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Bahrain Rotax MAX karting kicks off eight-round 2025/2026 season on Friday at BIKC
Bahrain Rotax MAX karting kicks off eight-round 2025/2026 season on Friday at BIKC
Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), ‘The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East’, hosts the highly anticipated opening round on Friday (31 October) of the 2025/2026 Bahrain Rotax MAX Challenge (BRMC), the kingdom’s premier national karting championship.
The meeting is set to take place at BIC’s world-class grassroots motorsport facility, Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC), featuring many of the best karters in Bahrain of various ages and nationalities.
They will be battling it out along BIKC’s 1.414-kilometre CIK-FIA track in their very own Rotax-powered karts, with competition being held in five different categories, including Micro MAX, Mini MAX, Junior MAX, Senior MAX, and DD2 MAX.
Action on Friday is scheduled to begin at 10.40am with free practices, to be followed by qualifying practice from 11.17am. The pre-finals will then be held from 12.52pm, setting the stage for the finals flagging off from 2.34pm.
The podium ceremonies are then scheduled to take place around 5pm following all the action.
All are welcome to attend and cheer for the karters. Entrance to BIKC is free of charge.
A large field of competitors are entered for the upcoming season-opener, spearheaded by four of last season’s BRMC champions. They include Micro MAX title winner Tariq Soofi, who has moved up to the Mini MAX category; last year’s Mini MAX champion Shaikh Ahmed bin Saqer Al Khalifa, who has graduated to the Junior MAX; Tye Mejia, who will be defending his Senior MAX crown; and Abdulla Sajjad, the reigning DD2 MAX champion.
Set to race in the Micro MAX class in the first round are Benjamin Karajkovic, Rashid Almahroos, Sami Ramiz Albandak, Abdulaziz Alsarraf, and Enzo Gilbert Younes.
Tariq will be joined in the Mini MAX division by Isaac Yoon, Alex Reilly, Faisal Alnajjar, Oliver Spencer, Leo Saruhan, Rayyan Najjar, Rhys Daulat, Saish Chinchrekar, Safron Dzeviatau, Vladimir Gugo, and Ari Kallenberg.
The Junior MAX category will feature Shaikh Ahmed, Rayan Ghandour, Eason Tseng, Leopold Juch, Luca Saruhan, William Lette, Ryan Suckling, Sacha Rollett, and Jude Andrews.
The Senior MAX boasts of the largest grid. Set to compete on Friday alongside Mejia are Luca Houghton, Mohammed Hilal, Mohammed Alhasan, Farhan Bin Shafeel, Yousif Alaali, Filipa Dorres, Rashid Hilal, Samy Landy, Vedant Menon, Eshaan Naraayanan, Demir Abali, Musaad Albassam, Karim Rizkallah, Ahmad Jawed, Khaled Najjar, and Griffin Mecklenburg.
In the DD2 MAX, Sajjad will be competing with Maxim Shchurko, Talal Alattas, Raoul Sadi, Rakan Alfayez, Abdulqader Qasem, Antoni Kugacz, Mohammed Almahroos, and Mohammed Sajjad.
The BRMC features a total of eight rounds in its 2025/2026 calendar. Following this weekend’s curtain-raiser, rounds two and three are scheduled for back-to-back days on 12 and 13 December. Round four will then kick off the new calendar year on 10 January, followed by round five on 30 January. Round six is set for 13 February, and then the seventh and penultimate round will be held on 28 March. That will pave the way for the championship final, scheduled for 18 April at BIKC.
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