Rotax Max Challenge – Round 2 at Al Ain Raceway

Round 2 of the UAE Rotax Max Challenge was held at the brand new Al Ain Raceway circuit. In the southern region of the UAE, the drivers were greeted by an exceptionally hot day, it was most definitely going to be a day when only the fittest would survive. However, even those drivers that were performing their rain dances the night before proved they could hack the heat.
A good days racing was on the form card for all the classes running on Friday, this included some shock performances throughout the qualifying and heats phases. The pre-finals too turned out some interesting results which meant that the Finals would prove to be hard to predict. Let’s cast our minds back to the finals…………

Cadet Final
A total of six Comer Cadets lined up on the grid for what would prove to be a very formal affair. Pole sitter Thomas Bale got a Cadet Action from Al Aingood start holding his lead into turn one, from that point on it was merely a case of seeing how far ahead he could get. Not interested in what was going on behind him, he went about setting fastest lap after fastest lap. It paid dividends as not only did Thomas hold aloft his first place trophy; he had the fastest lap too! From Pole position, he had achieved a perfect day! Some sixteen seconds back down the road, the battle for second was taking shape. Zakir Munawer and Riccardo Curatola were nose to tail throughout. Riccardo was presented with very few opportunities to get by Zakir, who was ensuring his Kart was as wide as possible in the right places.
They remained in situ right up to the chequered flag, with Zakir crossing the line a mere three tenths ahead of his opponent Riccardo! Fourth place was originally occupied by the young Ruzsa Eduard, but on lap six disaster struck as a mechanical defect blew his chances of a race finish, to the Pit lane and straight into retirement. As a consequence, Pasqual Pook was promoted up the order to the best of the rest position. Pasqual by this point was too far behind the battle for second and third, so was able to maintain his own pace and go about setting a series of consistent times. In fifth position across the line was driver 29 Leela McElroy. The young Cadet drove a solid race and be satisfied with setting some decent times and holding her own, watch out for this name in the not to distant future! The fastest lap was set by Thomas Bale with a 68.150s.

Result: 1st Thomas Bale 2nd Zakir Munawer 3rd Riccardo Curatola

Junior Max Final
If there was one race worth watching on Friday, then this would have to be it. A four Kart bout between Shahaan Engineer, Edward Jones, Elliot Patrick and Grace Brownlee was the main them of the race. Strangely, nothing actually happened until lap nine when Pole sitter and subsequent race leader Shahaan Engineer was passed by the hard charging Edward Jones. This was to be short lived however as Shahaan quickly re-took his lead.

Grace Brownlee won thrilling RMC Junior raceGrace Brownlee who had started in fourth position was leached onto the back of the front two waiting for a mistake to be made. Her promotion to third came at the expense of driver 14, Elliot Patrick who seemed to drop off the lead pace and found himself isolated in fourth a good sixteen seconds back down the road. Crossing the line to start the last lap Edward Jones clenched his buttocks and placed his kart up the inside of Shahaan - the net result of the slipstream he had accrued from a better exit of the final turn. Shahaan wasn’t done yet, though, as at turn 2 he decided that he would prefer the lead after all! A darting move up the inside of Edward ensured he was back to where he started and Edward cordially found himself relegated to 3rd as Grace, who had been deviously lurking in the background, saw her opportunity as Edward was off line and sneaked through into 2nd.

The 3 karts raced bumper-to-bumper for the remainder of the lap until the penultimate corner when Grace, almost forgotten about by the lead two until moments earlier, dived past Shahaan to claim the top spot and crossed the line ahead of the pair of them to thunderous applause and cheers of the crowd.

The podium awards suggested that Edward and Shahaan held no malice for Grace – the victory was duly deserved. Whilst this was going on, Abdulla Obaid of fifth place was experiencing technical difficulties. On lap eleven his Max battery said “No more!” and quietly receded into a dormant state. Masood Mohammed showed sixth on the timesheets, yet only completed two laps before he fell victim to mechanical gremlins. His exhaust decided it could take life no longer and hurled itself into a terminal state of disrepair. The fastest lap went to Grace Brownlee, 61.015s.

