Raffii scores double win in 2,000cc Challenge

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Raed Raffii powered to a fantastic double in the third round of the 2021/2022 BIC 2,000cc Challenge, held as part of National Race Day at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.

The series’ defending champion had a near-perfect meeting, topping the timesheet from the opening practice-qualifying session before taking the win in both 12-lap sprints.

Racing was held along BIC’s 2.554-kilometre Inner Track with the competitors battling it out in the Pro and Novice categories.

Raffii’s double earned him his first victories of the current season.

Driving a Honda S2000, Raffii set the pace during practice-qualifying with the fastest lap of one minute 16.751 seconds.

But then he lost his lead at the start of race one to Raed Himmo, who was in the other front-row grid position.

Himmo steered his Honda Civic to first after an opening couple of corners and held on to the lead over the next 10 laps. Raffii was eventually able to get in front unchallenged along BIC’s inner straight on the 11th and penultimate lap and then went on to secure the win in a time of 15:37.476.

Ali Al Mansoori in a Honda Civic and Nasser Al Alawi in a Honda S2000 were also able to get ahead of Himmo on lap 11 to take the other overall podium places.

Al Mansoori finished 2.771s behind Raffii and clinched first place in the Novice category, while Al Alawi was 9.224s back.

Himmo finished fourth overall 9.746s from first but joined Raffii and Al Alawi on the Pro class podium.

Behind Al Mansoori amongst the Novice runners were Andreas Buelow in second and Wiebke Buelow in third, both in Honda Civics.

Moaaz Elzahrawi (Novice, Honda Civic) and Majed Himmo (Pro, Honda Civic) completed the race one classification in seventh and eighth, respectively.

Meanwhile, race two saw Majed Himmo and Elzahrawi on the front row, but it didn’t take long for the top contenders to charge to the front.

Following an incident in turn one, the field opened up for Raed Himmo to take advantage and move ahead to first.

Raffii followed suit and captured second place by lap four.

The pair maintained their positions the rest of the way, with Himmo leading Raffii across the finish line at the chequered flag.

But Himmo was given a five-second penalty for moving before the start signal, thus promoting Raffii to claim the victory in 15:36.957.

Himmo was classified as runner-up 2.856s behind, while Al Mansoori was once again on the overall podium 8.714s adrift in third, while also taking the Novice class.

Al Alawi finished fourth overall and third in the Pro class, while Elzahrawi was second in the Novice class and Wiebke Buelow third.

Andreas Buelow finished seventh overall, and Majed Himmo was not classified having retired after two laps.

Raffii capped his impressive round by posting the fastest lap in both races.

He had the best time of 1:16.929 in race one, before going for the best mark of 1:16.898 in race two.

Following all the action, the winners were awarded their respective trophies in a podium ceremony by officials from BIC, the Bahrain Motor Federation and the Circuit Racing Club.

The BIC 2,000cc Challenge returns for the fourth of seven rounds this season on January 28.