*** BIC crowns champions of Bahrain Rotax MAX Challenge at BIKC | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

BIC crowns champions of Bahrain Rotax MAX Challenge at BIKC

TDT | Manama                                        

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

The champions of the 2022/2023 Bahrain Rotax MAX Challenge (BRMC) were crowned over the weekend following the series’ season-finale at Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC), the world-class grassroots motorsport facility at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.

Ali Almoayed, Nasser Nass, Luca Houghton, Fahad Alkhaled and Omar Alderayan all emerged as winners of their respective classes at the end of a hotly contested campaign that featured eight exciting rounds.

Ali and Alderayan headed into the curtain-closer having already secured their titles in the Micro MAX and DD2 MAX categories, respectively.

Joining them on the list of 2022/2023 champions were Nasser in the Mini MAX, Luca in the Junior MAX and Alkhaled in the Senior MAX class.

In the weekend’s final round of action at BIKC, Adam Awan was the winner in the Micro MAX final, finishing the nine-lap race in a time of nine minutes 45.815 seconds.

He was well ahead of runner-up Rayyan Najjar, with the pair also classified in the same order during their pre-final.

Following the result, Adam finished just a single point behind Micro MAX champion Ali on the standings.

Ali, who did not compete in the finale, had 213 points in first place, followed closely by Adam, while Tariq Soofi was a distant third on 57 points.

In Mini MAX action, Shaikh Rashid bin Salman Al Khalifa took first place on the provisional classification of the nine-lap final.

Shaikh Rashid triumphed in 9:17.591, with Aaryan Singh in second and Shaikh Ahmed bin Saqer Al Khalifa third.

The pre-final saw Nasser claim first place ahead of Shaikh Rashid, which earned him crucial points towards his Mini MAX championship.

He thus completed the season with 215 points provisionally on the table, followed by Shaikh Ahmed on 197 and Shonal Kunimal in third with 175 points.

Luca wrapped up his Junior MAX title-winning campaign in style, taking the chequered flag in both the pre-final and final.

His victory in the final came after 15 laps in a time of 13:43.235. Luca was 3.127s ahead of Mohammed Alhasan, while Sager Almousherji came third 6.070s behind.

Luca’s victories helped him improve to 218 points to end the season—17 ahead of Gracie Grantham, who was fifth in the final.

Alhasan came third on the table with 200 points. The Senior MAX saw Jasper Sjoberg take the final after ending the race narrowly ahead of Lewis Smith.

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Sjoberg won in 13:55.328 after 15 laps—3.766s in front of Smith, while Tijl Josep Huisman completed the podium placers 4.352s back in third.

Alkhaled, who was classified fourth in the final, earned enough points to take the class title with 183 on the standings.

Muhammad Wally came second on 172 and Leen Alarifi third with 165 points. Alarifi had earlier claimed the pre-final in the round.

In the DD2 MAX championship standings, Alderayan finished with 213 points in first place, followed by Abdulla Jaweed with 174 and Talal Al Attas and Ahmed Alsaleh tied on 54 markers.

Amongst the winning entrants in the 2022/2023 BRMC season, Praga Middle East Racing and Forza Bahrain Racing won two titles apiece, with NorthStar Racing taking the other.

Praga triumphed in the Mini MAX and Junior MAX classes, whereas Forza won the Senior MAX and DD2 categories.

NorthStar were first in the Micro MAX class. Nearly 50 of the Kingdom’s top karting talents battled it out in the five Rotax MAX classes in the BRMC’s eighth and last meeting.

All the racing took place along BIKC’s 1.414-kilometre CIK-FIA track.

Following the action, the podium ceremonies wrapped up the proceedings attended by officials from BIC, BIKC, the Bahrain Motor Federation and the Bahrain Karting Commission.