Batelco Racing victorious

Manama : Batelco Racing narrowly edged out Go Gosaibi to take a thrilling victory in the third and final round of this year’s Bahrain Karting Endurance Championship (BKEC), held this past weekend at Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC) in Sakhir.

The victors consisted of Mohammed Mattar, Khaled Alsaei, Saeed Al Mehairi and Alban Varrutti.

They clinched the chequered flag at the end of a gruelling 24 hours by a mere 0.096 seconds ahead of Go Gosaibi. Both squads had completed a total of 1,107 laps around BIKC’s 1.414-kilometre CIK track.

Go Gosaibi featured the quartet of Hussain Hasan, Rashid Almuammari, Ali Baslar and Abdulla Bu Hindi.

In third place were Zain Racing 1. Their kart was shared by Mohammed Ameen, Khalid Alhamadi, Raed Raffii and Najashi Rashdan, and they finished one lap behind to complete the race’s top three overall teams.

Batelco were also first place in the Pro Class, finishing ahead of Zain Racing 1 and Zain Racing 2, who had registered 1,105 total laps.

Go Gosaibi, meanwhile, added to their overall runner-up finish with the win in the Nations Class. They beat out BeeSa Racing and RKC HSM Racing, who were second and third with 1,104 and 1,097 laps, respectively.

The Corporate Class was clinched by Redline Racing. They beat out Texel Air with a gap of 21 laps.

Following all the action, the winners were presented their trophies in a podium ceremony attended by BIC Chief Executive Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa and other high-ranking officials from BIC, BIKC and the Bahrain Motor Federation.

With the result, Batelco teams made a clean sweep of the 2017/2018 BKEC, winning each of the three rounds. The first two rounds of the season were three-hour events.

Batelco thus completed the year with 120 points in the overall ranking, with Go Gosaibi finishing with 102 points as runners-up and Zain Racing 1 claiming third place with 79 points.

Batelco were also winners of the Pro class with a perfect 120 points. Zain Racing 1 followed with 98 points, and Ice Racing were third on 85 points.

In the Nations Class, Go Gosaibi accumulated 120 points to take first place. BeeSa Racing followed with 92 points and Zain Racing 2 were third with 50 points.

The Corporate Class was won by Redline Racing 1 with 111 points. Texel Air finished on 90 for second place, while Redline Racing 2 were third with 50 points.