Ashkanani claims win

Manama : Zaid Ashkanani kept his title ambitions alive after winning race one yesterday in the sixth and final round of the 2015/2016 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East, held as part of National Racing Festival (NRF) at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.

Also in the NRF, Shaikh Salman bin Isa bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa captured the leading grid position in round six of the BIC 2,000cc Challenge, Mishal Alneaimi continued his season dominance with pole in round three of the Bahrain Superbike Championship (BSBK) and Tim Attwood was best in qualifying in the season-opening round of the Bahrain Motorcycle Racing (BMR) 600.

The NRF continues today with a total of seven races on the cards with the action from 9am to 5pm and all welcome with tickets available at the gate priced at BD2.

In the Porsche GT3 Cup opening race, Ashkanani started on the front row from second on the grid. He managed to quickly dive into the lead in the first lap and proceeded to control the race and completed the 12-lap sprint around BIC’s 5.412-kilometre Grand Prix track in 25 minutes 10.891 seconds for his first victory of the season.

Schmidt, who is the championship leader, put Ashkanani under intense pressure in the final stages of the race and was classified a mere 0.267s behind. Despite being the runner-up, Schmidt remains the favourite to clinch the drivers’ overall crown. He goes into the season’s final race Saturday with a 24-point lead over Ashkanani, while Pole-sitter Charlie Frijns of Qatar claimed third place 10.048 seconds from the victor.

The top three overall out of the 11 cars were also the winners in the Gold class. 

The Silver category was won by Prince Saud Al Faisal ahead of Wolfgang Triller, while the Bronze was claimed by Rob Frijns. Shaikh Jaber bin Ali Al Khalifa of Team Bahrain finished second in their category, while Fawaz Algosaibi was third.

After a long, competitive and enthralling campaign, the final outcome of the driver’s championship across all three individual categories will be decided today.

Race two is scheduled for 11.45am and qualifying will be held shortly prior at 10.25am.

Meanwhile, Shaikh Salman claimed what is surprisingly his first pole of the season in the BIC 2,000cc Challenge and heading into round six with a comfortable lead on the points standings, Shaikh Salman started things off today without participating in practice but managing to outpace the rest of the 10-car field in qualifying.

Competing along BIC’s 2.55-kilometre Inner Circuit, the former champion registered a fastest lap of 1:18.047 in his Honda CIVIC to go atop the timesheet, followed by Mohammed Faqihi (+1.584) also driving a CIVIC in second with Alex Longden (+1.644) in the BMW 3 Series/F20C third.

Both the round’s races in the 2,000cc will be held today, with race one at 3pm and race two at 4.10pm.

In the BSBK, Alneaimi maintained his impressive form with the best times in both qualifying and practice from a 16-rider field and raced to pole with a fastest lap of 1:08.154 around the Inner Track. Fahad Alsuwaidi (+2.593) was second with Ali Al Shammari (+3.572) third.