Gulf’s best drag racers, along with some ne  cars, so the level of drag racing is going to be very high and exciting along with the two new categories introduced.”