Batelco Racing Team enjoyed a brilliant start to Speed Weekend after locking up the front row for both of Friday’s races in round two of the 2011/2012 WGA Supercars Middle East Championship.
Canadian Ramez Azzam captured pole position for race one after finishing just under a tenth-of-a-second quicker than French teammate Alban Varuttii in qualifying held at a bustling Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. The pair then switched places with their second-fastest times of the same 30-minute session, which determined the grid for race two.
Elsewhere yesterday, Joe Ghanem of Lebanon and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli of Monaco were each on top of the timesheets in the two practices sessions of the Maserati Trofeo JBF RAK Middle East. The series was making an historic track debut with a full 12-car grid, and the powerful Maserati GranTurismo MC Trofeo challengers did not fail to impress. Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa, Chief Executive at Bahrain International Circuit, was amongst the competitors.
Meanwhile, Stephen Kellogg clinched pole position for the first race in round three of the BIC 2,000cc Challenge. Kellogg had a fine performance in qualifying, where he clocked nearly two seconds faster than his closest rivals.
“It’s great to be in pole position for tomorrow’s first race,” said an ecstatic Azzam, who hails from Montreal. “It’s only my first week of competition in the SC09s, and considering that, we’re delighted to get quite a good result.
“The track was really quick for qualifying; it was quite dusty in the morning during practices but the conditions were much better and we took advantage of it. The car was great.
“We’re looking forward to racing tomorrow, and with even more good preparations and good teamwork, I think we can come away with some positive results this round,” Azzam said.
“It’s our second pole position in as many rounds, and we’re very pleased. It’s a testament to the work our team does between rounds. Everybody contributes, and that’s why we are here right now,” Batelco team manager Osama Al Saad, added.
“We’re looking forward to tomorrow’s races and hopefully we can finish off what we’ve started.”
Batelco are running three cars in the SC09 category, as opposed to only two apiece for top rivals Alba, VIVA and the Speeding Saddles.
Their dominance was thus confirmed in determining the grid for race two, when their overseas-based star karter Varuttii claimed the leading starting position with the best second-fastest time.
Varuttii’s mark of 1:14.780 helped eclipse Azzam’s second-best time by 0.233s, while Raffii relatives Faisal and Raed followed in third and fourth, respectively, once again.
Behind them was Batelco’s Mohammed Mattar in fifth, SC09 championship leader Mustafa Al Khan of Alba in sixth, former titlist Tarek Elgammal of Austrralia in seventh and Speeding Saddles pair Abdulaziz Al Yaeesh and Ahmed Al Kuwari completing the SC09 grid.
“We would have preferred to have done better than we did in qualifying today, but the race is a different story, and Raed and I are very good racers; we’re confident we can come away with something tomorrow,” said Elgammal, who is the series’ first-ever champion in 2006.
“I tried to push as hard as I can but we were just unlucky today. Races are always a different story. We know our pace and with our experience, we are confident in our team,” Al Khan, said.
In the SC06 category, newcomer Talal Al Gaith was quicker than lone rival Nasser Al Alawi in both of yesterday’s sessions.
“The car is obviously very pleasing to drive; it is quite easy to get used to and it’s nice to see everybody here enjoying the great weekend,” said the circuit chief.
“The championship has got the right ingredients to grow,” Shaikh Salman added. “It’s their first time running the series, so there will be a learning curve. But the most important thing is that they have the backing of the factory, and that helps a lot.
“I’m definitely looking forward to the races tomorrow. Qualifying and racing are two different things from practice. We’ll surely see some action with all 12 cars out there for the rolling start, and then each of us trying to get safely past turns one. It’s going to be exciting.”