Result: 1st Grace Brownlee 2nd Shahaan Engineer 3rd Edward Jones

Tag Class Final
Both the Tag lights and heavies were out together, but as luck would have it the two classes separated out on the track. The TAG Class Final from Al Ainlights in the form of Tim Murdoch and Adam Reeve occupied the front row of the grid and at the National flag, it was Tim that stormed into the lead. He managed to pull out a comfortable three second advantage in the early stages and controlled the pace from that point. By the time he had claimed victory, second place man Adam Reeve had got the gap down to exactly two seconds. Adam is thinking what might have been, as he lost out to Joseph El Hindy at the start, dropping him to third place. It was to be short lived however. Adam found a way by Joseph towards the end of the third lap, now in second place, but could do nothing to catch Tim. Joseph, after a strong start, began to slip back from Adam at a rate of half a second a lap. At race end, he was six seconds behind Adam. A consistent drive saw him take the last step on the podium. A further eleven seconds back was the last of the lightweights, Paul Healy. He had started near the back, in sixth place, but moved past Ian Prestwich on lap two, and then Fadi El Aswad on lap ten to take that fourth spot – a creditable debut outing for Paul.
Fadi crossed the line in fifth place overall, but was first of the heavies. He had started from fourth spot on the grid and without doubt was the quickest heavy on the day. A first place trophy for him. Ian was the second heavy, some seventeen seconds back from Fadi. He looked rather jovial on the podium, so we can assume he was pleased with the result! John Mace was the last heavy to step onto the podium, an early off at the exit of turn one saw his chances fade along with his brakes, but he nursed his kart home to the flag in one piece.
Tim Murdoch claimed the fastest lap, a 59.192s time was outstanding and the quickest of the day.

Result (L): 1st Tim Murdoch 2nd Adam Reeve 3rd Joseph El Hindy
Result (H): 1st Fadi El Aswad 2nd Ian Prestwich 3rd John Mace

Senior Max Final, including Masters
The race for first place in Senior Max was awe-inspiring. Old-time sparring partners Scott Latham and Hasher Maktoum occupied the front row of the grid with Scott winning the Pre-Final and Hasher making his way through the field to finish 2nd after coming in underweight in the Heat. It all pointed towards a close battle at the front…and so it proved to be. Hasher got an impressive run down to turn 1 and took the lead away from Scott as the field rounded the first corner. Try as he might, Scott just couldn’t get close enough to pass, but the 2 drivers proved to be the class of the field, never more than a second separated them throughout the race. Hasher eventually took 1st place just half a second ahead of Scott.

Hard charging Ashraf Raza was on his own in 3rd place – 5 seconds behind the battle for the lead and 4 seconds clear of Rami Azzam who, in turn, finished 11 seconds ahead of 5th placed Arnoud Bouf. The Masters victor on Friday was Simon Dennis. With championship leader, Wael Tawansy, out of contention on lap 6 with a technical problem, he was hard pushed all the way to the flag by John Mace (who was racing in two classes). They finished in that order with John just under 3 seconds behind Simon.
The fastest lap was set by Scott Latham, 60.297s.

Result Senior Max: 1st Hasher Maktoum 2nd Scott Latham 3rd Ashraf Raza
Result Masters: 1st Simon Dennis 2nd John Mace

DD2 Final
Only four DD2’s entered on Friday, and only two finished the final. Dutchman Maurits Knopjes, had secured Pole Position after a sterling drive in the Pre-Final, but, after a series of self-induced spurious starts earlier on in the day, it was Saeed Alshamsi who finally got his act together to nobble Mauritz on the run down to the first corner in the Final.
Saeed was on form, setting an array of fastest times in the opening laps as Maurits settled into 2nd and began to think about putting a move on for the lead. But then disaster struck for Saeed. On lap eight his Kart slowed, and at the end of lap nine he was forced to pull into the pit lane and retire.
This handed the lead to Maurits who didn’t need a second invitation. He remained untroubled by the sole remaining DD2 and went on to win by over fourteen seconds, setting the fastest lap of the final on the way. The only other DD2 left out on track was Joubin Gharaei. A string of fast laps saw his second place fully deserved, even if he was the only one left! The other DD2 that didn’t make home was reigning DD2 champion, Ronan McElroy. A fault with his Kart saw him disappointingly sidelined on lap nine.
Maurits scored the fastest lap, 59.975s.

Result: 1st Maurits Knopjes 2nd Joubin Gharaei

Conclusion
A big thank you to all the drivers and their respective mechanics and spectators who tuned up on Friday, and also a thank you to the Allison family for clerking the meeting and helping officiate. Also, to Mr Lazarin Jotev who acted as Chief Scrutineer. Matthew Norman always complains that he never gets a mention so there you go, you’ve been mentioned.
Your support of the championship is much appreciated and we look forward to seeing you all on the 4th April 2008 at the Dubai Kartdrome, be sure to get your entry in early!

Report filed by Marty Fullard on behalf of Al Ain Raceway