Karting sprint battles resume at Bahrain Karting Sprint Championship

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A packed grid of more than two dozen of the Kingdom’s up-and-coming young racers is set to feature at Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC) for the fourth round of the 2022 Bahrain Rotax MAX Challenge (BRMC)—the region’s leading national karting championship.

The BRMC will be taking place as part of the Bahrain Karting Sprint Championship (BKSC), which will also see action in the highly competitive arrive-and-drive Bahrain Sprint Sodi W Series (BSSWS).

BIKC will host all the racing in both events tomorrow from 10 am until 4 pm.

The participants will be battling it out along BIKC’s 1.414-kilometre CIK-FIA track.

Fourteen contenders will be vying for glory in the BRMC’s Senior MAX class.

They include the BirelArt Bahrain quartet of Shaikh Haya bint Duaij bin Salman Al Khalifa, Fahad Alkhaled, Fahad Al Muqla, and Lewis Smith.

Forza Bahrain Racing have eight drivers in the category, namely Najashi Rashdan, Abdulrahman Waleed, Yousif Mathkoor, Faisal Jamsheer, Ahmed Alsaleh, Abdulla Jaweed, Ahmed Almosalam and Ahmed Kashwa.

The field is completed by Oliver Kruglov of NorthStar Albone and Sulaiman Alkandari.

Heading into the meeting, Rashdan tops the Senior MAX championship standings with 92 points, while Shaikha Haya is second on 64 and Smith third with 61 points.

The Junior MAX class will also see a large roster of competitors.

BirelArt Bahrain will be represented by Luca Kane Houghton, Sari Al Zubi and Abdulqader Qasem.

They will get some stiff competition from Praga Middle East Racing’s Gracie Rose Grantham, Vedant Menon, Mohammed Alhasan and Mohammed Wally, as well as from NorthStar Albone’s Tye Mejia and Louis El Nabulsi.

Forza Bahrain Racing’s Musaad Albassam and Shanthosh Kumar complete the Junior MAX grid.

Their championship fight sees a tight four-way battle after the opening three rounds, with only 10 points separating the top four.

Houghton leads with 79 points, just a single point ahead of Wally, while Gracie Rose is third with 72 points and Mejia is fourth on 69.

In the Mini MAX class, Khaled Al Najjar of Praga Middle East Racing will be hoping to build on his massive lead in the season standings, having won all six of his category’s races so far.

Al Najjar sits in first place with 105 points—more than 75 points ahead of his closest challengers.

The Micro MAX karters this round include Shaikh Ahmed bin Saqer Al Khalifa of BirelArt Bahrain, Yousif Alghaith of Praga Middle East and Mohammed Waleed of Forza Bahrain Racing, who will be going wheel-to-wheel to fight for the chequered flag.

Alghaith leads Shaikh Ahmed on the Micro MAX championship standings by 12 points, with Alghaith in first on 92. Racing on Saturday is scheduled to begin at 10 am with Qualifying Practice for all BRMC categories and the BSSWS.

The Pre-Finals will then be held from 11.05 am before a lunch break at 12.55 pm, to be followed by the Final races from 1.30 pm.

The podium ceremonies for all top three finishers in the BRMC classes and the BSSWS will be held from 4 pm onwards.

The BKSC features seven rounds in this 2022 season.

Following this weekend’s racing, rounds five and six will be held on 11 and 12 March, and then that will pave the way for the season finale on 25 March.