The highly anticipated Bahrain Motorsport Festival, taking place this weekend, will include a feast of supporting championships to thrill fans, writes Kristian Harrison.

Revving their engines for the 2016-17 campaigns as part of the racing programme are the regionally popular one-make series, the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East, and the India-based single-seater championship, the MRF Challenge.

In the Porsche GT3 Cup, top names from across the region and beyond will be battling it out in identical Porsche GT3 Cup cars. Reigning champion Jeffrey Schmidt from Switzerland will be back to defend his crown.

Among those expected to challenge him for his title are former champions Prince Abdulaziz Al Faisal of Saudi Arabia and Zaid Ashkanani from Kuwait. The season-opener will be the first of three race weekends in the new season scheduled to be held in Bahrain. Round five will be back in Sakhir in March of next year, to be followed by the season-finale in April in support of the Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix.

Aside from Sakhir, the championship will be visiting other top GCC tracks such as Dubai Autodrome for rounds two and three in December and January, and Yas Marina Circuit for round four in February.

Meanwhile, the MRF Challenge boasts plenty of young talent from around the world. Among them are Brazilian-American Pietro Fittipaldi, who is the grandson of two-time Formula One champion Emerson Fittipaldi and Briton Harrison Newey, son of F1 design guru Adrian Newey.

The field will be competing in one of Asia’s fastest racing cars, the MRF F2000, which has been redesigned for the new season. The car is powered by a two-litre Mountune Duratec engine with a max power of 250bhp.

Also attending the festival will be around 150 karters from around the world, competing in the CIK-FIA Karting World Championship and the CIK-FIA Karting Junior World Championship.

These are the premier events at grassroots level, with a number of competitors likely to become big stars in the future. Young karters Hussain Hassan and Talal Beshara, will be representing Bahrain. Hussain will be competing in the senior category while Talal will be contesting the junior event.

Both Bahraini talents will be looking to make the kingdom proud as they race on their home track in front of their friends, families and other supporters. They have each excelled in national karting championships and have also registered positive results in races across Europe. Hussain will be racing with Formula K Racing Team, which is an entrant from the Czech Republic. He will be going up against a field of 48 other karters in the senior category.

A number of big names in international karting are entered, a few of whom include Karol Basz from Poland and Thomas Bale from the UK who are both driving with Kosmic Racing Dept. Pedro Hiltbrand from Spain and Tom Joyner from the UK are in the fray representing CRG, Ben Hanley from the UK is driving for Croc Promotion, Leonardo Lorandi from Italy is representing Baby Race and Vincent Fraisse from France who will be driving for Sodikart.

In the juniors, Talal will be competing with the Birel ART team. He is just one in a packed entry list of 100 karters. Finlay Kenneally of Ricky Flynn Motorsport from the UK, Caio Collet from Brazil who will be driving for Birel ART, Callum Bradshaw from the UK racing for Tony Kart Racing Team and Ugo de Wilde from Belgium competing for Ecurie Hesbaye. The drivers are coming from all over the world, from countries including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,  Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Morocco, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, the US and the UAE.

The world championship and junior world championship mark the third time that BIKC will be hosting a CIK-sanctioned world championship-level race. The first was in 2012 with the CIK-FIA U18 World Karting Championship and Academy Trophy, while in 2013 it was followed by the CIK-FIA World KF and KF Junior Championship.