Clemens Schmid from Austria secured a fantastic double to cap a thrilling opening weekend in the 2012/2013 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East. The Al Nabooda Racing Team ace was in dominant form as he claimed the meeting’s second race in style.
Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa followed suit with his first victory of the season in the BIC 2,000c Challenge. Shaikh Hamad put in a fine drive around BIC’s 2.55-kilometre Inner Circuit, starting from the back but managing to capture the lead by the end of the first lap and never looking back.
Both the Porsche GT3 Cup Middle East and the BIC 2,000cc Challenge made up the action-packed programme held all weekend at BIC.
Clemens Schmid made it a perfect weekend with two victories from as many races to begin the 2012/2013 season of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East.
Schmid managed a pole-to-flag victory to sign off a marvellous outing in Bahrain. Starting today’s race, he did well to hold on to his advantage while Shaikh Salman bin Rashid Al Khalifa of Team Bahrain moved up to second after getting the better of defending champion Prince Abdulaziz Al Faisal of Saudi Falcons Team as they headed into turn one.
The leaders remained in more or less the same position through the race’s early stages, with Schmid and Shaikh Salman building huge gaps between them and the rest of the field.
Schmid was at times more than five seconds ahead of Shaikh Salman midway through the 22-lap sprint, while Shaikh Salman too was another five seconds in front of the rest of the pack.
Schmid eventually claimed the chequered flag in a winning time of 22 minutes 21.227 seconds. He enjoyed a comfortable 8.133 seconds lead ahead of Shaikh Salman at the finish, while Prince Abdulaziz was classified third a distant 19.008s from the winner.
The top three were all competing in the GT3 Cup’s Gold class. Taking first place amongst Silver drivers was Faisal bin Laden, while Zaid Ashkanani finished second. Team Bahrain’s other entrant, Mohammed Mattar, claimed third place.
Hannes Waimer clinched first place in the Bronze category, finishing ahead of Cengiz Oguzhan and Manfred Ender.
Earlier in the day, Schmid had claimed the leading grid position after topping Qualifying with a fastest lap time of 1:06.292. He marginally beat Prince Abdulaziz by 0.033s, while Shaikh Salman was 0.528s off the pace.
Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa made up for his race one misfortunes on Friday with a spectacular victory in the weekend’s second 15-lap race today.
After retiring from the meeting’s opening sprint due to issues with his car’s battery, Shaikh Hamad was determined to bounce back, and he did so perfectly with an unbeatable drive right from the very start.
Despite beginning the race from second-to-last place due to the reverse grid rule, Shaikh Hamad steered his Honda CIVIC into the top four by the very first turn. He eventually gained the lead by the end of lap one but continued to push to the very limit to create a significant gap in front.
The former champion was thus unchallenged as he completed the race in 20 minutes 21.398 seconds, sealing his first win of the season.
Tim Birkin in a Honda Integra was the runner-up 6.566 seconds behind, while Alex Longden in a BMW 3 Series claimed the final podium step 31.755 seconds back.
“It’s good to end the weekend on a high note after the trouble I faced in race one,” Shaikh Hamad said of his win.
“The car was responding well today and I was able to take the lead early on. Once in front, I continued to push as much as I needed to as I knew that Tim was trailing not too far behind me.
“It was a comfortable win in the end. It’s my first of the season and hopefully it’s the start of a string of good results to come.”
Rounding out the final classification were Abdulrahman Ghuloom (CIVIC), race one winner Raed Himmo (Honda CRX) and Robin Brown (Renault Clio Sport) from fourth through sixth place, respectively.
Defending champion Stephen Kellogg was left off for the second straight race after retiring just five laps in.