Karimi, Shaikh Salman win
Hussain Karimi and Shaikh Salman bin Isa bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa shared the honours yesterday in the second round of the 2015/2016 BIC 2,000cc Challenge at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.
Karimi steered his black and yellow Honda CRX to a dominant win in the day’s first race, while Shaikh Salman overcame some early problems with his white Honda CIVIC to clinch the victory in race two, with both drivers also on the podium in runners-up positions.
“The racing was really enjoyable,” Karimi said. “I think everyone had a good time; there was a good amount of overtaking and a good number of cars on the grid.”
Shaikh Salman added: “It started off to be a bad weekend for me; I had difficulties in practice and qualifying but my team and I managed to sort out the problems on time. The car is back, it’s good, and I really enjoyed the racing. I managed to get first place in race two so overall a very good weekend.”
Karimi topped the timesheet in practice and captured pole position for race one. Shaikh Salman though struggled and started the first 12-lap sprint from the back of the grid.
Karimi (16 minutes 9.545 seconds) kept hold off the lead to win the race with a flawless drive with a comfortable 7.227 seconds ahead of Shaikh Salman.
Alex Longden (+17.407) in a BMW 3 Series was third, Raed Himmo (+20.095) in a Honda CRX was fourth, Tim Birkin (+36.442) in a Honda Integra finished fifth and Stephen Kellogg (+1:03.380) in a Honda CIVIC finished sixth.
Karimi clocked the race’s fastest lap of one minute 19.802 seconds and later credited his fine showing to his car’s new brake set-up. “It performed wonderfully and now just need to master where the new braking points are.”
In race two, Karimi was joined by Shaikh Salman at the back for the start due to the reverse grid rule, but both were quickly fighting for the lead.
This time Shaikh Salman (16:07.654) had the upper hand, winning the second 12-lap sprint with Karimi (+5.267) in second and Himmo (+20.666) taking the final podium position.
Completing the final classification from fourth through seventh, respectively, were Longden (+21.166), Birkin (+1:09.274), Kellogg (+1:15.870) and Michael Priester (+11 laps) in a Honda CRX.
Shaikh Salman registered race two’s fastest lap of 1:19.502 and was pleased to continue his run of three straight podiums to start the new season, but admitted that there is still plenty of racing to go. “It’s still early days,” the former champion explained. “Yes, I’ve had three podiums now but it’s a tough season with many strong competitors.”
The winners were presented their respective trophies by officials from BIC, the Circuit Racing Club and the Bahrain Motor Federation.
Round three of the BIC 2,000cc is scheduled on 4 December, with five further rounds (one per month) from January to May.
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