BIC, Sakhir: Najashi Rashdan, Hussain Hasan and Khaled Alsaei were all crowned national karting champions this past weekend.
They emerged victorious in their respective competition categories after the final round of the 2014-2015 Bahrain Karting Sprint Championship (BKSC).
The BKSC featured action in both the Bahrain Rotax Mojo Challenge (BRMMC) and the Sodi Sprint W Series (SSWS).
Rashdan was crowned champion of the BRMMC’s Max/Max Masters class, while Hasan claimed the title in the BRMMC’s Junior Max category. Alsaei, meanwhile, won the overall title in the SSWS.
The final round of the BKSC was organised and run by BIC in cooperation with Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC), the Bahrain Motor Federation, the Bahrain Karting Club and the Motorsport Marshalls Club.
Rashdan won his title in style, winning both races in the season finale.
He first took race one in 11mins 20.200secs, just 2.457secs ahead of runner-up Tom Cohen. Abdulla Beshara finished third 8.368secs behind.
Rashdan completed his fine double by racing to the chequered flag in 10mins 42.701secs. Cohen and Beshara followed in second and third once again, with Cohen a narrow 1.877secs from Rashdan and Beshara finishing 5.427secs adrift.
Rashdan’s double earned him 206 points for the meeting, bringing his season’s tally to 1,225 points to secure his crown. Cohen finished with 196 points for a 375-point total to end the season in fifth place on the final rankings, while Beshara came away with 93 points for the round for a total of 1,090 as the season’s runner-up.
In the Junior Max class, Hasan was on the podium in both races of the final round; earning him enough points to narrowly pip an inspired Zaid Audih, whose own double was overshadowed by Hasan’s title success.
Audih took the chequered flag in race one in 11mins 36.313secs, while Talal Beshara was in second 0.275secs behind. Hasan finished third 0.418secs back.
Race two saw the same classification from first through fifth. Audih clinched first place in 10mins 59.344secs, with Talal Beshara in second place 0.308secs back. Eventual champion Hasan was third 2.181secs back.
Talal Ayman and Abdulla Ayman completed classification in fourth and fourth at the end of both races.
Hasan won 190 points for the round to take his season’s total to 1,232. He finished just 25 points ahead of Audih, who did everything he can to win the title but came up short in the end. Talal Ayman ended the campaign third with 798 markers.
In the SSWS, Alsaei failed to step onto the podium in the season finale but was still able to earn enough points to emerge as the new champion.
Heading into the meeting, up to four drivers still had a chance to emerge as champion and ultimately, only 101 points separated the leading quartet.
Ali Abdulla claimed the victory for race one in a packed field of 14 drivers. Abdulla won in 13mins 21.359secs, doing just enough to outsprint Mohammed Faqihi who finished second with a narrow 0.072secs gap. Abdulla Buhindi finished in third place 2.734secs back, while Alsaei followed in fourth position.
In race two, Mohammed Mattar rose to the occasion and captured the chequered flag in 13mins 54.446secs. Buhindi followed as the runner-up 0.256secs back, while Faqihi was third, 0.800secs from the number one spot. Alsaei came fifth behind race one winner Abdulla.
With his solid results, Alsaei managed to earn 193 points to bring his season total to 1,870 and win the coveted title. Buhindi managed to climb to second place with 1,849 points, while Faqihi finished third with 1,779 markers.
At the end of the meeting, the winners were presented their trophies by officials.