Bahrain karters shine on home track as practices continue in Rotax MAX Challenge Grand Finals

Bahrain karters shine on home track as practices continue in Rotax MAX Challenge Grand Finals

• Luca Kane Houghton, Fahad Alkhaled and Mohammed Mattar all top at least one non-qualifying practice session on second day of action
• Racing continues throughout the rest of the week at BIKC, with free entry at limited capacity

Bahrain’s homegrown karting talent put on an impressive show today on the second day of action in the Rotax MAX Challenge Grand Finals (RMCGF) 2021, taking place at Bahrain International Circuit’s world-class karting facility in Sakhir.

Three of the 11 competitors flying the Kingdom’s flag—namely Luca Kane Houghton, Fahad Alkhaled and Mohammed Mattar—topped at least one of their three non-qualifying practices held today along Bahrain International Karting Circuit’s (BIKC) 1.414-kilometre CIK-FIA track.

After completing the first three practice sessions on Monday, the field of more than 400 karters from 75 countries took to the tarmac for another three runs.

Luca Kane topped the timesheet in practice six of the Mini MAX category for odd-numbered drivers. He set a best lap time of 58.174 seconds to go fastest for the second time already this week, having done the same in practice three on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Luca Kane was classified second in practice five with a 58.392s best lap, just 0.057s off the pace, and 13th in practice four with a time of 58.618s.

Meanwhile, Bahrain’s Alkhaled claimed first place in the sixth practice for even-numbered drivers in the Senior MAX class. He raced to a fastest lap of 53.585s to go top of the times. He was earlier second-fastest in practice four with a best lap of 53.577s, before going 10th (54.044s) in the fifth session.

Mattar followed suit by going quickest in the DD2 Masters category. He was consistently in the top four for the day’s opening two sessions, setting a best lap of 53.460s to go third in the fourth practice before being classified fourth (53.495s) in practice five. He then stormed to the top of the timesheet in the sixth practice with a best lap of 53.181s.

Luca Kane, Alkhaled and Mattar headlined the Bahrain karters’ performances today, but there were also some impressive runs amongst the other hometown participants.

In the Mini MAX class, Shanthosh Kumar and Khaled Najjar were competing in the same odd-numbered practice sessions as Luca Kane, and they were classified 24th (59.015s) and 30th (59.197s) respectively in practice four, 25th (58.868s) and 34th (59.726s) in the fifth session, and then 24th (58.892s) and 34th (59.381s) in the sixth.