Mattar claims victory in sprint karting

Mohammed Mattar was the star of the night in a drama-filled, record-setting first round of the 2018-’19 Bahrain Karting Sprint Championships (BKSC), held at Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC) in Sakhir.

Mattar raced to an impressive victory in the hotly contested Max class of the Bahrain Rotax Mojo Max Challenge (BRMMC). Also claiming wins were Osama Azoouka in the Max-Master category, Fahad Alkhaled in the Junior class, Luca Kane Houghton in the Micro division and Shanthosh Kumar amongst the Mini karters. It was an historic event to flag off the BKSC season, with a record total of 29 drivers suiting up for a red hot evening of racing. There was also a record number of five entrants, namely Absolute Racing, DoJoMotor Racing, DRT, ED Racing Team and Racing Bahrain.

Mattar, competing with Racing Bahrain, clinched first place in the 15-lap Max Final in a total time of 14 minutes 06.693 seconds. He was followed closely by teammate Hussain Hasan who was classified 7.151s behind. Hasan had a marvelous race, setting a new lap record from all national karting races with a time of 55.965s around BIKC’s 1.414-kilometre CIK Track. Furthermore, Hasan battled back after starting the finale from the back of the grid following an accident in the Pre-Final. Najashi Rashdan of DRT Racing claimed the final podium place after completing the Max sprint 8.167s from Mattar.

Rounding out the Max finishers from fourth through eighth place, respectively, were Racing Bahrain’s Khaled Abdullah, Absolute’s Raed Raffii, Muayyad Albandi of DoJoMotor and Yasmin Madani of DRT. Meanwhile, Azoouka triumphed in the Max-Master class in 14:41.390. The Absolute Racing driver finished ahead of ED Racing’s Essa Aldossary, who was 6.863s behind. Shane Cooper claimed third 23.186s back.