Season ends on a high at Dubai Autodrome

Double race winner Hamad Aldarmaki leads the Total UAE Touring Cars pack

16 April 2011

Dubai Autodrome hosted the final round of the 2010/2011 season on Friday and Saturday (15/16 April) featuring Total UAE Touring Car Championship and UAE Sportbike races. Also on the same bill were Middle East Porsche GT3 Cup races, Suzuki Swift Cup races and testing sessions FG1000 series.

Total UAE Touring Cars: Double for Aldarmaki as Channake and Khan take a win apiece

With the heavy hitters in the tin top series away there were some fresh faces on the podium. Recently crowned Total UAE Touring Car Class 1 champion Khalid Bin Hadher was absent as were a bunch of the regulars which gave Hamad Aldarmaki an opportunity to flex his muscles and he grabbed the opportunity powering to a double class win in his SEAT.

Behind him Gareth Bettinson took the runner-up slot twice in his BMW 120D, with Mohammed Al Arishy third in race one but retired from the second race due to technical issues which also robbed him of a possible second place in the first race.

New champion Umair Khan made it to the final round of the championship in his Lap57 Honda where he faced stern opposition from his team mate Rupesh Channake and a host of Renault Clio campaigners.

Race 1 was a Channake versus Khan battle, with Channake edging to victory, with Khan in his tow and Alexandros Annivas taking third after a huge battle with fellow Renault Clio driver Oliver Grimm who settled for fourth place.

In the second race, the last of the season, Khan rose to the occasion and signed off his successful year with a strong victory, aided by Channake’s retirement on lap 5. Behind Khan was Grimm who this time got the better of Annivas, the pair ending second and third respectively.

UAE Sportbikes: Wins for Binladin, Smart, Tannir and Dobida

British superbike ace Scott Smart was back in town on a Kawasaki to challenge the dominance of newly crowned UAE Sportbike 1000 Class Champion Abdulaziz Binladin on his BMW S1000RR. In race one the two were at each other until Smart suffered brake fade and went wide in the bowl giving Binladin the gap he needed to claim yet another victory in the big banger category. Smart recovered to finish second with Damien van Blerk taking third on his Ducati.

In race two, Binladin was forced to ride a spare Honda as his BMW had gearbox problems. Smart seized the opportunity to post victory ahead of Binladin and Hennie Sauerman in third, making it two Kawasakis on the podium in the final race of the season.

Mahmoud Tannir scored a popular 600 Class win on his Yas Marina Circuit backed Triumph Daytona, fending off newly crowned champion Jason Burnside on the Mapei Honda who took second place. Joe Oxley was third on a Kawasaki. It was Tannir’s first win in the UAE series and he was a happy man standing on the very top of the podium for the first time.

Burnside had a torrid day which got worse as he was forced to sit out the second race due to mechanical issues with his Honda.

There was drama early on in the second race as Tannir and Oxley had a coming together, remarkably both picked themselves up and rejoined the race. At the front it was a debut win for Gernot Dobida on his Yamaha R6 who picked up his first ever win in UAE motorcycle racing at national level. Alan Boyter was second with Tannir salvaging third in what must be the ride of the day.

Suzuki Swift Cup: Hat trick for Annivas

Occasional racer Kostantinos Annivas (wearing his father Costas Papantonis race suit!) took three out of three wins in the hotly contested Suzuki Swift Cup races. Close racing is part and parcel of this arrive and driver series, but Annivas was unbeatable on the day.

Behind Annivas the battles were fierce with Klaus Kresnik, a mere 1.090 seconds behind the winner, taking second in race one and Panos Karakoulakis coming home in third.

In race two Maurice Faber and Kresnik slugged it out with Faber taking second and Kresnik third after fending off Robert Galotti and Balazs Galotti.

In the final race Karakoulakis bounced back to take second from Kresnik who again had his mirrors full of Balazs Galotti as they crossed the line nose to tail.

FG1000: Al Dhaheri edges Jones for best time of the weekend

Ahead of their season which starts in October 2011, FG1000 organisers gave drivers an opportunity to sample the car in a series of test sessions during the race weekend.

After four sessions, of which the first two were dominated by newly crowned Cytech UAE GTC Champion Joe Ghanem, it was Emirati karting ace Mohammed Al Dhaheri who ended fastest of all with an impressive time of 1 minute 42.255 seconds in the final session of the weekend.

He was fractionally faster than multiple junior karting champion Edward Jones, who was at the sharp end of proceedings throughout the weekend.

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