Bahraini racer Shaikh Salman bin Rashid Al Khalifa to make Porsche Sprint Challenge comeback

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

BIC, Sakhir One of Bahrains most experienced motor racing drivers will be making a fantastic return to circuit racing this weekend at the Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).

Shaikh Salman bin Rashid Al Khalifa, a legend in Bahraini motorsport, is set to be among the line-up of competitors in the first round of the 2022/2023 Porsche Sprint Challenge Middle East, being held as part of the support race programme to the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) weekend on Friday and Saturday (Editors note: 11 and 12 November).

Shaikh Salman is a former champion in the one-make Porsche series, taking the title in its 2010/2011 season when it was known as the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East.

He is now set to get back into the cockpit after being away from circuit racing for over eight years. He was last part of a competitive championship in 2021 in karting.

Throughout his career, Shaikh Salman had competed in some of the highest-level series for any Bahraini driver, including the British Formula Three Championship and the Formula BMW Asia Championship.

The upcoming campaign in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Middle East will be the series 14th season.

Shaikh Salman will be racing in the Porsche 992 GT3 Cup car, which is also driven in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup. He will be flying the Kingdoms flag on his home track amongst a high-quality field of 19 drivers from all over the worldmaking for a truly international series.

Set to join him on the grid are fellow-GCC drivers Saud Al Saud, Bandar Alesayi, Khaled Alahmadi, Khaled Alzayed from Saudi Arabia and Ahmad Al Shehab from Kuwait.

The others include Harry King and Alex Malykhin from Great Britain; Florian Janits and Frederick Jerich from Austria; Bashar Mardini and Mark J. Thomas from Canada; Ghislain Cordeel from Belgium; Georgi Donchev from Bulgaria; Soeren Spreng from Germany; Harry Jones from Australia; Jan Dobber from the Netherlands; Cedric Chassang from France and Ariel Levi from Israel.

A great starting point for local talent, the Porsche Sprint Challenge Middle East is the only factory-supported series in this part of the world.

The championship was created to give the regions home-grown driving talent an opportunity to realise their racing potential while enhancing personal track experience not only on race weekends, but also through extensive coaching and testing opportunities.

It has become popular for drivers and fans alike, featuring real racing and genuine rivalries on the track.

Three different race classes, Pro, Pro-Am and Am, will make it possible for all drivers to compete according to the current level of their racing career.

As every year since the start of the series in 2009, Lechner Racing are the organisers and promoters in cooperation with Porsche and other partners.

The start of the season at BIC will feature a pair of practices, qualifying and two races held on each race event, which differs between two and three days.

Round one in Bahrain will be followed by five other race weekends at tracks across the Gulf, with two races each event. The championship is scheduled to conclude with two rounds supporting Formula 1, including the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian grands prix in 2023.

The Porsche Sprint Challenge Middle East is joined by the WTCR FIA World Touring Car Cup as a support championship this WEC weekend.

Tickets to the WEC spectacle continue to be available and fans are urged to purchase theirs today so as not to miss out on another extra special occasion at BIC.

Tickets cost just BD5 for adults and BD2.5 for kids for the two-day weekend programme. They can be purchased online at bahraingp.com or by calling the BIC Hotline on +973-17450000.

To complement the racing on the track, BIC has lined up an incredible series of off-track entertainment throughout the race weekend. These include incredible stunt shows, a classic car show, a kids zone and many other amazing attractions for the whole family.

The Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrains significance goes beyond the racing entertainment.

This year, BIC will be implementing a ground-breaking new Green Ticket project, which will set the benchmark for a number of initiatives in areas of sustainability. This very special initiative is being done in cooperation with The Oil and Gas Holding Company B.S.C. © nogaholding and The Government of Bahrain.

A proportion of the ticket price, together with an amount matched by nogaholding, will be donated to a local environmental project in cooperation with the Government. This particular fund will finance the planting of mangroves in Bahrain, and meaningfully contribute to Bahrains commitment to quadruple mangrove coverage in The Kingdom by 2035.