Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), the Home of Motorsport in the Middle East, has set the stage for yet another fantastic weekend of top-class racing in Sakhir.
BIC’s immensely popular National Racing Festival (NRF) is set to showcase three of the most talked-about championships on the international and local sporting scenes Friday and Saturday (December 20 and 21).
Action can be enjoyed in the India-based MRF Challenge, the locally bred BIC 2,000cc Challenge and the widely followed Bahrain Drag Racing Championship.
The MRF Challenge is a single-seater series that pits a grid of aspiring drivers from all over the world against one another in Formula 2,000 challengers powered by 210bhp Renault engines.
The 2013/2014 season’s first two rounds have already been held, first in Delhi in October and then the second in the kingdom last month in support of the FIA World Endurance Championship’s (WEC) Six Hours of Bahrain.
Round three takes place this weekend and it will feature a total of four exciting races, scheduled over two days. Races one and two will take place Friday, followed by another two races on Saturday.
The first free practice will kick things off on Friday at 9.55am, to be followed by a second session at 11.05am. Qualifying will then take place at 12.15pm, determining the grid for race one at 2pm. Race two is scheduled to flag off at 3.45pm.
On Saturday, race three will begin at 1pm, to be followed by the meeting’s fourth and final sprint at 3.30pm.
Meanwhile, the BIC 2,000cc Challenge brings together Bahrain’s very best gentleman racers in the country’s premier entry level racing championship.
With plenty of thrills already witnessed over two rounds, weekend number three promises an even greater on-track spectacle as the battle for the title continues to heat up.
A race each on Friday and Saturday will take place in the BIC 2,000cc Challenge.
Action on the first day will begin with a practice at 10.30am, to be followed by qualifying at 11.40am. The weekend’s first race is then scheduled for a 3.10pm start.
On Saturday, race two is set for a 2pm flag-off.
Rounding off the weekend’s events will be the Bahrain Drag Racing Championship, which has already hosted two nights of Test and Tune on Tuesday and Wednesday (December 17 and 18) and then Qualifying today (December 19).
Friday will then host the races, starting from 6pm.
Scores of participants from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE are set to go head to head once again along BIC’s first-rate drag strip, which is a member of the prestigious National Hot Rod Association Worldwide Network.
The weekend’s events have been organised by BIC in cooperation with the Bahrain Motor Federation, Circuit Racing Club and Bahrain Drag Racing Club.
Tickets for the entire festival cost only BD3 apiece for adults and BD1.5 for children.