BIC set to kick off 2025/2026 season of Bahrain Drag Racing Championship

Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), ‘The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East’, kicks off the 2025/2026 season of the region’s biggest and most competitive drag racing series this week.

The first of five rounds in the Bahrain Drag Racing Championship takes place Tuesday to Friday (25 to 28 November) in Sakhir, with top drag racing teams and drivers from around the world set to go head-to-head along BIC’s world-class quarter-mile drag strip – part of the NHRA Worldwide Network of the U.S.-based National Hot Rod Association (NHRA).

The championship, which is sanctioned by the NHRA, is being organised and run by BIC in cooperation with the Bahrain Motor Federation, the Bahrain Drag Racing Commission, and the Bahrain Motorcycle Commission.

The competing drag racers will be battling in their respective competition categories to crown the champions at the end of the campaign, each of whom will take home a prestigious ‘Wally Trophy’, awarded only to title winners of NHRA events worldwide. The ‘Wally’ is drag racing’s most prestigious accolade. Named after NHRA founder Wally Parks, it has been handed out since the 1969 NHRA season in the US.

This week’s events at BIC get underway with two nights of Test and Tune on Tuesday and Wednesday from 6pm to 12midnight. Qualifying will then be held on Thursday, which will set the elimination ladders for race day on Friday. Action on both days is scheduled to be held from 4pm onwards.

Fans looking to attend the season-opener can watch all the excitement on the strip from the Start Line Grandstand or from BIC’s Beyon Grandstand. Tickets for the Start Line Grandstand are BD5 apiece, while tickets for the Beyon Grandstand for each night of Test and Tune are BD2 each, with tickets for qualifying and race day BD3 per person for each day.

Tickets can be purchased online at bahraingp.com, by calling the BIC Hotline on +973-17450000, or at the gate.

This season in the Bahrain Drag Racing Championship, there will be 13 classes, including nine for cars and four for bikes.

The cars categories include the Index 10.0, Index 9.0, Index 8.5, Outlaw 6, Index 7.5, Pro 29.5 V8, Comp 4.5, Outlaw 4, and Pro Mod; while the bikes classes are Street Fight 9.5, Index 8.5, Pro Street, and Outlaw.

The 2025/2026 calendar of the Bahrain Drag Racing Championship is set to feature five rounds. Following this week’s events, round two will be held from 23 to 26 December. Rounds three and four will then take place on back-to-back weekends from 6 to 9 January and 13 to 16 January next year, while the grand finale is set for 3 to 6 March.