BIKC hosts thrilling second round in National Karting Sprints

Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC) hosted a thrilling second round in the 2019/2020 Bahrain Karting Sprint Championship (BKSC).

Action was held in both the Bahrain Rotax Mojo Max Challenge (BRMMC) and the Bahrain Sodi Sprint World Series (BSSWS), which are both under the BKSC umbrella.

Fahad Al Khaled, Osama Azzouka, Lewis Smith, Gracie Rose Grantham and Shanthosh Kumar were among the winners in the BRMMC, while Ali Baslar claimed the win in the BSSWS.

All the racing took place along BIKC’s 1.414-kilometre Commission Internationale de Karting track.

Al Khaled triumphed in the BRMMC’s Senior Max class. The BirelArt Bahrain team member completed their group’s 15-lap sprint in 14mins 02.300secs. He was 7.078secs ahead of runner-up Omar Al Dereyaan of Praga Middle East Racing, while Yasmin Madani of Demon Racing Team finished third 13.503secs behind.

Defending champion and Pre-Final winner Mohammed Mattar was handed a 10-second penalty in the race for causing an unavoidable collision, which dropped him from third to seventh on the final classification.

Azzouka triumphed in the Senior Max Masters category for Praga Middle East. He completed their 15 laps in 14mins 10.659secs, 7.230secs ahead of Fred Clark of BirelArt. Essa Aldossery of ED Racing finished third 26.641secs adrift.

Lewis joined the meeting’s list of winners after taking the Junior Max class. The up-and-coming Praga ace had a near-perfect day on the track, securing first place in each of his class’ sessions. He clinched their 15-lap Final in 14mins 07.414secs.

Sulaiman Alkanderi claimed second place 4.733secs behind Lewis, while Abdulla Aldossery of ED finished third 6.255secs back.

In the Micro Max class, Gracie Rose took a fine victory for Praga in 9mins 39.585secs in their nine-lap Final. Louis Safa of BirelArt came second 4.476secs behind, while Khaled Alnajjar followed close behind in third 4.740secs from the victor.

In the Mini Max class, defending champion Shanthosh Kumar inherited the victory after Luca Kane Houghton was handed a 10-second penalty for causing an unavoidable collision with Santhosh, dropping Luca Kane to third.

Shanthosh was classified as the victory in 9mins 09.044secs. Ahmed Alsesey of Praga was second 5.273secs back while Houghton’s penalty put him 9.9775secs from first place.

Meanwhile, Baslar triumphed in the BSSWS Final following a tough battle amongst the front-runners. Baslar completed the 15-lap sprint in 18mins 20.585secs. Ahmed Ebrahim was the runner-up with a narrow 0.390secs gap while Abubaker Ali came third 5.610secs off the winning pace.

Abdulla Buhindi was originally in second but he had a 10-second penalty for causing an unavoidable collision, which thus dropped him to fifth overall.

Following the second round of action, Al Khaled and Mattar have a joint-lead in the Senior Max championship standings with 54 points apiece. Azzouka tops the Senior Max Masters with 67 points. Lewis leads the Junior Max class with 60 points, Gracie Rose tops the Micro Max standings with 70 points, and Shanthosh sets the pace in the Mini Max category with 68 points.

In the BSSWS, Baslar continued to lead the standings following his win. He improved to 100 points.

The 2019/2020 BKSC features seven rounds in all. Round Three will be held on November 30, which will be the last of the calendar year. Round Four will then kick 2020 off on January 11, and then Round Five is set for February 8. The sixth and penultimate meeting of the season will then be held on March 7, leading up to the championship-finale on April 4.