Karters shine in tense sprint battles

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC) hosted a thrilling fourth round in the 2022 Bahrain Rotax MAX Challenge (BRMC) held last weekend, with Shaikh Ahmed bin Saqer Al Khalifa, Khaled Al Najjar, Mohammed Wally and Lewis Smith all taking the victory in their respective competition classes. Shaikh Ahmed triumphed in the Micro MAX category, while Al Najjar won the Mini MAX. Wally claimed the Junior MAX win whereas Smith triumphed in the Senior MAX.

The weekend’s racing took place along BIKC’s 1.414-kilometre CIK-FIA Track, as part of the season-long calendar of the Bahrain Karting Sprint Championship. Shaikh Ahmed kicked things off in the meeting by capturing pole in his class with a best lap time of one minute 04.058 seconds in Qualifying.

He then powered to a convincing win in the Pre-Final, before completing a dominant round by taking the chequered flag in the nine-lap Final with a time of 9:27.899—a comfortable 17.978s ahead of runner-up Yousif Alghaith. Mohammed Waleed completed the Micro MAX podium in third 22.761s back. In the Mini MAX class, Al Najjar cruised to first place in all three sessions.

He had a best lap of 1:00.851 in Qualifying, before taking the Pre-Final and then winning the Final in 9:02.036, also over nine laps. In the Junior MAX, Wally needed to overcome a tough challenge from his chief rivals with each session going down to a tight finish.

Wally claimed pole for the Pre-Final by just 0.001s from Luca Kane Houghton with a best lap of 55.122s. Gracie Rose Grantham was also in close contention, going just 0.163s off the pace. Wally went on to win the Pre-Final ahead of Houghton, who was given a five-second penalty which promoted Mohammed Alhasan to second and Grantham third.

In the Final, Wally and Houghton powered to the front early on and held on to finish as the top two. Wally won the 15-lap sprint in 13:47.755, while Houghton followed 1.591s back as the runner-up. Alhasan joined them on the podium in third 1.822s back.

Shanthosh Kumar was fourth, Tye Mejia fifth and Vedant Menon sixth, while rounding off the final classification from seventh through 10th, respectively, were Grantham, Louis Safa El Nabulsi, Abdulqader Qasem and Musaad Albassam. In the Senior MAX category, Smith was able to top a hotly contested Qualifying, in which the field of 13 drivers was separated by just 1.2s from first to last. Smith finished the session in first with a time of 53.533s on the final classification, with his best lap time deleted for exceeding the track limit.

Shaikha Haya bint Duaij bin Salman Al Khalifa went on to claim first place in the Pre-Final 0.219s ahead of Abdulrahman Waleed. But then, in the Senior MAX Final, Smith was able to gain the advantage on lap three and he raced on to the finish from there to register a winning time of 13:35.473 over 15 laps.

Rashdan was the runner-up 6.230s behind, while Ahmed Musalam came third 6.992s back. Fahad Alkhaled, Abdulla Jaweed, Ahmed Alsaleh, Oliver Kruglov and Suliman Alkandari were fourth through eighth, while Yusuf Mathkoor was ninth on the final classification and Faisal Jamsheer 10th.

Shaikha Haya, Waleed and Fahad Almuqla did not finish. Following the weekend’s events, the championship battles continued to heat up with only three rounds remaining in the BRMC. Alghaith now only holds a six-point lead over Shaikh Ahmed in the Micro MAX title fight. Alghaith owns 121 points in first place followed by Shaikh Ahmed with 115.

Al Najjar is the runaway leader in the Mini MAX class with 140 points. The title race remained tight in the Junior MAX category, with Wally leading on 113 points followed by Houghton on 106.

Grantham, Mejia and Alhasan are all still within striking distance, with Grantham on 89 points, Mejia on 84 and Alhasan on 83. The Senior MAX championship standing is spearheaded by Rashdan with 118 points, as Smith follows on 93. Alkhaled and Shaikha Haya are on 77 and 74 points, respectively