Racing BH triumph in six-hour endurance karting round at BIKC

Racing BH made it two wins out of two in the 2019/2020 Bahrain Karting Enduro Championship after clinching the season’s six-hour second round held Saturday at Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC) in Sakhir.

The trio of Mohammed Mattar, Ali Baslar and Khalid Al Rayyes powered to first place with a total of 281 laps around BIKC’s 1.414-kilometre Commission Internationale de Karting (CIK) Track.

They did just enough to defeat the GO Bahrain triad of Raed Raffii, Rashid Almuammari and Abdulla Buhindi, who were just 1.085 seconds behind at the chequered flag.

In the three-hour first round held last month, it was Baslar and Raffii who drove Racing BH to first place overall.

Racing BH Junior – comprising Khaled Alsaei, Mohammed Ameen and Khaled Alwazzan – joined their sister squad on the overall podium by taking third place with 280 laps. They pipped by less than a half-second the Bahrain Airport Services (BAS) A team of Lewis Smith, Ahmed Ebrahim and Gavin Halls.

Despite missing out on the overall podium, BAS A were able to claim a top three spot in the Pro category. There they were third, as Racing BH and GO Bahrain were also in first and second, respectively, giving them twice the reason to celebrate.

Behind the top three in the Pro class were Bapco Sadeem (Yousif Khamiri, Abdulla Al Thawadi and Osama Albuflasa) on 279 laps, Cool Runnings Bahrain (Marlon Chong, Syed Salman Husain and Kirky Carter) with 275 laps, and Manama Drift 2 (Franklin Call, Matthew Barksdale and Abdulla Alsaati) with 271 laps.

Racing BH Junior were double podium-placers after leading all finishers in the Nations class. They finished ahead of Bapco Engineering’s Faisal Alshafei, Talal Beshara and Mohammed Jalal, who registered a total of 280 laps. Manama Drift comprising Erich Grawunder, Michael Spencer and Colby Narine came third with 276 laps.

Meanwhile, Bapco Motorsport triumphed in the Corporate category. Their quartet of Essa Mahmood, Khalifa Alzayani, Saud Alshreedi and Abdulaziz Albufalah had completed 279 laps in the race.

BAS had two of their teams also on the Corporate podium. Their B squad comprising Ahmed Kooheji, Mahmood Alsaati, Saud Alshater, Rene Mader and Dylan Campos were second with 276 laps, while in third a lap behind were their C team of Mohammed Faqihi, Ziyad Khalifa, Mohamed Al Ansari, Don Vinura and lady driver Maryam Qassimi.

3MDG Racing Team (Marcello Suoto, Marco Sterpinetti, Darlo Galiani and Giacomo Serra) were fourth amongst Corporate teams on 271 laps. In fifth with 259 laps were the all-female BAS F squad of Jeiel Macaraan, Fatima Zainudeen, Alanoud Alalawi, Marwa Mandeel and Christina Anieliesa.

Following the race, the overall winners and those who triumphed in each class were presented their respective trophies in the awarding ceremony attended by BIKC and Bahrain International Circuit officials.

Saturday’s six-hour race is scheduled to be followed by Round Three oJanuary 18 next year and it will be a 12-hour event. Round Four will then be the championship-finale and the ultimate challenge of the season: a 24-hour race, scheduled for February 14 and 15.

For more information on the BKEC or any karting activity at BIKC, contact the circuit on telephone +973-1745-1745, e-mail karting@bic.com.bh or visit www.bahraingp.com.

Final Overall Classification:

1 Racing BH (Pro) 281 laps; 2 GO Bahrain (Pro) 281 laps; 3 Racing BH Junior (Nations) 280 laps; 4 BAS A (Pro) 280 laps; 5 Bapco Engineering (Nations) 280 aps; 6 Bapco Motorsport (Corporate) 279 laps; 7 Bapco Sadeem (Pro) 279 laps; 8 Manama Drift (Nations) 276 laps; 9 BAS B (Corporate) 276 laps; 10 Cool Runnings Bahrain (Pro) 275 laps; 11 BAS C (Corporate) 275 laps; 12 Manama Drift 2 (Pro) 271 laps; 13 3MDG Racing Team (Corporate) 271 laps; 14 BAS F (Corporate) 259 laps.