Glory time for winners

THE Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) honoured the car and kart champions of the past racing year at an end-of-season awards ceremony in Sakhir.

Amongst those celebrated were the winners of the 2017/2018 BIC 2,000cc Challenge as well as the 2017/2018 Bahrain Karting Championships.

BIC chief executive Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa thanked all those who participated and praised the racers for their title triumphs and expressed his appreciation to all those who had contributed to the season’s success.

Also in attendance at the ceremony were officials from both circuits, the Bahrain Motor Federation and the Circuit Racing Club. Together with Shaikh Salman, they handed out a number of glittering trophies to the newly-crowned champions.

Receiving the top prize in the BIC 2,000cc Challenge was overall winner Raed Himmo. He claimed his title driving a Honda CIVIC and also took the prize for achieving the Most Pole Positions, having clinched four of a possible seven.

Finishing right behind him as the season’s runner-up was Nasser Al Alawi, who competed in a Honda S2000, with Ahmed bin Khanen taking third place, who also drove a CIVIC.

Former 2,000cc champion Shaikh Salman bin Isa bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa took home an award for posting the Season’s Fastest Lap of 1min 16.325secs around BIC’s 2.55km Inner Track. A final 2,000cc accolade was presented to Majed Himmo, who clinched the Rookie Cup.

Meanwhile, the Bahrain Karting Championships featured winners in two different series, namely in endurance and in sprint.

In the Bahrain Karting Endurance Championship, Batelco Racing were the big winners having finished in first place overall amongst all participating teams. Go Gosaibi were second overall and Zain Racing 1 were third.

Batelco Racing were also the winners in the Pro class, finishing ahead of Zain Racing 1 and Ice Racing.

Finishing the season atop the Nations Class were Go Gosaibi, while behind them were BeeSa Racing 1 and Zain Racing 2. Finally, in the Corporate class, taking home the top prize were Redline Racing 1. Texel Air were the runners-up and Redline Racing 2 third.

The Bahrain Karting Sprints Championship had winners further split into two categories: the Bahrain Sprint Sodi World Series (BSSWS) and the Bahrain Rotax Mojo Max Challenge (BRMMC).

Abdulla Buhindi was the main man in the BSSWS. He was crowned the season’s champion, beating out Ali Baslar for the top prize. Mohammed Amin came third overall in the highly competitive championship.

In the BRMMC, winners were crowned in the Senior Max, Master Max, Junior Max, Mini Max and Micro Max classes.

Najashi Rashdan was the champion of the Senior Max category. He won ahead of Rashid Almuammari and Hussain Hasan came third. Batelco Racing once again claimed a trophy after finishing as top Senior Max Entrants.

In the Master Max class, Isa Abdulla beat out Essa Aldosary for first place. Sulaiman Al Kanderi followed suit in the Junior Max category, defeating Fahad Alkhaled for the number one spot while Abdullaj Aldossary took third. Batelco Racing were again winners as Junior Max Entrants.

Fahad Al Muqla took home the Mini Max crown ahead of Xanda Topp and Jacob Topp, who were second and third, respectively. Batelco Racing clinched first place as a Mini Max Entrant.

Finally, the Micro Max title was won by Shanthosh Kumar, who battled with Kalan Vine for first place. Gracie Grantham claimed third place, while Batelco Racing were once again winners, this time as Micro Max Entrants.

Aside from the trophy presentations, the end-of-season awards night was also an occasion for socialising and networking.

Shaikh Salman added that he was already looking forward to ‘even greater action and excitement’ in the new campaign to come, which gets underway this October following the summer break.