Manama, February 7 (BNA) Sheikh Ahmed bin Saqr Al Khalifa and Khaled Al-Najjar achieved two consecutive victories in the second and third rounds of the Bahrain Rotax Max 2022 (BRMC) Championship, which was held at the weekend. At the Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC) as part of the Bahrain Karting Sprint Championship.
Sheikh Ahmed took first place in the Micro MAX class in both meetings, while Al-Najjar did the same in the Mini MAX class.
Fahad Al-Khaled and Sheikha Haya bint Daij bin Salman Al Khalifa shared the honor in the Senior Max races, while Mohammed Wali and Tai Mejia won the Junior Max class.
Successive days of karting races took place along the 1,414 kilometer CIK-FIA track. The highly competitive field of BRMC competitors competed in their Rotax vehicles across the four competition classes.
In the second round of BRMC held on Friday, Sheikh Ahmed took a dominant victory over Micro MAX from first place. He completed the final with nine laps in a winning time of 9 minutes 27.858 seconds, making a huge gap of 26.598 seconds ahead of runner-up Yousef Al Ghaith. And Muhammad Walid ranked third. Al-Najjar took his Mini Max win with a time of 8:56,889, also over nine laps.
In the 15-lap Junior Max Final, Wally started front row along with first-place winner and semi-finalist Luca Kane Houghton. They engaged in a tough fight throughout the race and on lap nine, Wally managed to take the lead before falling back to third on lap 11. But he did manage to recover in the penultimate round and overtake Houghton to power to the checkered flag in 13:49,577.
Houghton finished 0.183sec behind, while Shanthosh Kumar was able to reclaim another 0.594sec podium step after starting from sixth on the grid. Mohammed Al Hassan came fourth, Mejia fifth and Gracie Rose Grantham sixth. The Big Eight concluded with Mosad Al-Bassam and Vidant Menon.
The Senior Max final saw Al-Khaled advance ahead of Negus Rashdan for the lead on lap six. He then held out to the finish to claim victory in 13:34.101 after 15 laps. Lewis Smith had originally finished behind Al-Khalid in the race but was awarded a five-second penalty, lifting Rashdan to second by 0.728 seconds from the final classification winner.
Smith had to settle for a third of 5.555 seconds. Ahmed Al-Saleh came fourth, Youssef Mazkour fifth, Ahmed Kashwa sixth, and five others who started the race and did not reach the final classification.
Actions are back at BIKC on Saturday for another exciting round of racing. Sheikh Ahmed and Al-Najjar were in good shape again to complete doubles.
Sheikh Ahmed won the Micro Max final with a time of 9: 40.512, with a difference of 12.994 seconds ahead of Al Ghaith. Walid came third again by a lap.
Al-Najjar won the Mini Max class with a time of 9:10.804 and was 2.940 seconds ahead of Charlie Goddard. His victories in the second and third rounds have preserved his perfect season thus far, having also won the season opener.
Mejia put in a great lead in winning the Junior MAX despite starting the race in seventh place. It was an eventful enemy and included a number of punishments. Mejia did a good job of moving up to third on the second lap, but then only on the last lap did he take the forever lead to win in 14:06,488 after 15 laps.
Gracie Rose came in second while Al Hassan came in third. Sari Al-Zoubi came fourth, Kumar fifth and Bassam sixth, while Wali and Abdul Qader Qassem completed the first eight places in the final classification.
In the Senior MAX final, Sheikha Haya managed to snatch the lead on the first lap from Rashdan, who started from pole position. Then, she advanced with impeccable force to take the win over 15 laps in 13:42.094, with Rushdan finishing 0.672sec to be runner-up. The immortal joined them on the podium 0.768 seconds behind. From the fourth to the eighth, respectively, were Smith, Abd al-Rahman Walid, al-Salih, Abdullah Javed and Faisal Jamsheer.
After the opening three rounds of the BRMC season, Al Ghaith leads Sheikh Ahmed in the Micro MAX championship standings by 12 points, while Al Ghaith occupies first place with 92 points. Al-Najjar boasts a huge lead in the Mini Max Championship, having won all six races so far. It ranks first with 105 points, while Goddard and Sheikh Rashid bin Salman Al Khalifa follow with 29 points each.
There is a tight four-way fight in the Junior MAX Championship standings, with only a 10-point difference between the top four. Houghton leads with 79 points, just one point behind Wally, while Gracie Rose is third with 72 and Mejia is fourth with 69 points. Rashdan leads the Senior Max category with 92 points, while Sheikha Haya comes in second with 64 points, and Smith is third. 61 points.
BRMC is scheduled to return for a fourth season of seven rounds on February 26. The fifth and sixth rounds will then take place on consecutive days on March 11 and 12, which will set the stage for the finale on March 25.
insult