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Racing veteran Shaikh Salman Al Khalifa is gearing up to retain his crown as the 2016 Bahrain International Circuit 2000cc Challenge kicks off on Friday.
Established in 2007, the series is Bahrain’s most competitive local racing championship, as well as the longest-running circuit racing event in the Gulf.
It follows very simple regulations, the most important being a maximum engine capacity of 2000cc. This means slightly modified versions of road cars such as the Honda CIVIC, Honda CRX and BMW 3 Series are used.
Shaikh Salman won the title last year in the CIVIC, winning seven of 16 races to claim the title with 314 points, 69 points ahead of nearest rival Alex Longden.
He said: “The team has been working really hard over the summer to make the first round, and I think we’re really coming on strong from last year. The hope, of course, is to retain my title, but I’m under no illusions it will be easy.
“In fact, I expect a tougher challenge then ever. The competition has drastically improved and there are keen, hungry racers looking to be champion.”
Shaikh Salman will be hoping to draw on his experience of racing in a round of the 2016 TCR International Series, a worldwide Touring Car championship, where he drove a SEAT León Cup Racer for the Bas Koeten Motorsport team and finished ninth and 16th in his two races.
He explained: “It was an amazing experience to take part in TCR series, and hopefully it will come to Bahrain again. My teammate Hussain Karimi and I had a great time together, but now we are rivals again!
“We help each other as teammates and are good friends off the circuit, but on the track we are competitive.”
Shaikh Salman also had a final word for racing fans in the kingdom.
“I’d like to ask the fans to come down to the track and join us,” he said. “The weather is perfect at this time of year, and under the lights at night there will be thrilling action on track. There will be a variety of other races on the programme too, so visitors will get their
The 2016-17 BIC 2000cc Challenge will consist of seven rounds this season, with two races during each round. After Friday, the other rounds will take place once a month and culminate in the finale on May 5.
Friday will also see the first round of the Bahrain Superbikes Championship roar into action, as reported earlier in GulfWeekly.
