Hasan’s tight win headlines fifth round of national karting sprints at BIKC

Hussain Hasan was the star of stars this past Friday in the fifth round of the Bahrain Rotax Mojo Max Challenge (BRMMC), held as part of the 2018/2019 Bahrain Karting Sprint Championship (BKSC) at Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC) in Sakhir.

The Absolute Racing ace clinched first place in the Max category of the highly competitive BRMMC, narrowly beating out three of his other teammates who were all within just six-tenths of a second from him.

Also victorious in the meeting were Essa Al Dossary in the Max Masters category, Fahad Al Muqla in the Juniors class, Jacob Topp amongst the Mini karters and Luca Kane Houghton in the Micro class.

Abdulla Buhindi, meanwhile, triumphed in the 2018/2019 Bahrain Sprint Sodi W Series (BSSWS), which is also a part of the BKSC.

All the action was held along BIKC’s 1.414-kilometre Commission Internationale de Karting (CIK) Track.

Hasan was on the winning end of one of the season’s tightest finishes in the 15-lap Max final. He clinched the chequered flag in a total time of 13mins 54.422secs – just 0.071secs ahead of runner-up Raed Raffii and 0.278secs ahead of third-placer Khaled Abdulla. Mohammed Mattar was also in the thick of the fight, finishing just 0.630secs to take fourth place.

Each of the three other karters are also members of Absolute Racing, giving their team a dominant result in the race. Hasan added to his win by also posting the best lap time in the final of 55.106secs.

Earlier, in the Pre-Final, Mattar broke the track’s fastest lap record with a time of 55.090secs.

In the Max Masters category, Aldossary of ED Racing triumphed in 14mins 12.772secs, winning ahead of Fred Clark.

Fahad followed suit in the Juniors class, winning their final sprint, also over 15 laps, in 14mins 16.940secs. The DoJoMoto Racing ace beat out the Absolute Racing tandem of Omar Alderyaan and Lewis Smith, who took the other podium spots after finishing 1.860secs and 1.886secs behind, respectively. Alderyaan had the Juniors’ fastest lap of 55.628secs.

In the Mini final, Jacob led sister Xanda Topp to complete an Absolute Racing one-two. Jacob completed the nine-lap race in 9mins 04.847secs, a narrow 0.180secs ahead of Xanda. Shanthosh Kumar of DoJoMoto Racing came third 6.713secs back.

Luca rounded out the BRMMC’s winners after topping the Micro category. The DoJoMoto Racing talent completed their nine-lap final in 9mins 21.532s. Gracie Rose Grantham of Absolute Racing followed right behind while Luca’s teammate Louis Elnabulsi completed their podium.

Matteo Quintarelli of Absolute Racing had the fastest lap of 59.905secs en route to finishing fourth in the Final the Mini karters. Also, Xanda had earlier broke the Mini class fastest lap record with a time of 59.869secs in the Pre-Final.

Following all the BRMMC results, Hasan improved to 115 points for second place in the Max championship standings, staying behind Raffii who has 123 points. Mattar went to third with 113 points. Aldossary extended his lead in the Max-Masters rankings after improving to 153 points. Clark is second with 98 and Osama Azoouka third with 54 points.

Fahad Al Muqla maintained his place atop the Junior championship standings with 137 points. Fahad Alkhaled is second on 128, with Omar in third on 96.

Shanthosh is first in the Mini rankings with 165 points. Jacob follows with 94 and Matteo is third on 91. In the Micro class, Luca Kane leads with 175 points. Gracie Rose follows with 145 while Louis is third on 120 points.

In the BSSWS events, Buhindi triumphed after his own tight finish where he staved off two of his Racing Bahrain teammates. Buhindi won the 15-lap final in 18mins 03.033secs, just 0.125secs ahead of Mohammed Ameen and 0.264secs in front of Ali Baslar. Ameen had the fastest lap amongst the 18-karter grid, clocking a time of 1min 11.434secs.

Buhindi rose to first place on the BSSWS championship standings with 43 points. Baslar is second on 40 points, while Ameen is third on 30.